After running the ESEF export, Tangelo presents an error that it encountered an error during ESEF conversion. You can see the ESEF message log, but cannot download the ESEF or see the inline viewer to check your ESEF settings.
The reasons for the error can vary but the most common is that a graph or an image is not working. Most common is a graph that is broken in Tangelo.
How to investigate
The following steps can only be done when the user is in development mode.
After the error has occured, go to the system properties of Tangelo. There you will find the log files of Tangelo. Download the txd.log file and open it.
When you open the file in a text editor, scroll down to the end of the file. There you will find the state of the last action that Tangelo did. Please not that when multiple users are working in Tangelo at the same time, the end of the file can contain there actions. So a little bit of scrolling and searching can be required.
In the file above, we see that there is an error and that this is an ESEF error, since the proclamation is DocumentEsefController.java. At the end of the line, the error message is displayed. In this case it's ESEFMSG-111. (see a list of error codes here)
When we look at that specific error, it says: Error while creating the preview or modifying the filing pack.
This points towards something that could not be rendered. Suspects are a graph, table or an image that is mandatory but not added in Tangelo.
Finding the error source
Scrolling through the log file will show what the error is, since all the lines indicate an assignment from the system that is being processed. Look for a warning, or a failed state likely to be indicated with caused by:....
Here the caused by is out of line of the rest of the text so it's easier to find.
The above example says:
at nl.tangelo.commons.xslt.TransformationPlant3.doTransform(TransformationPlant3.java:182) ~[tan_common.jar:?]
... 11 more
Caused by: nl.tangelo.hce.exception.HceTransformationException: net.sf.saxon.trans.XPathException: An empty sequence is not allowed as the value of variable $data.categories
It says there is a error because we have a cause tranformational assignment by the system, since we don't have a new assignment on the next line but a Caused by: we know there is something wrong.
at nl.tangelo.commons.xslt.TransformationPlant3.doTransform(TransformationPlant3.java:182) ~[tan_common.jar:?]
... 11 more
Caused by: nl.tangelo.hce.exception.HceTransformationException: net.sf.saxon.trans.XPathException: An empty sequence is not allowed as the value of variable $data.categories
The error states that there is and exeption in the transformation of a HCE component:
at nl.tangelo.commons.xslt.TransformationPlant3.doTransform(TransformationPlant3.java:182) ~[tan_common.jar:?]
... 11 more
Caused by: nl.tangelo.hce.exception.HceTransformationException: net.sf.saxon.trans.XPathException: An empty sequence is not allowed as the value of variable $data.categories
It also states that an empty sequence is not allowed as value of a specific element, in this case a HCE element. It also states that the values that are empty are data categories.
at nl.tangelo.commons.xslt.TransformationPlant3.doTransform(TransformationPlant3.java:182) ~[tan_common.jar:?]
... 11 more
Caused by: nl.tangelo.hce.exception.HceTransformationException: net.sf.saxon.trans.XPathException: An empty sequence is not allowed as the value of variable $data.categories
HCE stands for Hight Charts Element, these are the charts. The empty sequence indicates that there is a chart in the document that is broken, it contains empty data and therefor can not rendered. Since unrendered images are not allowed in your ESEF filing, Tangelo will stop and will not generate the ESEF files.
How to find the broken element
In the case of a graph, it is fairly easy. A broken chart displays an icon in the PDF. So run a full PDF and through it and search for the broken graph element.
Then you will know where the broken graphs are, fix them and rerun ESEF again.
This can also happen with tables or images that are mandatory for ESEF but have not yet been added to Tangelo. In that case also run a full PDF and go through the document to see if there are any images missing. Mandatory images often display an error message in de PDF instead of the image. Add the images and rerun ESEF again.
The process for tables is similar to that of images.