Google Site map Problem

just can't eliminate errors

[Buckley]

Hi, I have a shopping website that is built using server side WYSIWYG editor.

The site automatically generates a www.yourdmain.com/sitemap.xml to use with Google sitemaps. I have done everything i can to get this to validate but it just keeps coming up with errors :(

I put the /sitmemap.xml url into a browser so i can see where it is getting stuck but it seems to repeatedly get stuck on URL's that to me seem totally fine and have no characters in them that differ from dozens of other url's that pass the test. I have ended up spending that much time initially removing characters from product titles that i thought were causing the problem that I'm determined to a) get this thing listed and b) work out exactly what it is that Google is having a problem with?

Even the guys at the shopping cart company are confused as to what in my site urls is tripping this up?

Can anyone offer any ideas or assistance? It would be greatly appreciated i can assure you. It's driving me crazy!

I realise i can't really copy and paste the error here as it has my domain name in it but if need be (if it will help determine the problem) i can change the domain name to "yourdomain"

Many thanks in advance,

Scott

[tedster]

When you paste the error urls into the browser, do they work - exactly as is, with absolutely no changes made by either your browser or your server?

[Buckley]

yes they do

[tedster]

It sounds like the error is Google's, then -- and they do sometimes have bugs in this area. Just to be sure of all possibilities, you should probably validate the XML syntax too, not just the reported bad urls:

[w3schools.com...]

[Buckley]

Thanks tedster,

I put the url into the "Syntax-check your XML File - IE Only" validator and it came up with a blank page. Does that mean it is okay?

The same thing happened when i used their "example" URL as well.

cheers,

Scott

[tedster]

I doubt that means OK - probably a temporary glitch. For now I'd use a search engine to find another XML validator.

[Buckley]

Again, thanks Tedster,

Just for everyones info, the problem turned out to be some special unicode causing the error?

Think it may have been caused by copying and pasting product titles from (word or other)documents into the shopping cart system.

So I'll now ensure i wash any product titles in notepad first.

Cheers,

scott