HELP: All of my charting reports are now throwing a 'output char buffer is too small' error (with 5.2.1236.2)!!

07-01-2009, 7:08 AM
All of the sudden this morning I am getting the following error thrown for ALL of my reports that use charting:

"The output char buffer is too small to contain the decoded characters, encoding 'Unicode' fallback 'System.Text.DecoderReplacementFallback'.
Parameter name: chars"

Now I read several posts abot this stating to have the most current version of Active Reports 3.0 for .NET (which I do). This just started happening today. Here is what I am using:

IDE: VS.NET 2008
OS: Windows Vista Buisness
Active Reports Version: 5.2.1236.2

I restarted Visual Studio and re-built the solution a bunch of times with no success. I have not had any OS updates pushed or updated since yesterday as I do that myself and have automatic updates disabled.

This is not good, so if someone could help assist with this I would appreciate it. Thank you!

Re: HELP: All of my charting reports are now throwing a 'output char buffer is too small' error (with 5.2.1236.2)!!

07-01-2009, 7:45 AM
Well I did the following, and the error has appears not to occur anymore:

1. Deleted ASP.NET Temporary Files from C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\Temporary ASP.NET Files\Root

2. Deleted cached files from C:\Users\[UserName]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\WebsiteCache

3. Rebooted the machine

4. Cleaned and re-built the solution.

Not sure what caused this, but it seems to rear its ugly head with these charting controls every few months (according to older posts) even with the newest .dll versions. This needs to have a close eye kept on it.

Re: HELP: All of my charting reports are now throwing a 'output char buffer is too small' error (with 5.2.1236.2)!!

10-14-2009, 9:10 AM
By the way... this SAME issue reared its ugly head again today just out of no where. The main difference now is that I am using Active Reports 6.0 v6.0.2019.0 which is the newest release of any version.

Luckily I found my own post, and following the solution from my last post fixed it again.

Again, somebody may want to keep an eye on this one, because it seems to be a 'version' independent issue.

Re: HELP: All of my charting reports are now throwing a 'output char buffer is too small' error (with 5.2.1236.2)!!

10-14-2009, 11:44 PM
Thank you for the details. I was unable to replicate the issue in the latest build of ActiveReports 6. Could you please provide me the steps to replicate the issue so that I can test it at my end?

Regards,
Ankit Nigam    

Re: HELP: All of my charting reports are now throwing a 'output char buffer is too small' error (with 5.2.1236.2)!!

10-16-2009, 7:58 AM
Unfortunantly, as I mentioned previously this does not happen often and usually occurs out of nowhere one day. I don't know the steps to reproduce the behavior because I never know when it is going to happen. I think it was 3-4 months since the last time it occured.

I believe it has something to do with how ASP.NET caches its files in the Temporary ASP.NET directory that may be causing the issue. As I mentioned, when I followed the steps from my second post, I can get the error to go away.

I know that doesn't help much, but I wanted to just make you all aware that this issue arises infrequently, but it does happen.

Re: HELP: All of my charting reports are now throwing a 'output char buffer is too small' error (with 5.2.1236.2)!!

10-20-2009, 2:24 PM
Hi. Do you have a stacktrace of this error, we don't have such an error in our codebase so we need to see where exactly it's coming from.

Re: HELP: All of my charting reports are now throwing a 'output char buffer is too small' error (with 5.2.1236.2)!!

10-20-2009, 4:35 PM
Also, out of curiosity, is this running on Vista Business x86 or x64?

Thanks,
Jon

Re: HELP: All of my charting reports are now throwing a 'output char buffer is too small' error (with 5.2.1236.2)!!

10-28-2009, 7:03 AM
Arrg, sorry for the delayed response. I do not get emails to replys, so I must have configured something incorrectly.

Yes, I am using Vista Business x86 edition.

Re: HELP: All of my charting reports are now throwing a 'output char buffer is too small' error (with 5.2.1236.2)!!

10-28-2009, 12:30 PM
Hello,

Could you please provide us the stacktrace of the error message so that we can try to analyze the issue better?

Regards,
Ankit Nigam

Re: HELP: All of my charting reports are now throwing a 'output char buffer is too small' error (with 5.2.1236.2)!!

11-12-2009, 2:47 PM
We are seeing this also on Windows Vista and Windows 7. But not every machine, nor every report.

System.ArgumentException: The output char buffer is too small to contain the decoded characters, encoding 'Unicode' fallback 'System.Text.DecoderReplacementFallback'.

Parameter name: chars

    at System.Text.Encoding.ThrowCharsOverflow()

    at System.Text.Encoding.ThrowCharsOverflow(DecoderNLS decoder, Boolean nothingDecoded)

    at System.Text.UnicodeEncoding.GetChars(Byte* bytes, Int32 byteCount, Char* chars, Int32 charCount, DecoderNLS baseDecoder)

    at System.Text.DecoderNLS.GetChars(Byte* bytes, Int32 byteCount, Char* chars, Int32 charCount, Boolean flush)

    at System.Text.DecoderNLS.GetChars(Byte[] bytes, Int32 byteIndex, Int32 byteCount, Char[] chars, Int32 charIndex, Boolean flush)

    at System.Text.DecoderNLS.GetChars(Byte[] bytes, Int32 byteIndex, Int32 byteCount, Char[] chars, Int32 charIndex)

    at System.IO.BinaryReader.InternalReadOneChar()

    at System.IO.BinaryReader.Read()

    at System.IO.BinaryReader.ReadChar()

    at #Rsc.#ab.#jHe(BinaryReader reader)

    at #Rsc.#Usc.#jHe(BinaryReader reader)

    at #4rc.#jsc..ctor(BinaryReader reader, EmfRecordType recordType, Int32 recordSize)

    at #Psc.#Osc.#F2(BinaryReader reader, #8sc renderDevice, TextWriter tracer)

    at #Psc.#Osc.#F2(Metafile metafile, Single width, Single height, #8sc renderDevice, TextWriter tracer)

    at #mqc.#orc.#cxd(Metafile mf, Single x, Single y, Single width, Single height)

    at #mqc.#orc.#Dib(Image image, Single x, Single y, Single width, Single height)

    at DataDynamics.ActiveReports.Export.Pdf.PdfExport.#Isd(#jqc canvasItems, #orc pdfPage, PointF offset, Graphics graphics, #aqc outputContext)

    at DataDynamics.ActiveReports.Export.Pdf.PdfExport.#Gsd(Page page, Graphics graphics, #aqc outputContext)

    at DataDynamics.ActiveReports.Export.Pdf.PdfExport.Export(Document document, Stream stream, String pageRange)

    at DataDynamics.ActiveReports.Export.Pdf.PdfExport.Export(Document document, Stream stream)


This is NOT the same issue that was fixed after the .NET security update. It's just the same call stack. We are running v5.2.1132.2. It only happens on reports with charts.

Rebooting (see the above work-around) seems to get reports generating again on a particular machine exhibiting the problem... at least temporarily. We are stuck only with this lame work-around in order to ship and support our product on Vista.

Would you guys please pull your head out of the sand and acknowledge you have a problem, instead of just telling us that you fixed it and we should get the latest build?

Re: HELP: All of my charting reports are now throwing a 'output char buffer is too small' error (with 5.2.1236.2)!!

11-17-2009, 7:18 AM
Hello,

I would like to inform that Case 138853 has been entered in our system to address this issue. Could you please send us the RPX of the report to aid us in our investigation?

Regards,
Prantik

Re: HELP: All of my charting reports are now throwing a 'output char buffer is too small' error (with 5.2.1236.2)!!

02-01-2010, 2:03 PM
I received this same error again today. However now I am running a new different machine with Windows 7 Ultimate with IE8 and v.6.0.2250.0 of ActiveReports which I believe is your newest version.

I once again found my own post, and followed the procedure laid out before to fix it. With all of the changes I have made there still seems to be an issue.

If this occurs again, but throws me to an ASP.NET error screen with a stack trace, how do I get the .rpx file to you?

Re: HELP: All of my charting reports are now throwing a 'output char buffer is too small' error (with 5.2.1236.2)!!

02-02-2010, 2:34 AM
Hello,

Till now we have not been able to re-create this issue at our end.
Case 138853 has been entered however again it all depends whether we are actually able to re-create the issue or not.
You may send the RPX file to support@grapecity.us.com. Please provide the forum post reference in the subject.
Since your email address has already been added to the list of affected users for this case, so we will definitely inform you about the final outcome.
Amit Pal
GrapeCity- DataDynamics

Re: HELP: All of my charting reports are now throwing a 'output char buffer is too small' error (with 5.2.1236.2)!!

03-03-2010, 1:11 PM
Create any report with a chart and you'll have your RPX. Attached is an example.

The issue is not trivial to reproduce. The same report that causes the error in a few cases will work fine on most computers, most of the time.

It seems like situations with low available physical memory seem to reproduce increase the chance of reproducing this problem.

Once a computer has gotten into that state, however that happens, exporting any report with a chart in it will produce the same error until the next reboot.

I hope that helps.

Re: HELP: All of my charting reports are now throwing a 'output char buffer is too small' error (with 5.2.1236.2)!!

03-04-2010, 11:14 PM
thank you for the RPX.  I have added your RPX and comments in the case. However, I could not replicate the issue at my end. Could you try using the latest build and see if that fixes the problem at your end. The latest build is 5.3.1436.2.

Regards,
Aashish