CODEWITHSUNDEEP
visual-studio-2010sharepointmsbuildvisual-studio-2012
user1372240
user1372240

Reputation: 53

SharePoint Visual Studio Build - error : '.', hexadecimal value 0x00

When I deploy my SharePoint project I receive the following error:

C:\Program Files (x86)\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v11.0\SharePointTools\Microsoft.VisualStudio.SharePoint.targets(375,5): error : '.', hexadecimal value 0x00, is an invalid character. Line 1, position 1.

The line number relates to the following in the build XML:

<CreateSharePointProjectService Configuration="$(Configuration)"
              Platform="$(Platform)"
              ProjectFile="$(MSBuildProjectFile)"
              ProjectReferences="@(SharePointProjectReference)"
              OutDir="$(TargetDir)">
  <Output PropertyName="ProjectService" TaskParameter="ProjectService" />
</CreateSharePointProjectService>

Furthermore I've managed to whittle down the problem (or at least seemingly) to the following property:

ProjectFile="$(MSBuildProjectFile)"

i.e. if I remove this property then I no longer get the same error message (but I get others as a consequence).

I'm not sure what's going on here as I know nothing about MSBuild. Obviously this always used to work before so I don't know what's changed to cause it to no longer work. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated as I've wasted a lot of time on this already. BTW, this problem occurs in both Visual Studio 2010 and 2012.

Thanks

Upvotes: 1

Views: 1433

Answers (2)

dhakim
dhakim

Reputation: 508

I just ran into this after downloading an msbuild file from the internet. Opening the newly downloaded file in a hex editor showed me what the problem was pretty quickly. The file was downloaded with 2 byte characters, and every other byte was a 0. I think Notepad++ said the encoding was UCS-2. In any case, the fix was pretty simple. Notepad++ has an Encoding menu option that I used to rewrite the file as UTF-8. Changing the file back to UTF-8 immediately fixed the problem.

Hope this helps people in the future.

--Addendum - I might have tried to muck with the file using PowerShell before its encoding changed.

Upvotes: 0

user1372240
user1372240

Reputation: 53

OK, problem sorted. It turns out that the error message actually referred to an XML file referenced by the solution (containing some deployment files). This XML had somehow become corrupted which does fit the message '.', hexadecimal value 0x00. After removing this feature (which didn't need deploying anyway) the problem disappeared so the world can go on being a happy place again (or at least my manager is!)

Upvotes: 1

Related Questions