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Error and Warning Messages

  • Article

When you open a VDX, VSX, or VTX file in Microsoft® Visio®, any error or warning messages that might result appear in message dialog boxes and then are saved in a log file.

The log file includes details on why a problem has occurred and the action Visio has taken in response to the problem, and, if possible, the line number where Visio has detected a problem in the document.

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Warning

To be able to see warning and error message dialog boxes, make sure the Show file save warnings or Show file open warnings check boxes are selected under Save/Open on the Advanced tab of the Visio Options dialog box in Visio (click the File tab, click Options, and then click Advanced) .

VDX files must always be well-formed, and any XML data in a file (including XML in SolutionXML elements) that has schema references must pass validation or Visio will not load the file. If you subsequently modify a file that has passed validation so that it contains invalid XML, it will fail to load the next time you try to open it in Visio.

Problems that create warnings and errors

  • Validation problems

  • Parser initialization problems

  • Empty, invalid, inappropriate, or unexpected elements, attributes, or values in attributes

  • Duplicate elements where only one element can exist

  • Elements in the wrong order (where order is important)

  • Elements that are missing required data, sub-elements, or attributes

  • Element or attribute data that is valid but inconsistent with the rest of the file (often occurs when formula attributes are syntactically legal but have unresolved cell references)

  • Unknown XML or solution XML that is not well-formed

  • Invalid references, including invalid master references and invalid or circular style references

  • References to nonexistent text property rows, or to text property rows that are not referenced from the shape's text

Error messages returned by the MSXML Parser when attempting to load a VDX file

When MSXML is unable to parse or validate the file, it stops trying to load the file, displays an error message like the following, and records the error in the log file.

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Typically this type of error is caused by one of the following:

  • A file that contains XML that isn't well-formed or does not coincide with the DatadiagramML schema.

  • An MSXML.dll file that has become corrupted or has been uninstalled.

Warning messages returned by Visio when loading a DatadiagramML file

When Visio encounters a file that contains XML that it does not understand (for a variety of reasons) but can still load, it displays the following dialog box:

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To see the line number and details of the warning message, click Show log file.

After you click OK or Show log file, Visio finishes loading the file.