AdRotator Standard Control

Introduction

Recently, I was working on AdRotator control in Asp.Net 2.0 at one stage while adding an Ads.xml file.

I noticed the following error.

Error

The AdRotator adRtrCtrl/adRotator1 could not find the AdvertisementFile or the file was invalid.

Possible causes

  1. Check the XML file to see if it is in well format.
  2. Check <NavigateUrl> tag if it is of the form http://www.csharpcorner.com/adv=Y&ID=123.
    The ampersand & is a reserved charactor in XML, so you have to use &amp.
  3. If the nature of your XML file is something of the form as listed below.
<Advertisements>
  <Adv>
    <ImageUrl>Images/1.gif</ImageUrl>
    <NavigateUrl>http://www.c-sharpcorner.com</NavigateUrl>
    <Alt>Csharp code</Alt>
    <Caption>Csharp Site</Caption>
  </Adv>
</Advertisements>

If the first element in the above file is other than <Ad>, then it also gives an error. It has to have the very first child element as <Ad>; this is what I have observed with the code.

Example

<Advertisements>
  <Ad>
    <ImageUrl>Images/1.gif</ImageUrl>
    <NavigateUrl>http://www.c-sharpcorner.com</NavigateUrl>
    <Alt>Csharp code</Alt>
    <Caption>Csharp Site</Caption>
  </Ad>
</Advertisements>

Code for Default. aspx

<%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeFile="Default.aspx.cs" Inherits="_Default" %>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
    <title>Untitled Page</title>
</head>
<body>
    <form id="form1" runat="server">
        <div style="text-align: left">
            &nbsp;
            <table>
                <tr>
                    <td style="width: 259px">
                        <asp:Label ID="Label1" runat="server" Font-Names="Verdana" Font-Size="Smaller"
                            Text="AdRotator Component randomly picks up ad banners from XML file and clicking on banner takes to the specified URL"
                            Width="301px"></asp:Label>
                    </td>
                    <td style="width: 496px">
                        <asp:AdRotator ID="adRtrCtrl" Target="_self" runat="Server" />
                    </td>
                </tr>
            </table>
        </div>
    </form>
</body>
</html>

Code for Ads.xml file

<Advertisements>
    <Ad>
        <ImageUrl>Images/1.gif</ImageUrl>
        <NavigateUrl>http://www.c-sharpcorner.com</NavigateUrl>
        <Alt>Csharp code</Alt>
        <Caption>Csharp Site</Caption>
    </Ad>
    <Ad>
        <ImageUrl>Images/1.gif</ImageUrl>
        <NavigateUrl>http://www.vbdotnetheaven.com</NavigateUrl>
        <Alt>VB.Net</Alt>
        <Caption>Visual Basic</Caption>
    </Ad>
    <Ad>
        <ImageUrl>Images/3.gif</ImageUrl>
        <NavigateUrl>http://www.c-sharpcorner.com</NavigateUrl>
        <Alt>Csharp code</Alt>
        <Caption>Csharp Site</Caption>
    </Ad>
    <Ad>
        <ImageUrl>Images/4.gif</ImageUrl>
        <NavigateUrl>http://www.mindcracker.com</NavigateUrl>
        <Alt>.Net Professional Job Site</Alt>
        <Caption>VS.Net</Caption>
    </Ad>
</Advertisements>

Note. I have tested the code 5-6 times with the above error.


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