problems ODS tagsets.excelxp

[deleted_user]

Hello,

I've been having a problem with the ODS tagsets.excelxp lately. It just can't display in SAS (although when opening the Excel document, everything is fine).

Here is the SAS log for the Error :


Unable to read SAS Report file.

--------------------------------------------------------

hexadecimal value 0x3C, is an invalid attribute character. Line 5728, position 32.

------------------------------ Technical Information Follows ------------------------------

[SAS.Report.Models]

hexadecimal value 0x3C, is an invalid attribute character. Line 5728, position 32.

----------------------------------------------------

at SAS.Report.Models.XML.XMLParse.CreateDOM(Stream file, String fragment, Hashtable customObjectMap)
at SAS.Report.Models.XML.XML.ReadReport(Stream inputStream, Hashtable customObjectMap)
at SAS.Report.Models.XML.XML.ReadReport(FileInfo file, Hashtable customObjectMap)
at SAS.Report.Models.XML.XML.ReadReport(String filename, Hashtable customObjectMap)
at SAS.Report.Viewer.SASReportView.ReadReport(String reportFileName)
at SAS.EG.ProjectElementViews.SasReportView.OpenDocument(), hexadecimal value 0x3C, is an invalid attribute character. Line 5728, position 32.

------------------------------ End of Technical Information ------------------------------

Any idea?

[Cynthia_sas]

Hi:
Are you by any chance using SAS Enterprise Guide???? Normally, that's where I see this error:
http://support.sas.com/kb/32/924.html
http://support.sas.com/kb/32/133.html

SAS Enterprise Guide wants all XML to be SASReport XML -- so when you create ExcelXP output, EG thinks that the XML is SASReport XML and so it tries to treat the file like it would a SASReport XML file and then it doesn't find the XML tags that it expects, so you get the error.

For ExcelXP, the recommendation is to open the file -outside- of EG.I have never had any issues opening ExcelXP output in SAS Display Manager Results Window -- only in EG.

cynthia

[deleted_user]

Hi,

Yes, I am using SAS EG. And I understand what you're saying, but since I won't be the one using the program, it could get a little tougher. I can't force people to not use EG :P...

Is there anyway to work around the SAS report problems? (Or even a way to simply make the error message disapear ?)

Thanks in advance.

[Cynthia_sas]

Hi:
This is an EG interface question and I do know that the EG folks are aware of this situation with ExcelXP output results. However, the only workaround I know of is to switch to HTML or RTF or PDF for your output, instead of ExcelXP. You might open a track with Tech Support to see when/what release of EG a fix for this issue is anticipated.

Also, if you are using EG as part of the Business Intelligence Platform (or also called the Platform for Business Analytics) -- and hope to use ExcelXP with a stored process (for example) to return results to Excel -- you should be aware of the fact that ExcelXP cannot be used with the SAS Add-in for Excel, Word or PPT or Web Report Studio as a stored process result type. I believe that you can only use ExcelXP with a stored process that's run in the Information Delivery Portal.

Since the file that's created is not one of the types that EG is happy about opening (for now), you might just need to educate your users to ignore the messages and go outside of EG to open the file.

cynthia

[deleted_user]

Ok well all that is duly noted!

I'll try to educate the users (even though I'm not that educated myself).

I want to thank you for your time Cynthia, it's always a pleasure to have you answer one of my post.