The ':' character, hexadecimal value 0x3A, cannot be included in a name.

Question

In my web app, i see an error when doing mail merge,

The ':' character, hexadecimal value 0x3A, cannot be included in a name.

Below is the code:

        Public ReadOnly Property XMLNS() As XNamespace
            Get
                Return XNamespace.[Get](WORDMLNS)
            End Get
        End Property    
        Public Const WORDMLNS As String = "http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/wordprocessingml/2006/main"

Dim newBody As XElement = XElement.Parse(wordDocument.MainDocumentPart.Document.Body.OuterXml)

                    ' Get all Mail Merge Fields
 Dim mailMergeFields As IList(Of XElement) = (From el In newBody.Descendants() Where el.Attribute(Convert.ToString(XMLNS) & "instr") IsNot Nothing Select el).ToList()

                    ' Replace all merge fields with Data
                    For Each field As XElement In mailMergeFields
                        Dim fieldName As String = field.Attribute(Convert.ToString(XMLNS) & "instr").Value.Replace("MERGEFIELD", String.Empty).Trim().Replace("""", "")
                        If fieldNameList.Contains(fieldName) Then
                            Dim newElement As XElement = field.Descendants(Convert.ToString(XMLNS) & "r").First()
                            newElement.Descendants(Convert.ToString(XMLNS) & "t").First().Value = GetFieldValue(fieldNameList, fieldValueList, fieldName)
                            field.ReplaceWith(newElement)
                        End If
                    Next

Underlined  throws  the error...

Can anyone please let me know why it would do that?

Appreciate the help

Thanks

Answer 1

The XML attribute name cannot include a ':' character.

Please, see this source

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Leonid Ganeline [BizTalk MVP] BizTalk: the Naming Conventions in Examples