TIBCO Spotfire Web Player is inaccessible with error "HTTP Error 500.19 - Internal Server Error" displayed in browser.

TIBCO Spotfire Web Player is inaccessible with error "HTTP Error 500.19 - Internal Server Error" displayed in browser.

When attempting to open the TIBCO Spotfire Web Player in a web browser, the Web Player application is not displayed and throws one of the following errors.

1. Generic Error:

Server Error

500 - Internal server error.

There is a problem with the resource you are looking for, and it cannot be displayed.

2. Detailed Error (seen when accessing the Web Player application from the Web Player server itself. For example from a URL like http://localhost/SpotfireWeb):



 

Special characters used in the web.config settings cause the XML to be invalid. All special characters used in the web.config settings must be escaped.
(C:\Program Files\Tibco\Spotfire Web Player\7.0\webroot\Web.config)

For example, the following file path mentioned in web.config is invalid and will cause the 500 Internal Server error. (Here, even though the path is a valid accessible path, it is an invalid XML syntax):

<ArrayOfString>
           <string>\\myWebPlayer\Temp\Apples & Oranges</string>
</ArrayOfString>

 

In order to make the XML valid, the "&" must be escaped with "&" as shown below.

<ArrayOfString>
           <string>\\myWebPlayerServer\Temp\Apples &amp; Oranges</string>
</ArrayOfString>

For your reference, there are 5 pre-defined entity references in XML which must be escaped when used inside an XML element which are listed below.

Character	Entity reference
<	&lt;
>	&gt;
&	&amp;
'	&apos;
"	&quot;

XML Syntax Rules

• http://www.w3schools.com/xml/xml_syntax.asp

Doc: TIBCO Spotfire Web Player 7.0 Installation and Configuration Manual > 6.2 Advanced Web.Config Settings

• https://docs.tibco.com/pub/sfire_webp/7.0.2/doc/pdf/TIB_sfire_webp_7.0.2_installation.pdf