Errors With Attribute Contanining an Invalid XML Character (Classic, Processes...)

Products

• Clarity FedRAMP
• Clarity PPM On Premise
• Clarity PPM SaaS

Issue/Introduction

When an attribute contains a valid Unicode character that is invalid in XML, there could be several issues in the instance that has it.

For example, the Classic UX may not open the instance and show an error 'Unable to process request - Server or Network error'.

There may be other symptoms derived from this issue depending on the attribute containing the character and other context - for example, any process not auto-starting on the affected project instace (including those completely unrelated to the attribute), even if the character is in a subobject.

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Open any project in the Modern UX.
2. Paste a text containing an invalid XML character, such as a 'line tabulation' (can be copied from https://unicode-explorer.com/c/000B or https://invisible-characters.com/000B-LINE-TABULATION.html) in the Objective attribute.
   Do not use just the character alone, but some text containing it (e.g.: 'test[vt]test' - replace [vt] with the copied character).
3. Navigate to the 'Classic PPM' using the Navigation Menu (to open the same project in Classic).

Expected Results: The project is opened normally.

Actual Results: An error is displayed and the project does not open: [en - Error] [en - Unable to process request - Server or Network error].

The app-ca.log shows an error similar to:

FATAL yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss,mmm [x] web.XSLServer (clarity:x:x:projmgr.projectProperties) x) Transformation fatal error:Error reported by XML parser; Line#: 185; Column#: 35
; Line#: 185; Column#: 35
net.sf.saxon.trans.DynamicError: Error reported by XML parser
 at net.sf.saxon.StandardErrorHandler.reportError(StandardErrorHandler.java:87)
[...]
Caused by: org.xml.sax.SAXParseException; lineNumber: 185; columnNumber: 35; Character reference "&#11" is an invalid XML character.
 at org.apache.xerces.util.ErrorHandlerWrapper.createSAXParseException(Unknown Source)
 ... 90 more
---------
org.xml.sax.SAXParseException; lineNumber: 185; columnNumber: 35; Character reference "&#11" is an invalid XML character.
 at org.apache.xerces.util.ErrorHandlerWrapper.createSAXParseException(Unknown Source)
[...]

Environment

Clarity 16.2.2-16.4.0

Cause

DE180498

Resolution

This issue is under review.