Content is not allowed in prolog

Question

i'm trying to convert xml to html using xslt. Am using java.xml.transform to do this in java. it was working fine until i bumped into some xml. it said the following error.

[Fatal Error] :1:1: Content is not allowed in prolog. 
    javax.xml.transform.TransformerConfigurationException: 
    javax.xml.transform.TransformerConfigurationException: 
    javax.xml.transform.TransformerException: 
    org.xml.sax.SAXParseException: Content is not allowed in prolog.

so i made sure there is no character before the xml declaration. i even took care of BOM using the solution http://forums.sun.com/thread.jspa?messageID=10324562#10324562

STILL no luck and it happens only for one xml. i even opened the xml in editor and saved it in a file with utf-8 encoding. this is driving me crazy. any idea?

UPDATE: You get this error when you have given the wrong path for the xsl file and a file not found exception happens. (this was my case. it might help somebody. thanks for your responses)

Answer 1

This kind of thing can happen if you have an UTF-8 file with a BOM, and if you use an XML parser that isn't aware of it. Save the XML file as UTF-8 without BOM.

Answer 2

Do you have a header in your file? Something like:

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

That should be at the start of the first line. Unfortunately I can't see your XML file as that URL is blocked from where I am.