"Flash can not parse this document" - CS5 Issue

Hi All,

The solution that I'm suggesting is for those who plan to save their work as CS5 but are not sure whether the FLA will be saved properly or not.

I came up with this plan, since I too faced the same issue and had to find a solution, if I had to migrate loads of apps across to CS5.

the main reason for this issue to crop up is due to a blank layer within the library, due to which the FLA when saved as CS5 on re-opening will throw the "Flash can not parse this document"  error in the output window.

So before you save your FLA to CS5 just run the below JSFL code so the it checks and reports for any library elements with blank layers.

// Find Layers with no frames in the library

// @author chetan

// --------------------------------------------------

// clear the output panel

fl.outputPanel.clear();

var nonRepeatClassArray = new Array();

// this function searches for a layers with 0 frame length

function findLayerLength()

{

fl.trace("<<---The classes linked are--->>  ");

for (var i=0;i<fl.getDocumentDOM().library.items.length;i++)

{

if(fl.getDocumentDOM().library.items.itemType == "movie clip")

{

var layers = fl.getDocumentDOM().library.items.timeline.layers;

var layerLen = fl.getDocumentDOM().library.items.timeline.layers.length;

for(var k=0;k<layerLen;k++)

{

if(layers.frames.length == 0)

{

fl.trace(fl.getDocumentDOM().library.items.name+"::"+ layers.name);

fl.trace("frame length is ::"+ layers.frames.length);

}

}

}

}

}

findLayerLength();

once you run the jsfl you will find the details of the movieclips with layers of 0 framelength, now find those layers in your FLA and delete it or just have a blank key frame.

now you will be able to save your FLA in CS5 format without any issues.

Cheers

Chetan

Hi, my name is Pablo from Argentina. So i also encountered this error when trying to save my project in CS4 and then back to CS5 by mistake. I hope I can clear the doubts to the ones suffering from the hands of dreadful developers and testers. This is what i did to bring my project back to life. I assume we are using a test.fla file

- Rename your file from test.fla to test.zip

- Unzip it

- Inside your unzipped folder you should have a similar structure to this:

<bin>

DOMDocument.xml

test.xfl

<LIBRARY>

<META-INF>

mimetype

MobileSettings.xml

PublishSettings.xml

- Create a new fresh folder, maybe called Test2 and copy te contents of the unzipped folder.

- Delete all the items from the Library Folder

- Copy the xml files from the Test>Library to Test2>Library from 10 to 10, opening the test.xfl y test2 folder, every 10 files till the error comes up. So then you'll know the file getting the error is in that last 10 files you copied.

- Then keep copying inside those 10 files, one by one, till Flash cannot open the file. So you will know which one is the file giving you the error.

At this stage you'll probably be thinking that a company like Adobe couldn't miss this error in a mega development like CS5, but they did, until the update, so this brief tutorial is for the ones like me that missed the patch, or have a project damaged by the software.

- When you narrowed the search and identified the file giving the error, open it.

-  I discovered that the xml structure for the library item (represented in this xml file) would be something like this

<timeline>

     <DOMTimeline>

               <layers>

                         <DOMLayer>

                                   <frames>

                                          <DOMFrame>

                                                   // Here should be the content of the frame

                                                       <Actionscript>

                                                                     ///Actionscript Code

                                                       </Actionscript>

                                                       <elements>

                                                                          /// the objects in the stage

                                                       </elements>

                                          </DOMFrame

                                   </frames>

                         </DOMLayer>

               </layers>

     </DOMTimeline>

</timeline>

- So, maybe this should be the approximate structure of the xml file, i don't know how exact is this, i didn't developed the application, the geniuses of Adobe did. I discovered that in my error xml file, this structure was truncated, yes truncated, there were things like this for example:

<DOMFrame>

          <Actionscript>

                   ///some actionscript content

           </Actionscript>

            <elements/> (WTF??!! No opening tag, and a truncated closing tag)                

</DOMFrame>

- So after burning my head trying to identify this not opening, not closing tags, and deleting or correcting each one of them, i managed to recover my agonizing file, it's back again! At this stage i was tearing my hair off and swearing to all of the talented developers working against the clock to bring us a version that could have waited 2 more months to be shipped in a full version, not beta.

There is also a couple of more errors other people encountered, i recommend keep searching for your exact error.

Hope this helps

Adiós amigos

Sorry but this thread is not 'answered' as it says at the top. I've just come across this problem with a file I was working on happily last night, and this morning it won't open - "cannot parse". I've tried all the suggestions above, to no avail... And I've tried the Adobe Flash update (http://www.adobe.com/support/flash/downloads.html) but that won't let me install it - I get another error message saying 'Error loading Updater worklflow'. Adobe - what are you doing about this problem?

I was able to find out that there is actually an ETX character in that empty node that might be causing this issue, I did a write up on it complete with wbfreek26 as the source of the solution! http://www.sosuke.com/index.php/2010/08/11/flash-cannot-parse-this-document-adobe-flash-cs5/

I came across this error today when I tried to open a .fla file that I had been working on. It has taken me about an hour to fix it but I think that I am happy enough now. Here is my solution so that maybe it can help others:

• Make a copy of your .fla so that you can work on it and change the extension from .fla to .zip
• Open it with winRAR, extract the contents to a folder somewhere and you will see all the various things that make up your project in this folder.
• Now, open flash and make a completely new project (just a blank project) and go File> Save as.. and instead of saving this new project as a .fla save it as a Flash CS5 Uncompressed Document (*.xfl)

What you need to do next is tedious BUT it might just save your bacon. One by one copy the various elements (XML, Library, bin etc) from the corrupt version to the blank folder (overwriting the new blank versions folders/files). Each time you move another piece into the folder open the .XFL and make sure that it works each time...(tedious but each time you open it you'll see the original project coming back to life) Keep doing this until it doesn't open and hey presto you've now found the corrupt file.

What you do next is your guess. For me the corrupt file was an xml file and I'm sure your corrupt file will be an XML file too (it is a parsing error after all). I simply deleted this XML file because it wasn't anything major. It'll take me a minute to re-do this movieclip within flash. If you can do this too then that would be a small sacrifice to get the project up and running again. I'm sure Adobe will sort this out soon and I hope my solution helps someone else.

-Stevo

Hey all,

I was dealing with this for awlile, and it looks like converting old cs4 projects to cs4 creates what im calling "null" nodes sometimes in xml. Go through your xml files that make up your flash project (either by saving as xfl uncompressed, or unzipping the fla).

Do a search for <frames/>

as in:

        <DOMLayer name="Layer 2" color="#9933CC">
          <frames/>
        </DOMLayer>

I found about 4 of those cases in a large fla file. I deleted the whole DOMlayer node as listed above, and that cleaned up everything! In general though this version of flash seems really buggy, and there are some projects im still unable to compile due to TBD reasons . . .

I have the same problem and honestly i am pretty mad. I invested another 1000bucks to end up with a software what ruins my projects.

I had it with one file 2 weeks ago and completely rebuild it, because i thought it was my mistake.

Two days ago it happened again and i cannot fix it. I tried to remove some empty frames but the .xfl file just does not want to open.

I do not know what to do anymore! This is a really important project and i am stuck. I cannot redo this file!

Hopefully someone con help me here!!!!

sincerely !

I've got the same problem. Flash can not parse the document.

I've tried every single way that I found on the forums (convert it to .zip and try to fix the xml, open it on cs4, use the decompiler) and nothing works!

I'm getting mad with this... can somebody help me?

I'm close to the dead line. 2 files: both of them crashed!

Please!!!!

HELP!!!

I may be late to the game, but I'm still playing, unfortunately.  After multiple saves and no backup, "Flash can not [sic] parse this document."

Flash CS5 also can not parse a con trac tion.

Will someone at Adobe please get my file and fix it?

After working on a file for four hours this happened to me and so I thought the file was corrupted some way and so I started over making changes to the file.  Four hours later just when I was almost finished re-doing the changes....it happened again.  I am so mad.  Now I have two useless files and I am afraid to go make the fixes again because it will probably happen again.  I am afraid to waste my time on ANY file now in CS5 because I will end up with a corrupted file.  That doesn't bode well with someone that just put all her money into this software. 

To make matters worse I have about 50 more files I need to make changes to and I am on a deadline.  So, I am sitting here.  Can't work because it will probably be a waste.

I went in and looked in the library for empty frames but I probably have over 100 items in my library.  It will take me days to search them all.  So far I haven't found any missing frames.

Could someone please contact me and help me before my head explodes.  I would be forever grateful!  (Pitiful smile with a begging face) 

angela at acuteconsulting.com