SyndicationFeed RSS Reader pubDate: error was encountered when parsing a datetime value

Question

I'm developing simple C# application which will present rss feeds. I have problem reading rss feeds from some web pages. The problem comes when parsing pubDate: Error in line 1 position 829. An error was encountered when parsing a DateTime value in the XML.

        XmlReader reader = XmlReader.Create("http://vest.com.mk/rssGenerator/");
        SyndicationFeed feed = SyndicationFeed.Load(reader);

        foreach (var item in feed.Items)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(item.Title.Text);
            Console.WriteLine(item.Id.ToString());
            Console.WriteLine(item.PublishDate.ToString("dd/MM/yyyy"));
            Console.WriteLine();
        }

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 08 '12 at 20:58

You could do these things to get more information,

Post the exception message to your problem description.
Add a try catch around the code, and log the urls that fail.
If there are any failing urls, try visit them looking for any 404s or anything out of the ordinary.

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Dec 05 '12 at 23:27

0

By looking at the code you pasted and the fact that your calling a bunch of feeds, my guess is that the PublishDate property might be null or returning a date format that can't be parsed.

Try checking for a null value on the DateFormat property.

answered Dec 05 '12 at 23:27

swallentin

211
2
6

I tried to remove `Console.WriteLine(item.PublishDate.ToString("dd/MM/yyyy"));` but I got the same error. The error comes in this line `SyndicationFeed feed = SyndicationFeed.Load(reader);` – Mega Dec 05 '12 at 23:48

SyndicationFeed RSS Reader pubDate: error was encountered when parsing a datetime value

2 Answers2