XML can't be the whole program

Question

When I include the following js file (with jquery in it), I get the error in Firebug "XML can't be the whole program"

JS file include reference:

<script src="~/Scripts/scriptname.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

JS file contents:

$("[id*='txtAddress1S']")
  .blur(function(){
   $("[id*='txtAddress1S']")
      .val().match(
          /\b[p]*(ost)*\.*\s*[o|0]*(ffice)*\.*\s*b[o|0]x\b/i)&&
         (alert("Packages are not deliverable to a Post Office Box.
         \nPlease provide a different shipping address."),
    $("[id*='txtAddress1S']").focus())
  });

Thanks in advance!

possible duplicate of [What does Firebug "XML cannot be the whole program" error message mean?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1371189/what-does-firebug-xml-cannot-be-the-whole-program-error-message-mean) — Tomalak, Apr 19 '11 at 13:42
But check the error console first. If there an error message, it isn't a bug from firebug. Btw what does the path reference '~' mean? — Reporter, Apr 19 '11 at 13:42
@reporter: On Linux (and Mac OS) systems, ~ is your home directory. — gen_Eric, Apr 19 '11 at 13:43

Michael Berkowski · Accepted Answer · 2013-11-01T11:24:50.027

10

It might be that your script src attribute is not properly understood with the ~ and being parsed as an empty <script> tag instead. Use the full path to the javascript file, or a path relative to the page it's loading on:

<script src="/full/path/to/Scripts/scriptname.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="../relative/to/Scripts/scriptname.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

edited Nov 01 '13 at 11:24

answered Apr 19 '11 at 13:42

Michael Berkowski

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This was it. Firefox didn't like the ~ in my relative path. – s15199d Apr 19 '11 at 13:52

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 19 '11 at 13:42

For some reason, your script file is being treated by Firefox as an XML file. My guess is that you have included script tags in your Javascript file. E.g.

<script>
    $("[id*='txtAddress1S']").blur(function(){$("[id*='txtAddress1S']").val().match(/\b[p]*(ost)*\.*\s*[o|0]*(ffice)*\.*\s*b[o|0]x\b/i)&&(alert("Packages are not deliverable to a Post Office Box.\nPlease provide a different shipping address."),$("[id*='txtAddress1S']").focus())});
</script>

You don't need script tags in an external JS file.

The equivalent error in Chrome is

Uncaught SyntaxError: Unexpected token <

score 1 · Answer 3 · edited Apr 05 '12 at 14:05

I found another reason for"XML can't be the whole program in FF and Uncaught SyntaxError: Unexpected token < in Chrome. In my case, everything was failing with ScriptResource.axd.

The reason was that I'm serving some pages from https and I have a manager switching between http and https requests depending on what is currently required. Due to incorrect configuration the manager was serving ScriptResource.axd always over http, which caused errors on https pages.

score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Jul 03 '12 at 15:32

1

I experienced this same error today. In my case it was because I didn't use HTML codes for special characters in my URL while doing an AJAX request. For example...

Using & instead of using &

answered Jul 03 '12 at 15:32

khollenbeck

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score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Jul 29 '11 at 18:11

Shooting from the hip: I actually got this error because I added a wildcard mapping for aspnet_isapi.dll in my IIS 5.1 / WinXP (for some MVC related work). This means .js files got processed by IIS differently. Once I removed the mapping, the error you describe disappeared.

score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Oct 07 '11 at 15:48

0

Just had the same error. Make sure the javascript include file does not contain < script> tags. Once those are pulled out of your include file, the error goes away (assuming that's all that is wrong).

answered Oct 07 '11 at 15:48

a coder

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XML can't be the whole program

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