Invalid Character in BDT Files (Great American or Assurant)

Invalid Character in BDT Files (Great American or Assurant)

Occasionally,  the BDT (Business Data Transfer) file will receive an Invalid Character Was Found error.  This error is caused by an invalid character in one of the XML nodes within the file (typically bad data).

To find the error, it is easiest to use two tools.  XML Notepad and Notepad ++.  Both are free downloads.

Once these tools have been downloaded, open the BDT file using 'XML Notepad'.  Attempting to open the file will generate an error, however, the line and position of the error will be displayed.  

Now open the file in Notepad ++ and using the Line/position counters at the bottom of the app, go to the position in the file and remove the invalid character.  Typically this is fixed by re-typing what xml views as an invalid character.

Save the file (do not change the file extension from 'xml' and the re-open the file using XML Notepad.  If additional errors occur, repeat the process until all errors are resolved.

Once the file is corrected, the information in ASPIRE also needs to be corrected to avoid the error from occurring again.

Invalid character errors are typically caused by apostrophe's or ampersands generated in documents then copied/pasted into ASPIRE.  


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