[Biopython-dev] "Your XML file did not start with <?xml"

[Peter]

On 6/14/09, Cymon Cox <cy at cymon.org> wrote:
> Folks,
>
>  I've been using qblast recently, and got a lot of invalid replies from NCBI
>  of this sort:
>
>  Traceback (most recent call last):
>  ...
>  ValueError: Your XML file did not start with <?xml...

I've seen message that from the unit test sometimes, and assumed the
NCBI was returning a temporary HTML error page of some kind -
rerunning our test would normally work. Without checking the
traceback, I would guess this is the same issue you have found.

>  Which is true: NCBI is returning "\n\n". If you code around this and just
>  keep going the results eventually arrive:
>  ...

At first glance, something based on your change looks sensible. Next
time I spot the unit test failing I'll try and reproduce this.

Peter