xsltransform encoding problem

very likely that the ending tag has some problems... try to delete that line and rewrite it again.... it may contain some invalid characters....

The xml/xsl transformation is fine!  I ran it in classic ASP and it runs.  

It has something to do with the stringwriter xmltextwriter combination.  The output document is cutting it off at 4096 (which you'll note is a factor of 1024 well known that the stupid stringwriter puts line breaks every 1024 characters)

So, I'm guessing the stringWriter is outputting some character after 4096 that the xmldoc is interpretting as the end of the string (note how it trimmed of the 'nflPlayer' node in mid word).

okie dokie... i see where you got the error.....

try this instead....

Dim sb As New System.Text.StringBuilder
Dim sw3 As New System.IO.StringWriter(sb)
, xmlDoc3 As New XmlDocument
        Dim transform3 = New Xml.Xsl.XslTransform
        transform3.Load(New XmlTextReader(HttpContext.Current.Server.MapPath("~/style/envelope2.xsl")))
        transform3.Transform(xmlDoc, Nothing, sw3)
        xmlDoc3.LoadXml(sb.ToString)

Sorry, no dice.  Same error.  Position 4092.  BTW, I messed up.  The error occurs on the just after the lines I showed above:

xmlDoc3.WriteTo(New XmlTextWriter(rawsoap.SoapStreams.OutputMessage, System.Text.Encoding.UTF8))

This line writes the doc to an output stream.  hmmm, now that I look at it I think I see the error.  It is utf8 encoded, but the stringWriter uses utf16 encoding.  Hmmm.  I guess if I could convert one to the other then I would be ok.  Or maybe not.

Well, this is interesting.  No matter if I add encoding=UTF8 to the xsl:output tag, it always transforms with the <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?> output at the top of the doc.  I think I read that xmlDocument is always utf16 and you can't change in.  Hmmm.

arrgh, going on 24 hours and this problem won't go away.  I can see the resultant xml document is well formed, but there is some character put in there at the 4097 (sorry I said 4092 earlier) position that is screwing things up.

When I write the xmldoc to the response.outputstream it sends along that character!

The client that receives the doc tries to load it, but it appears to end at the 4097 character.  Even though I what I see in the debugger is a perfectly formed xml doc.

arrrrghhh!

probably there are something left in the buffer..... encoding should not be a problem here....

Dim sb As New System.Text.StringBuilder
Dim sw3 As New System.IO.StringWriter(sb)
, xmlDoc3 As New XmlDocument
        Dim transform3 = New Xml.Xsl.XslTransform
        transform3.Load(New XmlTextReader(HttpContext.Current.Server.MapPath("~/style/envelope2.xsl")))
        transform3.Transform(xmlDoc, Nothing, sw3)
        sw3.Flush()
        sw3.Close()
        xmlDoc3.LoadXml(sb.ToString)

I'll try that, but your right there is something left in the buffer--the rest of the xml doc!   How can .flush or .close correct that?

Even if I use .flush and .close what is that going to do about the fact that wierd characters are being inserted into my output stream at the 4096 character?

do you know what that weird character is?

how about this....
Dim sb As New System.Text.StringBuilder
Dim sw3 As New System.Xml.XmlTextWriter(sb) <---- change this
, xmlDoc3 As New XmlDocument
        Dim transform3 = New Xml.Xsl.XslTransform
        transform3.Load(New XmlTextReader(HttpContext.Current.Server.MapPath("~/style/envelope2.xsl")))
        transform3.Transform(xmlDoc, Nothing, sw3)
        sw3.Flush()
        sw3.Close()
        xmlDoc3.LoadXml(sb.ToString)

i mean

Dim sb As New System.Text.StringBuilder
Dim sw3 As New System.Xml.XmlTextWriter(new System.IO.StringWriter(sb)) <---- change this
, xmlDoc3 As New XmlDocument
        Dim transform3 = New Xml.Xsl.XslTransform
        transform3.Load(New XmlTextReader(HttpContext.Current.Server.MapPath("~/style/envelope2.xsl")))
        transform3.Transform(xmlDoc, Nothing, sw3)
        sw3.Flush()
        sw3.Close()
        xmlDoc3.LoadXml(sb.ToString)

When I ran your code from post#1, I got the same error.  When I ran your post#2 code I got 'System.InvalidCastException' error.

Anyway, you are focusing on the lines of code that work.  The xml doc composes itself just fine!  

I get the error on the line that comes just after the line your are debugging.  Look at the last line of this code block.  I get the error when I try to write the xmldoc to an ouput stream.

  Dim sb As New System.Text.StringBuilder
        Dim sw3 As New System.IO.StringWriter(New System.IO.StringWriter(sb)), xmlDoc3 As New XmlDocument
        Dim transform3 = New Xml.Xsl.XslTransform
        transform3.Load(New XmlTextReader(HttpContext.Current.Server.MapPath("~/style/envelope2.xsl")))
        transform3.Transform(xmlDoc, Nothing, sw3)
        sw3.Flush()
        sw3.Close()
        xmlDoc3.LoadXml(sb.ToString)
        xmlDoc3.WriteTo(New XmlTextWriter(HttpContext.Current.Items("SoapOutputStream"), System.Text.Encoding.UTF8))

Its the

xmlDoc3.WriteTo(New XmlTextWriter(HttpContext.Current.Items("SoapOutputStream"), System.Text.Encoding.UTF8))

line that is throwing the error.  Sorry if I wan't clear about this.

Interesting.  When I started sending a smaller xml document I started getting a new error.  The error says:

This is an unexpected token. The expected token is 'EndElement'. Line 1, position 3071.

hmmm.  I have no idea what is going on except that it appears that the document is about 3071 characters long, but when the soap consumer gets it it chokes because it can't find an 'endelement' token (whatever that is)

that's very interesting. i've never heard anyone experience problem like this before. can you post full length of xml,xsl doc?

I read online about someone who got this error due to commas in their output document nodes, but he doesn't elaborate how he fixed it other than to say w/o the commas it worked (which isn't an option for me -- I can drop the comma between someone's first and last name because the consumer expects the document as is.

Here is the link to that thread:
http://www.error-bank.com/microsoft.public.dotnet.general/114474_Thread.aspx

Here are the source xml docs you requested.

'*****************************
'source xml
'*****************************

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><content><AddResponse xmlns="urn:msdn-microsoft-com:hows"><teamData teamName="buster face" xmlns=""><playerData><nflPlayer><fullName>Houston</fullName><position>RB</position><depth>1</depth><index>1.22</index><start>true</start><franchisePlayer>false</franchisePlayer><depthOverall>10</depthOverall><projectionNextGame>2.3</projectionNextGame><projectionToSeasonEnd>100.1</projectionToSeasonEnd></nflPlayer><nflPlayer><fullName>Jacksonville</fullName><position>RB</position><depth>1</depth><index>1.22</index><start>true</start><franchisePlayer>false</franchisePlayer><depthOverall>10</depthOverall><projectionNextGame>2.3</projectionNextGame><projectionToSeasonEnd>100.1</projectionToSeasonEnd></nflPlayer><nflPlayer><fullName>Janikowski, Sebastian</fullName><position>RB</position><depth>1</depth><index>1.22</index><start>true</start><franchisePlayer>false</franchisePlayer><depthOverall>10</depthOverall><projectionNextGame>2.3</projectionNextGame><projectionToSeasonEnd>100.1</projectionToSeasonEnd></nflPlayer><nflPlayer><fullName>Feely, Jay</fullName><position>RB</position><depth>1</depth><index>1.22</index><start>true</start><franchisePlayer>false</franchisePlayer><depthOverall>10</depthOverall><projectionNextGame>2.3</projectionNextGame><projectionToSeasonEnd>100.1</projectionToSeasonEnd></nflPlayer><nflPlayer><fullName>Vick, Michael</fullName><position>RB</position><depth>1</depth><index>1.22</index><start>true</start><franchisePlayer>false</franchisePlayer><depthOverall>10</depthOverall><projectionNextGame>2.3</projectionNextGame><projectionToSeasonEnd>100.1</projectionToSeasonEnd></nflPlayer><nflPlayer><fullName>McCown, Josh</fullName><position>RB</position><depth>1</depth><index>1.22</index><start>true</start><franchisePlayer>false</franchisePlayer><depthOverall>10</depthOverall><projectionNextGame>2.3</projectionNextGame><projectionToSeasonEnd>100.1</projectionToSeasonEnd></nflPlayer><nflPlayer><fullName>Palmer, Carson</fullName><position>RB</position><depth>1</depth><index>1.22</index><start>true</start><franchisePlayer>false</franchisePlayer><depthOverall>10</depthOverall><projectionNextGame>2.3</projectionNextGame><projectionToSeasonEnd>100.1</projectionToSeasonEnd></nflPlayer><nflPlayer><fullName>Pittman, Michael</fullName><position>RB</position><depth>1</depth><index>1.22</index><start>true</start><franchisePlayer>false</franchisePlayer><depthOverall>10</depthOverall><projectionNextGame>2.3</projectionNextGame><projectionToSeasonEnd>100.1</projectionToSeasonEnd></nflPlayer><nflPlayer><fullName>Franks, Bubba</fullName><position>RB</position><depth>1</depth><index>1.22</index><start>true</start><franchisePlayer>false</franchisePlayer><depthOverall>10</depthOverall><projectionNextGame>2.3</projectionNextGame><projectionToSeasonEnd>100.1</projectionToSeasonEnd></nflPlayer><nflPlayer><fullName>Moss, Randy</fullName><position>RB</position><depth>1</depth><index>1.22</index><start>true</start><franchisePlayer>false</franchisePlayer><depthOverall>10</depthOverall><projectionNextGame>2.3</projectionNextGame><projectionToSeasonEnd>100.1</projectionToSeasonEnd></nflPlayer><nflPlayer><fullName>Bennett, Drew</fullName><position>RB</position><depth>1</depth><index>1.22</index><start>true</start><franchisePlayer>false</franchisePlayer><depthOverall>10</depthOverall><projectionNextGame>2.3</projectionNextGame><projectionToSeasonEnd>100.1</projectionToSeasonEnd></nflPlayer><nflPlayer><fullName>Porter, Jerry</fullName><position>RB</position><depth>1</depth><index>1.22</index><start>true</start><franchisePlayer>false</franchisePlayer><depthOverall>10</depthOverall><projectionNextGame>2.3</projectionNextGame><projectionToSeasonEnd>100.1</projectionToSeasonEnd></nflPlayer></playerData></teamData></AddResponse></content>

'*****************************
'end source xml
'*****************************


'*****************************
'xsl document
'*****************************

<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/">
      <xsl:output method="xml"       
      encoding="UTF8"
      omit-xml-declaration="no"/>
      <xsl:template match="/">
            <soap:Envelope>
                  <soap:Body>
                        <xsl:copy-of select="content/*[1]"/>
                  </soap:Body>
            </soap:Envelope>
      </xsl:template>
</xsl:stylesheet>

'*****************************
'end xsl document
'*****************************


'*****************************
'transformation result document (this is what I write to the ouput stream via xmlDoc3.WriteTo code)
'*****************************

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?><soap:Envelope xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/"><soap:Body><AddResponse xmlns="urn:msdn-microsoft-com:hows"><teamData teamName="buster face" xmlns=""><playerData><nflPlayer><fullName>Houston</fullName><position>RB</position><depth>1</depth><index>1.22</index><start>true</start><franchisePlayer>false</franchisePlayer><depthOverall>10</depthOverall><projectionNextGame>2.3</projectionNextGame><projectionToSeasonEnd>100.1</projectionToSeasonEnd></nflPlayer><nflPlayer><fullName>Jacksonville</fullName><position>RB</position><depth>1</depth><index>1.22</index><start>true</start><franchisePlayer>false</franchisePlayer><depthOverall>10</depthOverall><projectionNextGame>2.3</projectionNextGame><projectionToSeasonEnd>100.1</projectionToSeasonEnd></nflPlayer><nflPlayer><fullName>Janikowski, Sebastian</fullName><position>RB</position><depth>1</depth><index>1.22</index><start>true</start><franchisePlayer>false</franchisePlayer><depthOverall>10</depthOverall><projectionNextGame>2.3</projectionNextGame><projectionToSeasonEnd>100.1</projectionToSeasonEnd></nflPlayer><nflPlayer><fullName>Feely, Jay</fullName><position>RB</position><depth>1</depth><index>1.22</index><start>true</start><franchisePlayer>false</franchisePlayer><depthOverall>10</depthOverall><projectionNextGame>2.3</projectionNextGame><projectionToSeasonEnd>100.1</projectionToSeasonEnd></nflPlayer><nflPlayer><fullName>Vick, Michael</fullName><position>RB</position><depth>1</depth><index>1.22</index><start>true</start><franchisePlayer>false</franchisePlayer><depthOverall>10</depthOverall><projectionNextGame>2.3</projectionNextGame><projectionToSeasonEnd>100.1</projectionToSeasonEnd></nflPlayer><nflPlayer><fullName>McCown, Josh</fullName><position>RB</position><depth>1</depth><index>1.22</index><start>true</start><franchisePlayer>false</franchisePlayer><depthOverall>10</depthOverall><projectionNextGame>2.3</projectionNextGame><projectionToSeasonEnd>100.1</projectionToSeasonEnd></nflPlayer><nflPlayer><fullName>Palmer, Carson</fullName><position>RB</position><depth>1</depth><index>1.22</index><start>true</start><franchisePlayer>false</franchisePlayer><depthOverall>10</depthOverall><projectionNextGame>2.3</projectionNextGame><projectionToSeasonEnd>100.1</projectionToSeasonEnd></nflPlayer><nflPlayer><fullName>Pittman, Michael</fullName><position>RB</position><depth>1</depth><index>1.22</index><start>true</start><franchisePlayer>false</franchisePlayer><depthOverall>10</depthOverall><projectionNextGame>2.3</projectionNextGame><projectionToSeasonEnd>100.1</projectionToSeasonEnd></nflPlayer><nflPlayer><fullName>Franks, Bubba</fullName><position>RB</position><depth>1</depth><index>1.22</index><start>true</start><franchisePlayer>false</franchisePlayer><depthOverall>10</depthOverall><projectionNextGame>2.3</projectionNextGame><projectionToSeasonEnd>100.1</projectionToSeasonEnd></nflPlayer><nflPlayer><fullName>Moss, Randy</fullName><position>RB</position><depth>1</depth><index>1.22</index><start>true</start><franchisePlayer>false</franchisePlayer><depthOverall>10</depthOverall><projectionNextGame>2.3</projectionNextGame><projectionToSeasonEnd>100.1</projectionToSeasonEnd></nflPlayer><nflPlayer><fullName>Bennett, Drew</fullName><position>RB</position><depth>1</depth><index>1.22</index><start>true</start><franchisePlayer>false</franchisePlayer><depthOverall>10</depthOverall><projectionNextGame>2.3</projectionNextGame><projectionToSeasonEnd>100.1</projectionToSeasonEnd></nflPlayer><nflPlayer><fullName>Porter, Jerry</fullName><position>RB</position><depth>1</depth><index>1.22</index><start>true</start><franchisePlayer>false</franchisePlayer><depthOverall>10</depthOverall><projectionNextGame>2.3</projectionNextGame><projectionToSeasonEnd>100.1</projectionToSeasonEnd></nflPlayer></playerData></teamData></AddResponse></soap:Body></soap:Envelope>

'*****************************
'transformation result document
'*****************************

Hmm, if I change the 'xsl:output' tag on the xsl file to omit-xml-declaration="yes" then I get a different error:

An unexpected end of file parsing NAME has occurred. Line 1, position 3073

(sigh)

Well, its taken over a week, but I have the answer, finally.  I'm too worn down to be happy.

The problem had to do with xsl and namespace declarations.  To make a long story short, I had the namespace for my webservice declared at too low a level.  I moved it up to the top of the xsl document (in the xsl:stylesheet node) and everything worked.

I thought the consumer of my webservice couldn't see the xml document I was sending, or worse I wasn't sending a document at all, but that was incorrect.

I WAS sending a document, but the web service consumer couldn't recognize it because it was looking for nodes within my namespace see below:

<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
      xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/"
      xmlns="urn:msdn-microsoft-com:hows">



'my' namespace is the xmlns="urn:msdn-microsoft-com:hows" part.  I had it at a lower level like this:

<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"
      xmlns:soap="http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/"> <AddResponse xmlns="urn:msdn-microsoft-com:hows">...</AddResponse></xsl:stylesheet>

Relatedly, I was using xsl:apply-templates so the AddResponse node was in a different template than AddResponse children nodes.  That might have been a problem too, but I'm not sure about that part.

All I know for sure is that once I moved 'my' namespace up to the top level xsl:stylesheet node everything worked perfectly.

Yeah!