Debugging KML file

Question

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <kml xmlns="http://www.opengis.net/kml/2.2" xmlns:gx="http://www.google.com/kml/ext/2.2" xmlns:kml="http://www.opengis.net/kml/2.2" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom">
<Document> <Placemark> <Name>Test Name</Name> <Description><b>Project Information</b><br><ul><li>Project Name: Test Name</li><li>Project Number: Test Number</li><li>Project Location:  Test Location</li><li>System: Test System</li></ul><br><b>Project Team</b><br><br><ul><li>Regional Manager: Mem 1</li><li>Project Manager: Mem 2</li></ul><br>YouTube Video URL: <a href="http://youtu.be/U9EYP9GIe2k"><br>Picassa Album URL: <a href="www.picassa.com"><br></Description> <Point> <Coordinates>30,-125</Coordinates>,0 </Point> </Placemark> </Document> </kml>

This is what my custom Excel macro is generating (I'm new to programming, so take it easy on me if you notice something big). When I attempt to open the KML file with Google Earth, I get the following message: Open of file "file path" failed: Parse error at line 2, column 454: mismatched tag. This correlates to the /Description tag... What is wrong with this tag? I matches up with it's corresponding Description tag.

Propst

To be strict XML the first line <?xml...> must followed by a new line before the rest of the document. – Fretted

Answer 1

There are a handful of techniques you can apply to debug and repair a corrupt KML file.

Basically, the quickest way to validate a KML file is first using your web browser. KML is an XML file so first you can test if it's a well-formed XML file, which is a prerequisite to it being a valid KML file. Simply rename the KML file adding an .xml file extension then drag the file onto a web browser (Firefox, Chrome, etc.) to validate it. See detailed example here.

Once those errors are found and fixed then you can try a KML validator that checks if the file is valid KML with respect to the OGC KML Specification and associated XML Schema such as the standalone command-line XmlValidator tool.

In your example, if you run it through a simple XML SAX parser it shows: element type "br" must be terminated by the matching end-tag "</br>" at column 455.

Error being that <description> element has HTML markup but isn't escaped with a CDATA block (CDATA is part of the XML standard). To fix this you need to reformat your KML like this:

  <description>
      <![CDATA[
          <b>Project Information</b>
          ...
          <br>
      ]]>
  </description>

Also, the element has the wrong name (Description vs description). KML is case-sensitive.

More tips to debug KML files can be found here.

Fretted

Thanks for the heads up, Jason. My issue is that I'm stuck in the initial part of your validation process - testing if it's a well-formed XML file. When I open the file in Chrome, the error is in the same location as what GE gives me: the </Description> tag. When I copy/paste my code into Notepad++ it says that my tags match, but is opposite of what Chrome/GE are telling me. – Propst

Thanks, Jason. I did not know about CDATA, so I appreciate you taking a look and helping me out. Everything works well now! – Propst