Error when loading valid Windows-1252 document "System error: -2146697210" - msxml

Question

Somehow, sometimes the code below generates an error when loading valid Windows-1252 XML.
It fails on Windows XP Professional x86 SP3 using MSXML6.
It succeeds on Windows 7 Ultimate x64 SP1 using MSXML6.
Note: the code below is written in Delphi, but equivalent code also fails in other environments.
procedure TXMLEOSErrorTestCase.Test;
var
XmlDocument: IXMLDOMDocument3;
XmlFileName: string;
begin
XmlDocument := CoFreeThreadedDOMDocument60.Create();
XmlFileName := TPath.Combine(TPath.GetDirectoryName(ParamStr(0)), '1-Normal.xml');
if not XmlDocument.load(XmlFileName) then
Parse(XmlDocument.parseError);
end;
This error occurs during the XmlDocument.load method:
reason: System error: -2146697210.
errorCode: -2146697210
url: C:\temp\1-Normal.xml
I trimmed the XML down to the XML found below.
This is the hex dump of the XML file:
000000: 3C 3F 78 6D 6C 20 76 65 72 73 69 6F 6E 20 3D 20 <?xml version =
000010: 22 31 2E 30 22 20 65 6E 63 6F 64 69 6E 67 3D 22 "1.0" encoding="
000020: 57 69 6E 64 6F 77 73 2D 31 32 35 32 22 3F 3E 3C Windows-1252"?><
000030: 52 4F 57 20 43 69 74 79 3D 22 E0 22 2F 3E 0D 0A ROW City="."/>..
This is the XML:
<?xml version = "1.0" encoding="Windows-1252"?><ROW City="à"/>
Why does the error occur?
(The XML loads perfectly fine in .NET and other environments not using MSXML6, it also works fine on Windows 7 Ultimate x64 SP1).
--jeroen

Answer 1

The behaviour depends on which version of the MSXML6.DLL you have installed.
To reproduce this better, I created another file abnormal.xml, in addition to the normal.xml from the question.
File dump abnormal.xml:
000000: 3C 3F 78 6D 6C 20 76 65 72 73 69 6F 6E 3D 22 31 <?xml version="1
000010: 2E 30 22 20 73 74 61 6E 64 61 6C 6F 6E 65 3D 22 .0" standalone="
000020: 79 65 73 22 3F 3E 3C 52 4F 57 20 43 69 74 79 3D yes"?><ROW City=
000030: 22 E0 22 2F 3E 0D 0A "."/>..
File abnormal.xml:
<?xml version="1.0" standalone="yes"?><ROW City="à"/>
File dump normal.xml:
000000: 3C 3F 78 6D 6C 20 76 65 72 73 69 6F 6E 20 3D 20 <?xml version =
000010: 22 31 2E 30 22 20 65 6E 63 6F 64 69 6E 67 3D 22 "1.0" encoding="
000020: 57 69 6E 64 6F 77 73 2D 31 32 35 32 22 3F 3E 3C Windows-1252"?><
000030: 52 4F 57 20 43 69 74 79 3D 22 E0 22 2F 3E 0D 0A ROW City="."/>..
File normal.xml:
<?xml version = "1.0" encoding="Windows-1252"?><ROW City="à"/>
The behaviour I expect is that:
abnormal.xml fails, because it does not specify an encoding, but contains a character with the high-bit set
normal.xml succeeds, as it conains a single-byte encoding supporting high-bit characters, so characters with high-bit set are allowed
These are the observed scenarios:
MSXML6 FAILURE:
reason: System error: -2146697210.
errorCode: -2146697210
url: file:///C:/My%20Dropbox/XMLEOSErrorTest/Abnormal.xml
reason: System error: -2146697210.
errorCode: -2146697210
url: file:///C:/My%20Dropbox/XMLEOSErrorTest/Normal.xml
MSXML6 SUCCESS:
reason: An invalid character was found in text content.
errorCode: -1072896760
url: file:///C:/My%20Dropbox/XMLEOSErrorTest/Abnormal.xml
srcText: <?xml version="1.0" standalone="yes"?><ROW City="
line: 1
linepos: 50
filepos: 49
This is an overview of what versions fail.
The names of the DLL's between parentheses are from their version information.
failure; XP Professional SP3:
msxml6.dll version 6.20.1099.0 (MSXML 6.0 SP2)
msxml6r.dll version 6.0.3883.0 (XML Resources)
success; Windows 7 Ultimate x64 SP1:
msxml6.dll version 6.30.7600.16385 (MSXML 6.0 SP3)
msxml6r.dll version 6.30.7600.16385
msxml6r.dll.mui version 6.30.7600.16385
success; XP Professional SP3:
msxml6.dll version 6.20.1103.0 (MSXML 6.0 SP3)
msxml6r.dll version 6.0.3883.0 (XML Resources)
Observations:
Automatic Windows Update and Microsoft Update will not update MSXML6.DLL to the latest version on Windows XP SP3.
There is no MSXML6 SP3 for Windows XP.
The latest version is in fact 6.20.2003.0 for Windows XP SP2 and can be obtained at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/973686 (it does not install on Windows XP SP3).
The 6.20.1103.0 version of MSXML6.DLL for Windows XP SP3 can be obtained at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/973687 (direct download for XP SP3)
Microsoft has very little information on their site about this: http://www.google.com/search?q=msxml6+%226.20.1099.0%22+%226.20.1103.0%22+site:microsoft.com
Searching only for 6.20.1103.0 does not reveal much more: http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=msxml6+%226.20.1103.0%22+site:microsoft.com
This gives the best search results: http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=msxml6+%226.20.1103.0%22#sclient=psy&num=10&hl=en&q=msxml6+%226.20.1099.0%22+%226.20.1103.0%22
So: when doing MSXML6 work, first put in a check that you indeed have the latest MSXML6.DLL for your target Windows version.
--jeroen