Export to HTML gives error with linked notes

[DavidW617]

Binary package hint: tomboy

Description: Ubuntu 10.10
Release: 10.10
tomboy:
  Installed: 1.4.0-0ubuntu2
  Candidate: 1.4.0-0ubuntu2
  Version table:
 *** 1.4.0-0ubuntu2 0
        500 http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ maverick/main i386 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

When I attempt to export my notes, including all the linked notes I get the error "Custom function reported an error." I expect to get a nicely formatted document with all my notes. Instead, I get an error and only the initial note saved as an html document with all the links broken.

Here is the console output when I attempt to do this after running tomboy --debug:

[DEBUG 15:43:25.366] Exporting Note 'Comp 3440' to '/home/david/Desktop/Comp 3440.html'...
[ERROR 15:43:25.881] Could not export: System.Xml.Xsl.XsltException: Custom function reported an error. ---> System.Reflection.TargetInvocationException: Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation. ---> System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object
  at Tomboy.ExportToHtml.TransformExtension.GetPath (System.String title) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
  at (wrapper managed-to-native) System.Reflection.MonoMethod:InternalInvoke (object,object[],System.Exception&)
  at System.Reflection.MonoMethod.Invoke (System.Object obj, BindingFlags invokeAttr, System.Reflection.Binder binder, System.Object[] parameters, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
  --- End of inner exception stack trace ---
  at System.Reflection.MonoMethod.Invoke (System.Object obj, BindingFlags invokeAttr, System.Reflection.Binder binder, System.Object[] parameters, System.Globalization.CultureInfo culture) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
  at System.Reflection.MethodBase.Invoke (System.Object obj, System.Object[] parameters) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
  at Mono.Xml.Xsl.XsltExtensionFunction.Invoke (Mono.Xml.Xsl.XsltCompiledContext xsltContext, System.Object[] args, System.Xml.XPath.XPathNavigator docContext) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
  --- End of inner exception stack trace ---
  at Mono.Xml.Xsl.XsltExtensionFunction.Invoke (Mono.Xml.Xsl.XsltCompiledContext xsltContext, System.Object[] args, System.Xml.XPath.XPathNavigator docContext) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
  at Mono.Xml.Xsl.XPFuncImpl.Invoke (System.Xml.Xsl.XsltContext xsltContext, System.Object[] args, System.Xml.XPath.XPathNavigator docContext) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
  at System.Xml.XPath.ExprFunctionCall.Evaluate (System.Xml.XPath.BaseIterator iter) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
  at System.Xml.XPath.CompiledExpression.Evaluate (System.Xml.XPath.BaseIterator iter) [0x00000] in <filename unknown>:0
[ERROR 15:43:25.898] Could not export: Custom function reported an error.

[DavidW617 (davidw617)]

With a few extra minutes of experimenting I've found a workaround. Take all commas out of the note names. I'm guessing that the commas break the creation of the hyper links and I'm also guessing that this applies to more special characters.

[geoffrey (gkgeko)]

I am getting the same error. However I don't believe this is about special characters. I did this: created a new note 1, created a link to another new note 2 within this, and then again to a new note with a title full of special characters !@#$%^<>,. Then tried to export note 1, without a problem. My guess is that renaming the notes was enough to solve the problem for the bug reporter. Which is fine, except that I have over 900 notes, and it will take me a long time to rename all of them ... So another solution would be appreciated.

[DavidW617 (davidw617)]

Geoffrey, you're right. I did some more tests and it appears as though it was italics in the link name that was causing the problem. The italics got removed when I renamed the note. I hope that helps and I hope that this gets fixed soon.

[geoffrey (gkgeko)]

Thanks! Yes I can confirm there is a problem with italics.

To reproduce the bug:
1. Create a new note
2. write a few words including some italics
3. highlight the words, and create a link (control+L)
4. from the first new note, select export to html, check 'Export linked notes', and note the error message

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Bengt Lüers (bengtlueers)]

Importance should be somewhat high, I think. I just ran into this when exporting my meeting notes to HTML, which are routinely named <project_name> <date> , eg. "Tomboy 2012-03-23" or "Tomboy 23.03.2012" Therefore I think, dots and dashes and slashes in note titles are a pretty common scenario.

[Sridhar Dhanapalan (sridhar)]

Confirmed on Tomboy 1.12.0 on Ubuntu 12.10 (standard packages).