Manage Email Signatures centrally from your Desktop - For All Users

cthauber · Posted: Thu Sep 03, 2009 2:24 pm Post subject: OWA 2007 issue

I know this is a Exchange/OWA 2003 forum, but I didn't see a better place to post this.
Anyway, we have just rolled the email signature to our Citrix organization (about 160 users), and around 40 users are strictly OWA.
We have setup the plugin for Exchange 2007 OWA, and for the most part it is working great, however, there are 2 users that now get the following when logging in to OWA (Outlook client has no issues).

'The item that you attempted to access appears to be corrupted and cannot be accessed.'

The following is the details of the error

Exception
Exception type: Microsoft.Exchange.Data.Storage.CorruptDataException
Exception message: The configuration dictionary serialization failed. Exception = System.Xml.XmlException: An error occurred while parsing EntityName. Line 31, position 40. at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.Throw(Exception e) at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ParseEntityName() at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ParseAttributeValueSlow(Int32 curPos, Char quoteChar, NodeData attr) at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ParseAttributes() at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ParseElement() at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ParseElementContent() at Microsoft.Exchange.Data.Storage.ConfigurationDictionary.ReadXml(XmlReader reader) at Microsoft.Exchange.Data.Storage.UserConfiguration.DeserializeDictionary(Byte[] data) at Microsoft.Exchange.Data.Storage.UserConfiguration.InternalGetDictionary().

Call stack

Microsoft.Exchange.Data.Storage.UserConfiguration.InternalGetDictionary()
Microsoft.Exchange.Data.Storage.UserConfiguration.GetDictionary()
Microsoft.Exchange.Clients.Owa.Core.UserOptions.GetUserConfiguration()
Microsoft.Exchange.Clients.Owa.Core.UserOptions.Load(IList`1 properties)
Microsoft.Exchange.Clients.Owa.Core.UserOptions.LoadAll()
Microsoft.Exchange.Clients.Owa.Core.UserContext.Load(OwaContext owaContext)
Microsoft.Exchange.Clients.Owa.Core.RequestDispatcher.CreateUserContext(OwaContext owaContext, UserContextKey userContextKey, UserContext& userContext)
Microsoft.Exchange.Clients.Owa.Core.RequestDispatcher.PrepareRequestWithoutSession(OwaContext owaContext, UserContextCookie userContextCookie)
Microsoft.Exchange.Clients.Owa.Core.RequestDispatcher.InternalDispatchRequest(OwaContext owaContext)
Microsoft.Exchange.Clients.Owa.Core.RequestDispatcher.DispatchRequest(OwaContext owaContext)
System.Web.HttpApplication.SyncEventExecutionStep.System.Web.HttpApplication.IExecutionStep.Execute()
System.Web.HttpApplication.ExecuteStep(IExecutionStep step, Boolean& completedSynchronously)

Everything was working fine prior to running signowa.exe (before the signature was applied to their OWA).
Removing the signature at this point does NOT resolve the issue.
In order to clear the error, I had to backup the mailbox to a PST from the Outlook client, delete the account/mailbox completely, recreate it and restore from the backup file created.
Everything then works fine again, until the signature is re-applied, then the error comes back again.

I have tried moving the mailbox between two servers, and as above, deleting and recreating it. I just can't seem to track down what else could cause this.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks!
Chris Thauberger

Bjarne Mess · Posted: Thu Sep 03, 2009 3:24 pm Post subject:

Thanks, Chris, We will have a look at it and return shortly.

Bjarne Mess · Posted: Fri Sep 04, 2009 10:30 am Post subject:

Chris,

What I don't understand is that this has any incluence on the pst files in Outlook. This doesn't make any sence to us.

Please zip and email your database to info@officeaddon.com. We want to analyse the content in it.

OWA is working for you but not for two specific users. There can be many reasons for that, but we will find that out.

Thanks.

cthauber · Posted: Tue Sep 08, 2009 5:38 pm Post subject:

Are you wanting a copy of the eMailSignature database?

Just to make sure I am being clear enough, the PST I referenced in my original post was simply used as a backup/restore medium to not lose the mailbox contents when deleting/recreating it. They do NOT use PST files in day to day use. Outlook is only communicating to the Exchange server 'online'.

There is now a 3rd user experiencing the issue.
They were working in OWA perfectly fine right up until 'SignOWA' was executed. As soon as that was run, they now get the error message, and cannot access the mailbox from OWA, but again direct through Outlook is fine.

Bjarne Mess · Posted: Tue Sep 08, 2009 6:36 pm Post subject:

To be honest, I don't understand your setup. I don't understand how you execute it, and what works and what doesn't work.

Please send me a private message with your email, and hopefully I'd get a better understanding of your setup.

Thanks.

jgibson · Just can't stay away Joined: 26 Feb 2008 Posts: 22

Was this resolved? I am having the same issue. We are using exchange 2007 and I am testing signatures for OWA with two users. OWA was working fine for these users. After I ran signowa.exe for both of these users, neither are able to log in to OWA nad are getting the same error message:

Request
Url: https://email.bannerwitcoff.com:443/owa/default.aspx
User host address: 10.xxx.xxx.xxx

Exception
Exception type: Microsoft.Exchange.Data.Storage.CorruptDataException
Exception message: The configuration dictionary serialization failed. Exception = System.Xml.XmlException: An error occurred while parsing EntityName. Line 3, position 9. at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.Throw(Exception e) at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ParseEntityName() at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ParseAttributeValueSlow(Int32 curPos, Char quoteChar, NodeData attr) at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ParseAttributes() at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ParseElement() at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ParseElementContent() at Microsoft.Exchange.Data.Storage.ConfigurationDictionary.ReadXml(XmlReader reader) at Microsoft.Exchange.Data.Storage.UserConfiguration.DeserializeDictionary(Byte[] data) at Microsoft.Exchange.Data.Storage.UserConfiguration.InternalGetDictionary().

Call stack

Microsoft.Exchange.Data.Storage.UserConfiguration.InternalGetDictionary()
Microsoft.Exchange.Data.Storage.UserConfiguration.GetDictionary()
Microsoft.Exchange.Clients.Owa.Core.UserOptions.GetUserConfiguration()
Microsoft.Exchange.Clients.Owa.Core.UserOptions.Load(IList`1 properties)
Microsoft.Exchange.Clients.Owa.Core.UserOptions.LoadAll()
Microsoft.Exchange.Clients.Owa.Core.UserContext.Load(OwaContext owaContext)
Microsoft.Exchange.Clients.Owa.Core.RequestDispatcher.CreateUserContext(OwaContext owaContext, UserContextKey userContextKey, UserContext& userContext)
Microsoft.Exchange.Clients.Owa.Core.RequestDispatcher.PrepareRequestWithoutSession(OwaContext owaContext, UserContextCookie userContextCookie)
Microsoft.Exchange.Clients.Owa.Core.RequestDispatcher.InternalDispatchRequest(OwaContext owaContext)
Microsoft.Exchange.Clients.Owa.Core.RequestDispatcher.DispatchRequest(OwaContext owaContext)
System.Web.HttpApplication.SyncEventExecutionStep.System.Web.HttpApplication.IExecutionStep.Execute()
System.Web.HttpApplication.ExecuteStep(IExecutionStep step, Boolean& completedSynchronously)

Help!

Jennifer Gibson

Jesper Frier · Posted: Fri Oct 23, 2009 9:24 am Post subject:

Hi Jennifer,

Please let me know which versions you use:

Sign.exe version?
Cockpit.exe version?
SignOWA.exe version?
OA.SignOWA.dll version?

Thanks
_________________
</Jesper> | Manage Email Signatures from your Desktop | Test Email Signature in All In-boxes | Email Signature Showcase

jgibson · Just can't stay away Joined: 26 Feb 2008 Posts: 22

Sign.exe version? 5.0.0

Cockpit.exe version? 5.0.0

SignOWA.exe version? 3.3.2.1

OA.SignOWA.dll version? 2.3.2.1 have also tried 3.3.2.1 both have same result.

We have an & symbol in the signature we are using. We are migrating from exch 2003 to 2007. Exch 2007 is set up on a server 2008 box. exch 2003 is on a server 2003 box. both have separate OWA urls. Currently we have OWA for 2003 users set up and working. When trying to set up OWA for 2007 users (reg settings and signowa.exe running form a different machine pointing to the exch 2007 owa url) we get the following error:
An error occurred while parsing EntityName. Line 3, position 9.

And the 2007 users can no longer log into OWA. They get the error mentioned in my original post.

I know it is due to the & symbol in the signature but cannot take it out. AS I said, signatures generated for Exchange 2003 users work fine with the & symbol in OWA nad OUtlook. Signatures generated for 2007 users work fine in Outlook. It is only OWA that has issues.

I am guessing it is an issue with Server 2008, since that is what Exchange 2007 is installed on. Any ideas on how to solve this? Or at least get it so users can log into OWA again?

Thanks,
Jennifer

cthauber · Posted: Mon Oct 26, 2009 4:57 pm Post subject:

Just as a quick update.
We did have the '&' in the 3 or 4 affected users.
That has since been removed, and the users mailbox recreated.
The error still came back after running signowa for those 3/4 users.
All other users are fine.

Since it is only affecting 3 or 4 out of over 160 users, we have decided to just set those few signatures manually, and exclude them from the automated signature.

Bjarne Mess · Posted: Mon Oct 26, 2009 5:38 pm Post subject:

Hi,

We have also identified this bug in OWA 2007. It is related to a bug that does not allow a & to be written to the signature fields but using webDAV. This is quite unfortunate, so we are working on a workaround until there will be an update that will fix this.

The workaround will probably be to replace the & with 'and' but this has not been tested yet.

Thanks,
Bjare

jgibson · Just can't stay away Joined: 26 Feb 2008 Posts: 22

So how do I fix the logging in issue? Exchange 2007 users cannot log into OWA at all after running signOWA.exe.

Jennifer

cthauber · Posted: Mon Oct 26, 2009 6:58 pm Post subject:

The mailbox must be deleted and recreated (export to a PST before deleting using Outlook, and import back in after re-creating, again, using Outlook).

That was the only way I waas able to get the few users I had with issues to start working again.

However, I only had to deal with 3 users that needed it...

witwicki · Quite a regular Joined: 03 Jun 2009 Posts: 14 Location: UK

Bjarne Mess · Posted: Thu Mar 10, 2011 12:29 pm Post subject:

Which version of signOWA?

witwicki · Quite a regular Joined: 03 Jun 2009 Posts: 14 Location: UK

Not sure, is the relevant as the damage has been done.

Does the later version fix the damage caused?

Thanks