We've received an AGS from a contractor that looks to have been exported from either HolebaseSI or OpenGround.
When run through the AGS Validator it is returning:
FAIL: AGS Format Rule 3:
Line 1 Does not start with a valid data descriptor.
Line 1 Contains fields that are not enclosed in double quotes
When viewing the file in Notepad++ there does not appear to be any obvious issue, even when showing non-ascii characters (which, as an aside, also seem to be picking up hyphens as problematic)
However, viewing it in HEX reveals that there are additional characters before the first heading in Line 1
Once these additional characters are removed then the two Fail messages are not present when the validator is run.
Can you please advise as to why this may be occurring and whether a fix will be put in place?
Hi Paul, I took a quick look at some recent AGS exports from OpenGround and do not see the characters in hex.
Are they present in exports from HBSI?
I just did a quick test, and no I don't see them in a HBSI export either.
Thanks Jesse. I have seen this on at least a couple of occasions. It was driving me bananas as to why it was failing the check. Do you have any ideas how/where they may be being introduced? I suspect that most people are just doing a direct export and not much more, so I'm struggling to think how this is happening anywhere else other than during the export process.
Your contractor might be using an older version of HBSI. I did a bit more digging and this might have been an issue that is now fixed in the latest versions.
Hi Paul, We usually see things like this happen when the file contains ASCII characters or Extended characters. The file is then opened in something that doesnt support those and it is changed for a question mark. I dont think it would have exported this way but at some point the file was opened and saved. Saving the question mark.
Martyn