php Error: XML or text declaration not at start of entity Source

Question

whenever I use the following code in PHP files , it gives me the error (Error: XML or text declaration not at start of entity Source)

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>

I don't know what could be the solution

please help

Thanks in advance

<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?><rows><page>1</page><records>15</records><total>1</total><row id='18'><cell>18</cell><cell>2011-9-13</cell><cell>AL</cell><cell>2011-10-19</cell><cell>2011-10-21</cell><cell>3</cell><cell></cell><cell></cell><cell>Waiting for approval</cell><cell>mohan</cell><cell>Davinder Singh</cell></row><row id='17'><cell>17</cell><cell>2011-5-25</cell><cell>SL</cell><cell>2011-5-19</cell><cell>2011-5-19</cell><cell>1</cell><cell></cell><cell></cell><cell>Approved</cell><cell>Davinder</cell><cell>Kavita y</cell></row><row id='16'><cell>16</cell><cell>2011-5-25</cell><cell>SL</cell><cell>2011-5-24</cell><cell>2011-5-24</cell><cell>1</cell><cell></cell><cell></cell><cell>Approved</cell><cell></cell><cell>Kavita y</cell></row><row id='15'><cell>15</cell><cell>2011-5-26</cell><cell>AL</cell><cell>2011-7-08</cell><cell>2011-7-12</cell><cell>0</cell><cell></cell><cell></cell><cell>Disapproved</cell><cell></cell><cell>Kavita y</cell></row><row id='14'><cell>14</cell><cell>2011-5-25</cell><cell>AL</cell><cell>2011-6-30</cell><cell>2011-7-02</cell><cell>3</cell><cell></cell><cell></cell><cell>Approved</cell><cell></cell><cell>Kavita y</cell></row><row id='13'><cell>13</cell><cell>2011-9-14</cell><cell>CL</cell><cell>2011-6-15</cell><cell>2011-6-15</cell><cell>1</cell><cell></cell><cell></cell><cell>Waiting for approval</cell><cell></cell><cell>Kavita y</cell></row><row id='12'><cell>12</cell><cell>2011-5-25</cell><cell>CL</cell><cell>2011-6-10</cell><cell>2011-6-12</cell><cell>3</cell><cell></cell><cell></cell><cell>Waiting for approval</cell><cell></cell><cell>Kavita y</cell></row><row id='11'><cell>11</cell><cell>2011-5-25</cell><cell>SL</cell><cell>2011-5-20</cell><cell>2011-5-17</cell><cell>4</cell><cell></cell><cell></cell><cell>Waiting for approval</cell><cell></cell><cell>Kavita y</cell></row><row id='10'><cell>10</cell><cell>2011-5-25</cell><cell>CL</cell><cell>2011-6-03</cell><cell>2011-6-05</cell><cell>3</cell><cell></cell><cell></cell><cell>Waiting for approval</cell><cell>mohan</cell><cell>Davinder Singh</cell></row><row id='9'><cell>9</cell><cell>2011-5-26</cell><cell>SL</cell><cell>2011-5-18</cell><cell>2011-5-22</cell><cell>5</cell><cell></cell><cell></cell><cell>Waiting for approval</cell><cell>mohan</cell><cell>Davinder Singh</cell></row><row id='8'><cell>8</cell><cell>2011-5-24</cell><cell>AL</cell><cell>2011-5-20</cell><cell>2011-5-20</cell><cell>0</cell><cell></cell><cell></cell><cell>Disapproved</cell><cell>mohan</cell><cell>Davinder Singh</cell></row><row id='7'><cell>7</cell><cell>2011-5-24</cell><cell>CL</cell><cell>2011-5-20</cell><cell>2011-5-20</cell><cell>1</cell><cell></cell><cell></cell><cell>Waiting for approval</cell><cell>mohan</cell><cell>Davinder Singh</cell></row><row id='4'><cell>4</cell><cell>2011-9-14</cell><cell>SL</cell><cell>2011-5-20</cell><cell>2011-5-20</cell><cell>1</cell><cell></cell><cell></cell><cell>Waiting for approval</cell><cell>mohan</cell><cell>Davinder Singh</cell></row><row id='3'><cell>3</cell><cell>2011-5-24</cell><cell>SL</cell><cell>2011-5-20</cell><cell>2011-5-20</cell><cell>1</cell><cell></cell><cell></cell><cell>Waiting for approval</cell><cell>mohan</cell><cell>Davinder Singh</cell></row><row id='1'><cell>1</cell><cell>2011-5-24</cell><cell>SL</cell><cell>2011-5-20</cell><cell>2011-5-22</cell><cell>0</cell><cell>dd</cell><cell>remarks</cell><cell>Disapproved</cell><cell>mohan</cell><cell>Davinder Singh</cell></row></rows>

and the php code

header("Content-type: text/xml;charset=utf-8");

$s = "<?xml version='1.0' encoding='utf-8'?>";
$s .=  "<rows>";
$s .= "<page>".$page."</page>";
$s .= "<records>".$count."</records>";

$s .= "<total>".$total_pages."</total>";


// be sure to put text data in CDATA
while($row = mysql_fetch_array($result,MYSQL_ASSOC)) {


    $s .= "<row id='". $row['fld_id']."'>";

    $s .= "<cell>". $row['fld_id']."</cell>";   
    $s .= "<cell><![CDATA[". getDepartmentName($row['deptSr'])."]]></cell>";
    $s .= "<cell>". $row['email']."</cell>";
    $s .= "<cell>". $row['fname']."</cell>";
    $s .= "<cell>". $row['lname']."</cell>";
    $s .= "<cell>". $row['password']."</cell>";

    $s .= "<cell>". listlevel($row['level'])."</cell>"; 
    $s .= "<cell>". date('Y-m-d G:i:s', $row['date_create'])."</cell>";
    $s .= "<cell>". date('Y-m-d G:i:s', $row['last_login'])."</cell>";  
    $s .= "<cell>". $row['ip_addr']."</cell>";
    $s .= "<cell>". $row['dob']."</cell>";  
    $s .= "<cell>". $row['street']."</cell>";       
    $s .= "<cell>". $row['phone_mob']."</cell>";        
    $s .= "<cell>". $row['phone_home']."</cell>";   
    $s .= "<cell>". liststatus($row['fld_enabled'])."</cell>";  

    $s .= "</row>";
}
$s .= "</rows>"; 

echo $s;

Answer 1

XML or text declaration not at start of entity indicates that the prolog isn’t the first line in the output. Most likely, a blank line is somehow finding its way into your output. This error isn’t unique to WordPress; however, as I mentioned in my comment, I did a search for the error message on Google and WordPress comes up in a lot of the results. If you’re not using WordPress, kindly disregard the remainder of this answer.

Disclaimer: I know nothing about WordPress so I’m reluctant to answer in that capacity; however, since there are no other answers as of this writing, I’ll simply show you what I’ve found on the subject.

• Wordpress leading whitespace fix seems to help some people with the error you specified.

• Additional suggestions are available here.

• How to fix: XML Parsing Error: XML or text declaration not at start of entity deals with white space before the prolog. The comment suggests using ob_start() and ob_end_clean().

If you are using WordPress, you may attract better answers by adding the WordPress tag to your question. There’s no guarantee, but it could draw the attention of those more knowledgeable than myself.