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CMiC – Texas Subcontract Exception Report Fails with Invalid XML Character (0x0)

The “Texas Subcontract Exception” report fails to generate, with CMiC returning an error referencing an invalid XML character (0x0) in the report data. This is caused by corrupted or invalid characters (such as null/replacement characters or stray formatting) embedded in a Business Partner's address fields. Since the report pulls customer/address data to build its XML output, a bad character in that address breaks the report generation entirely.

• The Texas Subcontract Exception report fails to run or export, returning an XML-related error referencing an invalid character (0x0).
• The affected subcontract/project otherwise appears normal with no obvious data issues in the main entry screens.
• The issue traces back to a specific Business Partner record used as the Customer/Controlling Business Partner on the project.

CMiC generates this report as XML. XML has a strict set of allowed characters — a null character (0x0) or certain corrupted/invisible characters are not valid XML content and will cause report generation to fail outright. These bad characters are most often introduced into a Business Partner's address fields through copy/paste from another source (e.g., pasting from a PDF, scanned document, or another system that embeds hidden formatting characters).

1. Open the affected project in Project Maintenance.
2. On the General tab, locate the Customer and Customer Address fields.
3. Review the address preview box next to Ctrl Business Partner — look closely for unusual characters, such as a diamond/question-mark replacement symbol (�), appearing after the street line or on a line by itself.

Project Maintenance – General tab, with Customer Address (PRIM1) and the Ctrl Business Partner address preview highlighted.

A closer view of the same address preview box, showing the replacement characters (�) following “P. O. BOX 660” and on the line below “SAN ANTONIO TX 78293-0660”:

Zoomed view of the Ctrl Business Partner address preview showing the suspected invalid/replacement characters.

4. Go to Business Partner Maintenance and open the Business Partner used as the project's customer (in this example, NEBR01 – New Braunfels Utilities).
5. Select the Address tab and locate the address code referenced by the project (in this example, PRIM1).
6. Review the Street, Suite, and Country fields closely — check for trailing spaces, blank fields where data is expected, or any non-standard characters that aren't visible at a glance.

Business Partner Maintenance – Address tab, showing the Street field with a suspected trailing/invalid character, and blank Suite and Country fields.

7. In Business Partner Maintenance, open the affected address record (as identified above).
8. Clear the Street field completely and retype the address manually — do not copy/paste from external sources (PDFs, emails, scanned documents) to avoid reintroducing hidden characters.
9. Fill in any missing fields the address should have (e.g., Suite, Country) if they are blank and expected to be populated.
10. Save the Business Partner record.
11. Return to the affected project in Project Maintenance and confirm the Ctrl Business Partner address preview now displays cleanly, with no stray characters.
12. Re-run the Texas Subcontract Exception report for the affected project/subcontract and confirm it completes without the XML character error.

• Check whether the same Business Partner is used as the customer/address on other projects experiencing the same report failure — a bad address record can affect multiple projects at once.
• If retyping the address does not resolve the error, escalate to a CMiC Systems Analyst with the specific Business Partner code and address code, as the invalid character may exist in a database field not fully visible/editable from the standard UI (may require a backend data correction).

Avoid copy/pasting address information directly into CMiC from PDFs, emails, or other external documents, as this is the most common way hidden/invalid characters get introduced into address fields. Type addresses manually, or paste as plain text (e.g., paste into Notepad first, then copy from there into CMiC) to strip hidden formatting.

CMiC  •  XML Error  •   Texas Subcontract Exception  •  Business Partner  •   Project Maintenance  •  Address Data   •  Report Failure  •  Data Quality

CMiC invalid XML character  •  0x0 XML error CMiC  •  Texas Subcontract Exception report fails  •  CMiC report XML error  •  Business Partner address corrupted  •  CMiC address invalid character  •  Project Maintenance address preview garbled  •  CMiC report generation error

Prepared by Keeley Service Desk – for internal Freshservice Knowledge Base use.