I recently changed to a new laptop running Win 11, latest version of Sailwave. I normally upload results from Sailwave to my club web results page - has always worked well but suddenly I now get message (The specified file name contains invalid characters or is too long) - I cant see anything different in file names, I tried reducing the file name to a very simple name ‘S1’ but still got the error message. Any ideas?
Steve,
I had a similar situation at the weekend and eventually found there were some invisible characters within the filename. I’ve no idea how they were created.
In the field containing the filename string in the publish dialogue delete all the filename text.
[If using Windows put the cursor in the field and type Ctrl A to select all the characters in the field. Then press Del to delete the selection]
Then type the intended filename and publish. If that doesn’t improve the situation then perhaps you could share the blw file and we can have a look at it.
PS. I identified invisible characters by placing the cursor in the field and then stepped through the text one character at a time using an arrow key. Watch the cursor closely to identify whether it moves or not. If not you have found an invisible character that needs to be deleted. Repeat for the whole string of text.
Good luck.
Richard Evans
Richard
Thanks for your reply and continued support for Sailwave.
I have tried actions you suggested but no change in the error message – see below
I have attached the results file which is generating the error
Thanks for any help
Steve Corbet
SOLO Evening 2022 jc.blw (50.4 KB)
Hi Steve,
I have download the file you attached to your post. I tried uploading the results to the Sailwave server and was successful. However the information dialogue boxes looked odd. I selected everything in the file name box and typed a new file name and the upload info boxes then looked like what I would expect.
I think there was some hidden / invisible character or two and the beginning of your file name. I will investigate more shortly when I transfer the file to a system I can look at file in more detail.
Kind regards,
Huw
SOLO Evening 2022 jc.blw (50.3 KB)
Hi Steve,
I have looked further into the file name SE22.htm you were trying to upload and I confirm it had multiple hidden characters at the start. Look at line starting “serftpfile”
Kind regards,
Huw
Huw
Thanks for the reply and diagnosis – I have tried to clear the file name in the Publish window but as I cant see any of these hidden characters how do I know if it is cleared? Would a complete reinstallation od Sailwave and creating new results files be a solution?
Thanks Steve
Hi Steve,
No need for complete re-installation of Sailwave 
Place cursor at right hand end of text in this box, then press and hold down the delete key until nothing shows BUT keep pressing until cursor stops flashing - holding down until cursor stops flashing is important as until that happens there are still invisible characters in the box…
Now type in the name you want the file to have.
Hopefully everything should now be OK.
Kind regards,
Huw
You aren’t copying and pasting the file name?
As opposed to typing the file name, as Huw suggests.
Malcom
Thanks for a reply, I have tried deleting possible hidden characters, typed in new file names, copied old file names and tried re up loading old files all with same response from SailWave that the file name is too long or has illegal characters and I get the same message when using both my laptop or main desk computers. There is obviously something fundamentally wrong somewhere with my system.
Thanks Steve
Richard
Thanks for a reply, I have tried deleting possible hidden characters, typed in new file names, copied old file names and tried re up-loading old files all with same response from SailWave that the file name is too long or has illegal characters and I get the same message when using both my laptop or main desk computers. There is obviously something fundamentally wrong somewhere with my system.
Regards Steve Corbet
Huw
Still didn’t work!! Thanks for a reply, I have tried deleting possible hidden characters, typed in new file names, copied old file names and tried re up loading old files all with same response from SailWave that the file name is too long or has illegal characters and I get the same message when using both my laptop or main desk computers. There is obviously something fundamentally wrong somewhere with my system.
Steve
Hi Steve,
Sorry that you are still having a problem. If you send the Sailwave file, I will take another look. I will modify file for bad file name and send it back.
You have to hold down the delete for quite a few seconds before the cursor stops flickering/flashing to get rid of the hidden characters, there are a lot of them (when I counted there are 121). Just deleting the visible characters will not work.
Kind regards,
Huw
Huw
Still getting same error message here are two files that have previously loaded with these file names
Thanks Steve
SOLO Summer 2022.blw (52.5 KB)
SOLO Evening 2022.blw (50.3 KB)
Steve,
Both these files publish correctly to our server although the burgee images don’t display. There aren’t any invisible characters in the publish filename field that I can find.
Are you able to publish series results from any other Sailwave files? If not then I wonder whether the problem is in the “Global Setup” for FTP and that there are invisible characters within the “Base URL” field or any other field where a folder path is provided.
Steve,
I looked at your original attached BLW file. It uses ANSI encoding. The
other 2 BLW files posted by you use UTF-8 encoding. The file posted by
Huw purports to be the one you sent but it is different in that it uses
UTF-8 encoding. I suspect that is the problem but I don’t know what
would cause ANSI encoding to be used for that one file.
The file you uploaded is ANSI and has hidden characters (explicit
instructions for detecting below). The file Huw uploaded is basically
the same except the encoding is changed to UTF-8 and the additional
characters (which would be visible with UTF-8 encoding) are removed.
Your original =
https://forum.sailingresults.co.uk/uploads/short-url/u7igVT9AVaYOZ3y9dT9sBkPia9S.blw
Huw’s =
https://forum.sailingresults.co.uk/uploads/short-url/zdNAn0BW5F2vpDpuJasAHAbO0Iu.blw
A TEST - download Huw’s file and then try opening and uploading that.
Should be no problem.
I’ve taken your file and converted to UTF-8 encoding (I used Notepad++
and did nothing else to the file). That makes the characters hidden
under ANSI encoding visible. You can load that into Sailwave and you’ll
see the “hidden” characters at the start of your upload file name. I’m
attaching and hoping that will come through.
Detection - Open your original file. Go to the upload filename box. Put
your cursor anywhere in the box and hold down the left-arrow key for 30
seconds. That will put you at the beginning of the actual name
(including any hidden characters). Now press the right-arrow key once
and the cursor does not appear to move. Actually, it just moved over the
1st hidden character. If you now hit backspace it will delete that
hidden character. Continue until there are no more hidden characters
(i.e., when you hit the right-arrow key it skips over the “S” in your
file name).
I couldn’t find an easy way to convert an ANSI encoded file to UTF-8
using standard Windows programs. Notepad, Wordpad and Word all seem to
convert to something called UTF-8 BOM, which could cause compatibility
issues. When I create a new Sailwave series the BLW file is always UTF-8
so this shouldn’t be problem for new files, only copies of your bad file.
Good sailing,
Art
SOLO Evening 2022 jc_UTF-8.blw (50.5 KB)
A quick follow-up - I gave up too soon on converting from ANSI to UTF-8.
This worked for me (I am Win7 but later versions ought to be the same):
I opened the BLW file using Wordpad (when you view the filename field
[search “htm”] you can see the extra characters as they show up as
spaces). You could edit them out but you would still have the problem of
hidden characters in the future. So, save the file as non-ANSI. With
Wordpad:
- Click “Save as”
- Click “other formats”
- Pick MS-DOS text option (the extension will be TXT but we’ll change
that). - Go to the saved file and change the extension from “txt” to “blw.”
Your BLW file should now use UTF-8 encoding and there shouldn’t be any
hidden characters in the future (i.e., you can now use to create a new
series).
Good sailing,
Art
Art
Thanks for ideas but I cant find how to change the extension from TXT to BLW? I am using Win 11 and have stored the file on Desktop for easy access??
Thanks Steve
Steve,
In File Explorer, go to View / Show / File name extensions
I did all this. I still get the error.
Hi Paul,
Welcome to the SUG.
Please can you give more detail on your problem uploading by FTP?
Error messages would be helpful as well.
Are you trying to publish to the Sailwave website or to a club/class/event hosting platform?
Kind regards,
Huw