Error: Text data outside of root node.

[sedenardi]

When parsing I occasionally receive this:

events.js:72
        throw er; // Unhandled 'error' event
              ^
Error: Text data outside of root node.
Line: 24
Column: 1
Char:

I am using the module in the "Shoot-and-forget" method:

parseString(rawOuter, function finishXMLParse(err, pRes) {
  if (err) {
    //log error
  } else {
    //do work
  }
});

Am I missing something or is this a bug?

[Leonidas-from-XIV]

This looks like your XML data is invalid. Could it be that it looks like this?

<root>foo</root>
bar

[sedenardi]

Oh I'm sure that the XML is screwed up, but I'm wondering why it's throwing an error event instead of using the returned "err" object? If this is intended behavior, how do I handle this parsing error so bad XML doesn't crash my program?

[sedenardi]

Hey man, could you take a look at my previous question and advise? I'd just like to be able to handle this XML parsing error.

[toddrbryan]

Same issue here. We have to parse XML coming from outside sources and some of that external XML is bad.

Looks like the exception originates in sax:

Thu Jan 09 2014 14:34:56 GMT-0800 (PST) global exception handler caught: Error: Text data outside of root node.
Line: 0
Column: 36
Char: "
  at error (/Users/bryan/SeaSketch/node_modules/xml2js/node_modules/sax/lib/sax.js:642:8)
  at strictFail (/Users/bryan/SeaSketch/node_modules/xml2js/node_modules/sax/lib/sax.js:662:22)
  at Object.write (/Users/bryan/SeaSketch/node_modules/xml2js/node_modules/sax/lib/sax.js:960:13)
  at Parser.exports.Parser.Parser.parseString (/Users/bryan/SeaSketch/node_modules/xml2js/lib/xml2js.js:386:29)
  at Parser.__bind [as parseString] (/Users/bryan/SeaSketch/node_modules/xml2js/lib/xml2js.js:6:61)
  at exports.parseString (/Users/bryan/SeaSketch/node_modules/xml2js/lib/xml2js.js:409:19)
  at ProbeManagerInternal._wms_http_request (/Users/bryan/SeaSketch/helpers/probemanager.coffee:609:20)
  at Domain.bind.b (domain.js:201:18)
  at Domain.run (domain.js:141:23)
  at ProbeManagerInternal._wms_http_request (/Users/bryan/SeaSketch/helpers/probemanager.coffee:607:20)

[Leonidas-from-XIV]

Well you could wrap it in a try-catch. But I agree, this looks quite like a bug in xml2js and should be handled by the err parameter. Will look into it, thanks for the report.

[toddrbryan]

Found it. It's a subtle thing in the interaction with Sax.

Here's a Gist of what I added: https://gist.github.com/toddrbryan/8460378

I can do a pull request if you wish.

Here's the sequence of events as I understand it: Sax begins parsing bad XML which has multiple errors. It throws its custom error event (not a Node EventEmitter event) and xml2js catches it, decides if it has already thrown a single error for this sax parser, and then throws its own error event accordingly. But the Sax error isn't cleared by calling saxParser.resume() so that the next time Sax enters write(), it throws a JS error (as it does when a previous error hasn't been cleared by resume() ).

Additionally, xml2js does not throw an end event when the saxParser emits an onend, causing parseString() to hang forever. To fix that I added a handler for Sax's end event in xml2js.

[Leonidas-from-XIV]

@toddrbryan 👍 If you add a regression test, I'd be more than happy to merge your pull request!

[deiga]

@toddrbryan @Leonidas-from-XIV How's this coming along?

[toddrbryan]

Hey there -

I'm sorry, I let this slip my mind. I'll get a test going and get you a
pull request. Sorry it's taken so long.

Best -

Todd

On Mon, Mar 10, 2014 at 1:36 PM, Timo Sand notifications@github.com wrote:

@toddrbryan https://github.com/toddrbryan @Leonidas-from-XIVhttps://github.com/Leonidas-from-XIVHow's this coming along?

Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHubhttps://github.com//issues/118#issuecomment-37230909
.

[elliotstokes]

Great stuff @toddrbryan. Looking forward to getting my grubby hands on this at some point.

[Leonidas-from-XIV]

This was merged couple days ago and is part of 0.4.2, so closing that issue now.