Error parsing XML : The reference to entity "version" must end with the ';' delimiter [duplicate]

Asked 5/6, 2014 at 20:52 Answered 12/4, 2015 at 23:19

I'm fairly new to this, so sorry if this is a simple question.

I'm trying to install the FB like box onto my website www.thehungryeurasian.com

However, when I try inserting the Javascript SDK:

<div id="fb-root"></div>
<script>(function(d, s, id) {
  var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
  if (d.getElementById(id)) return;
  js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;
  js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.0";
  fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));</script>

The following error comes up:

Error parsing XML, line 884, column 64:
The reference to entity "version" must end with the ';' delimiter.

Phosphatize answered 5/6, 2014 at 20:52 Comment(1)

it's a duplicate in one sense, but I bet a ton of thymeleaf developers get this error in exactly this context, copy-pasting fb code. I recommend that you allow this question to stand as it is very useful to a very specific and very common problem – Raker 10/6, 2016 at 3:44

It looks like something is interpreting your document as XML rather than HTML. XML is much stricter than HTML - one of the rules is that ampersands (&) have a special meaning. They mean "here comes an XML entity", which is a special character. For instance, you can type " to insert ", or > to insert > into your document.

In this case, your code is interpreting &version on line 6 as the start of one of these entities. If you update line 6 as follows:

js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&amp;version=v2.0";

Then you should find that error disappears.

Guimond answered 5/6, 2014 at 21:40 Comment(2)

Thank you so much! Not only for sorting out the issue, but teaching me something new! – Phosphatize 5/6, 2014 at 22:45

Yes, in my case it was &(ampersand) when I replaced it with & it worked – Furiya 9/7, 2019 at 9:40

Just had this issue myself. The answer above did not fix the problem. The Facebook buttons do not load. Below is the fix I implemented to resolve both the 500 error presented on the server and then allow for proper loading of the Buttons.

The problem is that if you are using something like Thymeleaf which uses XML. The HTML added to a page must be properly formed. The & will cause the page load to fail with a 500 error if the current version is used within a page.

Current method of including the Javascript SDK for a button. Follow Us, Like etc...

    <div id="fb-root"></div>
<script>(function(d, s, id) {
  var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
  if (d.getElementById(id)) return;
  js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;
  js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3";
  fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));</script>

Enhancement needed to work with the more strict XML checking. This enhancement will allow for the proper escaping of the XML data and commenting the CDATA works for older browsers.

<div id="fb-root"></div>
<script>
/* <![CDATA[ */
    (function(d, s, id) {
        var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];
        if (d.getElementById(id)) return;
        js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;
        js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.3";
        fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);
    }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));
/* ]]> */
</script>

Apophyge answered 12/4, 2015 at 23:19 Comment(0)

Did you place the code right under the tag? Because thats where it needs to be placed.

Flack answered 5/6, 2014 at 21:3 Comment(1)

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly. I don't have a '<body>' tag, although I have '</body>'. The closest thing I can find is '<body expr:class='"loading" + data:blog.mobileClass'>' so I put it straight under that? – Phosphatize 5/6, 2014 at 21:26

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