Hi Viktor,

Thanks for following up - I will check the project and make sure the correct versions are in the register tag and in the web.config.  I'll let you know the results.

I'm the one that submitted the bug as well - my graphics designers were extremely unhappy they had to use Visual Studio once Expression Web 2 started breaking the ASPX pages.

Hi Emmanuel,

That list looks okay to me. It contains WebUI.Shared.v9.1, WebUI.Design.v9.1, WebUI.WebHtmlEditor.v9.1 and WebUI.WebHtmlEditor.Design.v9.1. To maintain/check GAC I do not use any tool, but plain Windows Explore. GAC is the c:\windows\assembly directory and files located in it can be dragged into it by mouse or removed by delete key. That is more reliable than any help tools.

I am not sure about caching abilities of "Expression Web 2", but those features of VisualStudio is real pain in the neck. In some situations it is next to impossible to get rid of cached dlls and design dlls are the worst. If recompiled/updated control-dlls go to GAC, then I personally before testing any change in designers, do following:
1. Close VisualStudio
2. If IIS is running, then stop it, or go to TaskManager and kill ASPX in Processes.
3. Open Explore and delete all files at
C:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\Temporary ASP.NET Files
4. Delete all files at
C:\Documents and Settings\viktors\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\WebsiteCache
4a. VisualStudio2003/2005 had few other places which should be cleaned as well.
5. Open test website in VisialStudio.
6. (if dlls were registered by external program/installation, then that can be not enough).

Both "Expression Web 2" and VisualStudio are products of Microsoft, so, there is a chance that both of them use caching. I do not know anything about cache locations of Expression. It was quite a challenge to find locations used by VisualStudio, which I listed above. (Though, my guess can be wrong and Expression does not use cache;)

I am not sure what I can do else for you. I tested both Infragistics2...v9.1 and Infragistics35...v9.1 dlls with exactly same results. To test I used attached project which contained 3 files: aspx, aspx.cs and web.config. The aspx contained only one WebHtmlEditor without any extra properties, cs was empty and web.config contained references to dlls.
I copied those files to a directory on my machine, adjusted versions in web.config and aspx to match with versions of dlls located on my machine, opened "Expression Web 2". File->Open Site->my directory. Double click on Default.aspx->Design view (WebHtmlEditor appeared fine)->modified properties of editor->saved->closed Expression->Opened it again->opened Default.aspx. WebHtmlEditor appeared as it was saved before without any exceptions or  

Viktor Snezhko"]

  [...]To test I used attached project which contained 3 files: aspx, aspx.cs and web.config.

Where is the attachment?

Hi Emmanuel,

I have WindowsXP and Microsoft Expression Web 2 (12.0.4518.1084) MSO (12.0.6320.5000).

After cleaning cache used by VisualStudio (directories which I refered before) and opening/closing website in Expressions, I found that Expressions uses exactly same directories as VisualStudio and creates temporary files at those locations.

I tried following: removed dlls for a particular version of WebHtmlEditor (shared, editor, design and editor-design files) from GAC, copied those dlls into local bin, adjusted references in web.config and aspx files in external editor, reboot my machine and opened website in Expressions. I got exception with generated " " similarly as in my initial tests when I had deliberately mismatching dlls. At this point behavior of Expressions became very strange. It started to generate and insert into aspx second Register with short version of dll, like

<%@ Register assembly="Infragistics2.WebUI.WebHtmlEditor.v9.1" namespace="Infragistics.WebUI.WebHtmlEditor" tagprefix="ighedit" %> 

Attempts to remove that dummy Register line manually, save aspx, reopened aspx, etc. did not help and Register persisted and it was regenerated again. If &nbsp; sometimes were not generated, then 2 new lines were inserted between tags of WebHtmlEditor on every aspx opening.

I tried to remove WebHtmlEditor (or remove all dummy &nbsp;) in Code view and switch do design view. Couple of times it worked and after that, the problem with "&nbsp;" disappeared. However, it could happen again after few close/open actions.
I experimented with different versions of dlls, with mixed bin and GAC locations, but I could not figure out what exactly triggers that behavior and exception in Expressions. It could unpredictably fall back into &nbsp; bug.

It looks like that Expressions fails to load custom-control-designer dll on the very first opening of aspx (late binding or whatever technology of Microsoft).
From my interactions with VisualStudio2008: while testing a website I do not use short versions of dlls in Register and I do not use local bin. Because if control or control-designer dll was recompiled, then VisualStudio2008 designer stops to work. Though, that used to work perfectly in VisualStudio2003/2005.  And VisualStudio2003/2005 had opposite problem: local bin worked much better than GAC. Maybe Expressions has similar preferences.

The only reliable case which I found was following

1. clean up cache directories ("WebsiteCache" and "Temporary ASP.NET Files")
2. remove all files from bin
3. adjust versions in web.config and aspx to version located in GAC
4. clean up asxp from &nbsp; (use not corrupted file)
5. (maybe usefull) reboot machine

Ok, I figured it out!  In addition to everything I did above, I made sure that certain Infragistics tags were not across multiple lines - for example, inside the <toolbar> property, instead of:

            <ighedit:ToolbarDialogButton runat="server" Type="FontColor" Font-Bold="False" Font-Italic="False" Font-Overline="False" Font-Strikeout="False" Font-Underline="False">           
              <Dialog Font-Bold="False" Font-Italic="False" Font-Overline="False" Font-Strikeout="False" Font-Underline="False"></Dialog>
            </ighedit:ToolbarDialogButton>

I deleted the carriage return/line feeds and made sure the tag was in one line - like this:

            <ighedit:ToolbarDialogButton runat="server" Type="FontColor" Font-Bold="False" Font-Italic="False" Font-Overline="False" Font-Strikeout="False" Font-Underline="False"><Dialog Font-Bold="False" Font-Italic="False" Font-Overline="False" Font-Strikeout="False" Font-Underline="False"></Dialog></ighedit:ToolbarDialogButton>

Saved it and boom!  - the moment I opened it in Expression Web 2 there were no errors and the WebHtmlEditor rendered in Design mode.

The forums software only lets me "attach" one URL/screenshot, here's the second one where the WebHtmlEditor with properties works fine in Visual Studio 2008.

Also I was getting an error at runtime, so I had to add this back to the Web.Config (under compilation > assemblies):

        <add assembly="Infragistics35.WebUI.Shared.v9.1, Version=9.1.20091.2040, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=7dd5c3163f2cd0cb"/>

Viktor,

I made some progress - I can now open an ASPX page in Expression Web 2 without getting the "&nbsp; literal content is not allowed" error.  Unfortunately, this only works for a simple webhtmleditor control - like this:

<ighedit:webhtmleditor ID="WebHtmlEditor1" runat="server" ImageDirectory="images/htmleditor/"></ighedit:webhtmleditor>

When I try to open a more complex page, where I'm specifying the toolbar items and the right click menu, I get the error again.

I also attach two screenshots that show how both instances of the WebHtmlEditor are properly rendered in Visual Studio 2008, but only the simple control (without any properties set) work in Expression Web 2.

Any other ideas?  This does not seem to be a problem with Expression Web 2 or

Emmanuel

Here's what I did so far:

1. Uninstalled previous versions of the Infragistics ASP.NET controls (I had 7.3 installed)
2. Checked the GAC and made sure on versions 2 and 3.5 of 9.1.20091.2040 were present.
3. Removed all Infragistic DLLs from the local "bin" directory.
4. Made sure the Visual Studio 2008 project only referenced the DLLs from C:\Program Files (x86)\Infragistics\NetAdvantage for .NET 2009.1\ASP.NET\CLR3.5\Bin - here's an example:

    <Reference Include="Infragistics35.WebUI.WebHtmlEditor.v9.1, Version=9.1.20091.2040, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=7dd5c3163f2cd0cb, processorArchitecture=MSIL">
      <HintPath>C:\Program Files (x86)\Infragistics\NetAdvantage for .NET 2009.1\ASP.NET\CLR3.5\Bin\Infragistics35.WebUI.WebHtmlEditor.v9.1.dll</HintPath>
      <SpecificVersion>False</SpecificVersion>
      <Private>False</Private>
    </Reference>

 5. Removed all references of Infragistics Dlls from the Web.Config - this included:

Infragistics.WebUI.UltraWebNavigator.UltraWebMenu, Infragistics2.WebUI.UltraWebNavigator.v7.3, Version=7.3.20073.38, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=7dd5c3163f2cd0cb

<configSections>

<section name="infragistics.web" type="System.Configuration.SingleTagSectionHandler,System, Version=1.0.3300.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089"/>

<compilation debug="true" strict="false" explicit="true">

<assemblies>

<add assembly="Infragistics35.WebUI.UltraWebNavigator.v9.1, Version=9.1.20091.2040, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=7dd5c3163f2cd0cb"/>

<add assembly="Infragistics35.WebUI.Shared.v9.1, Version=9.1.20091.2040, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=7dd5c3163f2cd0cb"/>

<add assembly="Infragistics35.WebUI.UltraWebToolbar.v9.1, Version=9.1.20091.2040, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=7dd5c3163f2cd0cb"/>

<add assembly="Infragistics35.WebUI.WebCombo.v9.1, Version=9.1.20091.2040, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=7dd5c3163f2cd0cb"/>

<add assembly="Infragistics35.WebUI.WebHtmlEditor.v9.1, Version=9.1.20091.2040, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=7dd5c3163f2cd0cb"/>

<add assembly="Infragistics35.WebUI.WebSpellChecker.v9.1, Version=9.1.20091.2040, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=7dd5c3163f2cd0cb"/>

6. Verified that the GAC only had the 9.1.20091.2040 versions (of both Infragistics2 and Infragistics35 DLLs).

7. Stopped IIS and deleted all files in C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\Temporary ASP.NET Files

8. Deleted all files in C:\Documents and Settings\emmanuel_huna\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\WebsiteCache

9. Verified that no Infragistics DLLs are present in C:\vss\Cep\CepAdmin\main\bin (changed references in Visual Studio Project so "Copy Local = False".

Here's the simple WebHtmlEditor that does work:

<ighedit:webhtmleditor ID="WebHtmlEditor1" runat="server" ImageDirectory="images/htmleditor/"></ighedit:webhtmleditor>

Here's the WebHtmlEditor with more complex options defined that does not work:

                <ighedit:WebHtmlEditor
                  ID="txtNotes" runat="server" ImageDirectory="images/htmleditor/"
                  FontFormattingList="Heading 1=<h1>&Heading 2=<h2>&Heading 3=<h3>&Heading 4=<h4>&Heading 5=<h5>&Normal=<p>"
                  FontNameList="Arial,Verdana,Tahoma,Courier New,Georgia" FontSizeList="1,2,3,4,5,6,7"
                  FontStyleList="Blue Underline=color:blue;text-decoration:underline;&Red Bold=color:red;font-weight:bold;&ALL CAPS=text-transform:uppercase;&all lowercase=text-transform:lowercase;&Reset=" SpecialCharacterList="&#937;,&#931;,&#916;,&#934;,&#915;,&#936;,&#928;,&#920;,&#926;,&#923;,&#958;,&#956;,&#951;,&#966;,&#969;,&#949;,&#952;,&#948;,&#950;,&#968;,&#946;,&#960;,&#963;,&szlig;,&thorn;,&THORN;,&#402,&#1046;,&#1064;,&#1070;,&#1071;,&#1078;,&#1092;,&#1096;,&#1102;,&#1103;,&#12362;,&#12354;,&#32117;,&AElig;,&Aring;,&Ccedil;,&ETH;,&Ntilde;,&Ouml;,&aelig;,&aring;,&atilde;,&ccedil;,&eth;,&euml;,&ntilde;,&cent;,&pound;,&curren;,&yen;,&#8470;,&#153;,&copy;,&reg;,&#151;,@,&#149;,&iexcl;,&#14;,&#8592;,&#8593;,&#8594;,&#8595;,&#8596;,&#8597;,&#8598;,&#8599;,&#8600;,&#8601;,&#18;,&brvbar;,&sect;,&uml;,&ordf;,&not;,&macr;,&para;,&deg;,&plusmn;,&laquo;,&raquo;,&middot;,&cedil;,&ordm;,&sup1;,&sup2;,&sup3;,&frac14;,&frac12;,&frac34;,&iquest;,&times;,&divide;"
                  Width="546px" Height="200px" SecureConnection="True">
                <DropDownStyle Font-Bold="False" Font-Italic="False" Font-Overline="False" Font-Strikeout="False" Font-Underline="False" />
                <ProgressBar Font-Bold="False" Font-Italic="False" Font-Overline="False" Font-Strikeout="False" Font-Underline="False" />
          <DownlevelTextArea Font-Bold="False" Font-Italic="False" Font-Overline="False" Font-Strikeout="False" Font-Underline="False" />
          <TextWindow Font-Bold="False" Font-Italic="False" Font-Overline="False" Font-Strikeout="False" Font-Underline="False" />
          <DownlevelLabel Font-Bold="False" Font-Italic="False" Font-Overline="False" Font-Strikeout="False" Font-Underline="False" />
          <RightClickMenu Font-Bold="False" Font-Italic="False" Font-Overline="False" Font-Strikeout="False" Font-Underline="False">
                <ighedit:HtmlBoxMenuItem runat="server" Act="Cut" Font-Bold="False" Font-Italic="False" Font-Overline="False" Font-Strikeout="False" Font-Underline="False">
              <Dialog Font-Bold="False" Font-Italic="False" Font-Overline="False" Font-Strikeout="False" Font-Underline="False"></Dialog>
            </ighedit:HtmlBoxMenuItem>
            <ighedit:HtmlBoxMenuItem runat="server" Act="Copy" Font-Bold="False" Font-Italic="False" Font-Overline="False" Font-Strikeout="False" Font-Underline="False">
              <Dialog Font-Bold="False" Font-Italic="False" Font-Overline="False" Font-Strikeout="False" Font-Underline="False"></Dialog>
            </ighedit:HtmlBoxMenuItem>
            <ighedit:HtmlBoxMenuItem runat="server" Act="Paste" Font-Bold="False" Font-Italic="False" Font-Overline="False" Font-Strikeout="False" Font-Underline="False">
              <Dialog Font-Bold="False" Font-Italic="False" Font-Overline="False" Font-Strikeout="False" Font-Underline="False"></Dialog>
            </ighedit:HtmlBoxMenuItem>
            <ighedit:HtmlBoxMenuItem runat="server" Act="PasteHtml" Font-Bold="False" Font-Italic="False" Font-Overline="False" Font-Strikeout="False" Font-Underline="False">
              <Dialog Font-Bold="False" Font-Italic="False" Font-Overline="False" Font-Strikeout="False" Font-Underline="False"></Dialog>
            </ighedit:HtmlBoxMenuItem>
            <ighedit:HtmlBoxMenuItem runat="server" Act="CellProperties" Font-Bold="False" Font-Italic="False" Font-Overline="False" Font-Strikeout="False" Font-Underline="False">
              <Dialog InternalDialogType="CellProperties" Font-Bold="False" Font-Italic="False" Font-Overline="False" Font-Strikeout="False" Font-Underline="False"></Dialog>
            </ighedit:HtmlBoxMenuItem>
            <ighedit:HtmlBoxMenuItem runat="server" Act="TableProperties" Font-Bold="False" Font-Italic="False" Font-Overline="False" Font-Strikeout="False" Font-Underline="False">
              <Dialog InternalDialogType="ModifyTable" Font-Bold="False" Font-Italic="False" Font-Overline="False" Font-Strikeout="False" Font-Underline="False"></Dialog>
            </ighedit:HtmlBoxMenuItem>
            <ighedit:HtmlBoxMenuItem runat="server" Act="InsertImage" Font-Bold="False" Font-Italic="False" Font-Overline="False" Font-Strikeout="False" Font-Underline="False">
              <Dialog Font-Bold="False" Font-Italic="False" Font-Overline="False" Font-Strikeout="False" Font-Underline="False"></Dialog>
            </ighedit:HtmlBoxMenuItem>
          </RightClickMenu>
          <Toolbar Font-Bold="False" Font-Italic="False" Font-Overline="False" Font-Strikeout="False" Font-Underline="False">
                <ighedit:ToolbarImage runat="server" Type="DoubleSeparator" Font-Bold="False" Font-Italic="False" Font-Overline="False" Font-Strikeout="False" Font-Underline="False"></ighedit:ToolbarImage>
            <ighedit:ToolbarButton runat="server" Type="Bold" Font-Bold="False" Font-Italic="False" Font-Overline="False" Font-Strikeout="False" Font-Underline="False"></ighedit:ToolbarButton>
            <ighedit:ToolbarButton runat="server" Type="Italic" Font-Bold="False" Font-Italic="False" Font-Overline="False" Font-Strikeout="False" Font-Underline="False"></ighedit:ToolbarButton>
            <ighedit:ToolbarButton runat="server" Type="Underline" Font-Bold="False" Font-Italic="False" Font-Overline="False" Font-Strikeout="False" Font-Underline="False"></ighedit:ToolbarButton>
            <ighedit:ToolbarImage runat="server" Type="Separator" Font-Bold="False" Font-Italic="False" Font-Overline="False" Font-Strikeout="False" Font-Underline="False"></ighedit:ToolbarImage>
            <ighedit:ToolbarImage runat="server" Type="Separator" Font-Bold="False" Font-Italic="False" Font-Overline="False" Font-Strikeout="False" Font-Underline="False"></ighedit:ToolbarImage>
            <ighedit:ToolbarButton runat="server" Type="Cut" Font-Bold="False" Font-Italic="False" Font-Overline="False" Font-Strikeout="False" Font-Underline="False"></ighedit:ToolbarButton>
            <ighedit:ToolbarButton runat="server" Type="Copy" Font-Bold="False" Font-Italic="False" Font-Overline="False" Font-Strikeout="False" Font-Underline="False"></ighedit:ToolbarButton>
            <ighedit:ToolbarButton runat="server" Type="Paste" Font-Bold="False" Font-Italic="False" Font-Overline="False" Font-Strikeout="False" Font-Underline="False"></ighedit:ToolbarButton>
            <ighedit:ToolbarImage runat="server" Type="Separator" Font-Bold="False" Font-Italic="False" Font-Overline="False" Font-Strikeout="False" Font-Underline="False"></ighedit:ToolbarImage>
            <ighedit:ToolbarButton runat="server" Type="Undo" Font-Bold="False" Font-Italic="False" Font-Overline="False" Font-Strikeout="False" Font-Underline="False"></ighedit:ToolbarButton>
            <ighedit:ToolbarButton runat="server" Type="Redo" Font-Bold="False" Font-Italic="False" Font-Overline="False" Font-Strikeout="False" Font-Underline="False"></ighedit:ToolbarButton>
            <ighedit:ToolbarImage runat="server" Type="Separator" Font-Bold="False" Font-Italic="False" Font-Overline="False" Font-Strikeout="False" Font-Underline="False"></ighedit:ToolbarImage>
            <ighedit:ToolbarButton runat="server" Type="Indent" Font-Bold="False" Font-Italic="False" Font-Overline="False" Font-Strikeout="False" Font-Underline="False"></ighedit:ToolbarButton>
            <ighedit:ToolbarButton runat="server" Type="Outdent" Font-Bold="False" Font-Italic="False" Font-Overline="False" Font-Strikeout="False" Font-Underline="False"></ighedit:ToolbarButton>
            <ighedit:ToolbarImage runat="server" Type="Separator" Font-Bold="False" Font-Italic="False" Font-Overline="False" Font-Strikeout="False" Font-Underline="False"></ighedit:ToolbarImage>
            <ighedit:ToolbarButton runat="server" Type="OrderedList" Font-Bold="False" Font-Italic="False" Font-Overline="False" Font-Strikeout="False" Font-Underline="False"></ighedit:ToolbarButton>
            <ighedit:ToolbarDialogButton runat="server" Type="FontColor" Font-Bold="False" Font-Italic="False" Font-Overline="False" Font-Strikeout="False" Font-Underline="False">           
              <Dialog Font-Bold="False" Font-Italic="False" Font-Overline="False" Font-Strikeout="False" Font-Underline="False"></Dialog>
            </ighedit:ToolbarDialogButton>
            <ighedit:ToolbarDialogButton runat="server" Type="FontHighlight" Font-Bold="False" Font-Italic="False" Font-Overline="False" Font-Strikeout="False" Font-Underline="False">
              <Dialog Font-Bold="False" Font-Italic="False" Font-Overline="False" Font-Strikeout="False" Font-Underline="False"></Dialog>
            </ighedit:ToolbarDialogButton>
          </Toolbar>
          <TabStrip Font-Bold="False" Font-Italic="False" Font-Overline="False" Font-Strikeout="False" Font-Underline="False" />
        </ighedit:WebHtmlEditor>

Viktor,

I never attached any projects - the customer support representative must have created one for you.

For the project that worked for you:

1)What version of Expression Web 2 were you using?  I am currently seeing in Help > About: "Microsoft Expression Web 2 (12.0.6329.5000), MSO (12.0.6320.5000)".

2) Were the Infragistics DLLs present in the "bin" directory?  This is our current deployment process (Infragistics DLLs come from source control).  I am ok changing this process, but I need to know whether you had the DLLs in the bin directory or not.

3) Did you try this on Vista 64 bits?  This our current development environment.  Blend 2.0 and the WPF XamChart act differently on Vista 64 bits and XP 32 bits - I need to know if this might be the case here as well.