'', hexadecimal value 0x1F, is an invalid character. Line 1, position 1.

Hi,
did you try a replace workaround?

have a look here
http://forums.asp.net/t/1120421.aspx

Right I needed it in vb.net so used a convertor and got:

        Dim webReq As HttpWebRequest = DirectCast(WebRequest.Create("http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/rss/"), HttpWebRequest)
        Dim response As HttpWebResponse = DirectCast(webReq.GetResponse(), HttpWebResponse)
        Dim xml As String = String.Empty
        Using sr As New StreamReader(response.GetResponseStream())
            xml = sr.ReadToEnd()
        End Using

        xml = xml.Replace(Convert.ToString(CByte(&H1F)), String.Empty)

should this line:
        xml = xml.Replace(Convert.ToString(CByte(&H1F)), String.Empty)

be using &H1F??

When I try:
xml = xml.Replace(Convert.ToString(CByte("0x1F")), String.Empty)

I get:
xml = xml.Replace(Convert.ToString(CByte("0x1F")), String.Empty)

Any ideas?

OK, you lost me (or I'm completely blind)....

What's the difference between these two?
xml = xml.Replace(Convert.ToString(CByte("0x1F")), String.Empty)
xml = xml.Replace(Convert.ToString(CByte("0x1F")), String.Empty)

Sorry, I meant to say I get:
Conversion from string "0x1F" to type 'Byte' is not valid.


I'm an idiot!

OK... I'm following now.  In VB, the byte literal is done with &H.  So in your example, it would be:

xml = xml.Replace(Convert.ToString(CByte(&H1F)), String.Empty)

I'm now getting:
Illegal characters in path.

Something weird going on, when I debug the xml it is:¿
????

Can you post a small chunk of the XML file you're dealing with?

I tried to debug the xml to see what I was getting, it came out with what was in my last post?!

Seems the replace has messed this up?

The feed I'm getting the original xml from is:
http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/rss/

I already tried that.. after it gets rendered by my browser, and I do a "view source", it looks clean as a whistle.

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<?xml-stylesheet......

That's why I suggested that you capture the incomming RSS feed via code, save it to disk, and the post the results here for us to see.

apologies for not finishing this post off, the issue is still there for me.

can you put this simple code into a test page?

Dim webReq As HttpWebRequest = DirectCast(WebRequest.Create("http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/rss/"), HttpWebRequest)
            Dim response As HttpWebResponse = DirectCast(webReq.GetResponse(), HttpWebResponse)
            Dim xml As String = String.Empty
            Using sr As New StreamReader(response.GetResponseStream())
                xml = sr.ReadToEnd()
            End Using

Straight away there is something wrong with the string xml....

Any ideas?

http://seattlesoftware.wordpress.com/2008/09/11/hexadecimal-value-0-is-an-invalid-character/

That example is c#.

I have converted to vb.net but still not working.

Below is a simple piece of code that could go on a test page for someone to easily replicate the problem....

Dim webReq As HttpWebRequest = DirectCast(WebRequest.Create("http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/rss/"), HttpWebRequest)
            Dim response As HttpWebResponse = DirectCast(webReq.GetResponse(), HttpWebResponse)
            Dim xml As String = String.Empty
            Using sr As New StreamReader(response.GetResponseStream())
                xml = sr.ReadToEnd()
            End Using

Select allOpen in new window

or simply:
Dim xmlDoc As New XmlDocument
            xmlDoc.Load("http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/rss/")

The input is coming in compressed. To uncompress, add this line before getting the response:

        webReq.AutomaticDecompression = DecompressionMethods.GZip

This is using your test case. Displaying the xml variable was what clued me in to the issue.

See: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2973208/automatically-decompress-gzip-response-via-webclient-downloaddata

Gary Davis

im getting:
Illegal characters in path now?