Title

Known Issue: Import of Citrix remote application *.raa files containing non-ASCII characters may fail with "XmlException: Invalid character in the given encoding" (IOJ-1986841)

Summary

Data files named *.raa containing Citrix remote application details may fail to be imported if they contain non-ASCII characters.

This issue occurs because non-ASCII characters in *.raa files are not written using an appropriate character encoding.

Details

When a problematic .raa file is uploaded to the inventory server, logging similar to the following will be output into the C:\ProgramData\Flexera Software\Compliance\Logging\WebResolvers\dispatcher.log file:

[ERROR 2021-03-12 16:00:15,811 46739309ms Dispatcher            ] Failed to run importer
System.Xml.XmlException: Invalid character in the given encoding. Line 1, position 1392236.
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.Throw(Exception e)
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.InvalidCharRecovery(Int32& bytesCount, Int32& charsCount)
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.GetChars(Int32 maxCharsCount)
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ReadData()
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ParseAttributeValueSlow(Int32 curPos, Char quoteChar, NodeData attr)
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ParseAttributes()
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ParseElement()
   at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ParseElementContent()
   at System.Xml.XmlLoader.LoadNode(Boolean skipOverWhitespace)
   at System.Xml.XmlLoader.LoadDocSequence(XmlDocument parentDoc)
   at System.Xml.XmlDocument.Load(XmlReader reader)
   at System.Xml.XmlDocument.Load(Stream inStream)
   at Flexera.RemoteApplication.Importer.RemoteApplicationImportPlugin.Import(String importType, Stream inputStream, Boolean isGzipped, String sourceIdentifier, String targetFilename, MGSLicenseTermCheckResult licenseCheckResult, ImportProcessingStats& stats, IDispatcherPreferences preferences)
   at ManageSoft.Import.Dispatcher.runImporter_ActualExecution_invokeImporter(ItemProcessingTask processingTask)

Reproduction steps

Place a problematic .raa file in a temporary directory such as C:\Temp\RemoteApplication on a processing server, and run the following command in a cmd shell window to import the file:

mgsimport.exe -e -t RemoteApplication -d C:\Temp\RemoteApplication

If the file is affected by this issue, the process will fail with output like the following:

Starting Importer...
Processing 1 files
Processing file C:\Temp\RemoteApplication\SERVER (XenApp).raa: 
XML EXCEPTION: -------------------- System.Xml.XmlException: Invalid character in the given encoding. 
Line 1, position 2367. at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.Throw(Exception e)
at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.InvalidCharRecovery(Int32& bytesCount, Int32& charsCount)
at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.GetChars(Int32 maxCharsCount)
[...]
at System.Xml.XmlDocument.Load(Stream inStream)
at Flexera.RemoteApplication.Importer.RemoteApplicationImportPlugin.Import(String importType, Stream inputStream, Boolean isGzipped, String sourceIdentifier, String targetFilename, MGSLicenseTermCheckResult licenseCheckResult, ImportProcessingStats& stats, IDispatcherPreferences preferences

Further details

An example of an element in a .raa file that may cause this problem is the following (note the registered trademark "®" character that appears in the appFileDesc attribute value):

<app farmName="Citrix_AU" appID="IT Admin" appName="IT Admin" appFileName="wscript.exe" appFileVersion="5.812.10240.16384" appFilePublisher="Microsoft Corporation" appFileDesc="Microsoft ® Windows Based Script Host" userSid="" serverName="" serverDomainName="" isStreamingProfile="0" />

Workaround

Before attempting to import a problematic *.raa file, put a process in place to either convert the file to a UTF-8 encoding, or remove any non-ASCII characters.

Fix status

This issue has been fixed in the following FlexNet Manager Suite releases: 2021 R1 (On Premises), 2021 R1.1 / Sep 2021 (Cloud)

Other information

Affected components: Integration: Citrix, Uploaded file importers

Master issue ID: IOJ-1986841

Also known as: FNML-73907

Was this helpful?

Support Hub

Product

FlexNet Manager Suite

Deployment type

On-premises

Visibility

Guest

URL Name

known-issue-import-of-citrix-remote-application-raa-files-containing-non-ascii-characters-may-fail-with-xmlexception-invalid-character-in-the-given-encoding-ioj-1986841

Are you sure you want to cancel the case creation?

Case closed successfully

Action performed successfully

Upload Attachment

Maximum file size allowed is 3 MB.

File type not supported.

Supported file types:

Documents (.txt, .doc, .docx, .pdf), Images (.jpg, .png), Comma Separated Files (.csv) Speadsheets (.xlsx, .xls)

Are you sure you want to close this case

Get Hotline support

Products	Region	Phone Numbers
FlexNet Operations FlexNet Embedded FlexNet Publisher FlexNet Connect FlexNet Code Insight InstallAnywhere InstallShield	North America *	+1 630-332-2513 (toll) +1 877-279-2853 (toll-free in North America)
	Europe *	+44 1925 944367 (toll) +44 800 047 8642 (toll-free in Europe)
	Japan *	+81 3-4540-5335 (select option 2)
	Australia *	+61 3 9895 2177 +61 1800 560 603 (toll-free in Australia)
Usage Intelligence (formerly Revulytics) Compliance Intelligence	Please use the Case Portal to submit your support ticket or reach out to your Revenera contact.