Why does encoding cause unexpected application error upon list import?

Unexpected application error message

Symptoms

Attempting to import a file. After filling out this page and clicking Next, the user immediately gets an unexpected application error.

Resolving the problem

The issue can either be a clash of encoding or having special characters in the field names. Please check the encoding on your source file.

Tip: You can right-click and open the file in a text editor such as Notepad, Notepad ++, and do a Save As, you find the encoding on the Save Asscreen. Once you know the encoding, abort save as task. Your file encoding needs to match the Default Character Encoding on the Organization. For example, if your file is saved with UTF-8 encoding, but the Default Character Encoding is iso 8859-1, it results in the application error. Acoustic Campaign Client Support can advise you of the default Character Encoding on the Organization. The Default Character Encoding can only be changed by Support (not by Org Admin user).

Note: You can either change Default Character Encoding or File encoding as long they match.

After re-saving the source file with what you believe to be the proper encoding, you may get an error in the import data job detail such as below:

Fatal Error Opening the import file.SPException thrown in module {com.silverpop.core.util.SPFile}method {getBufferedReader}. Found UTF-8 BOM but encoding was iso-8859-1 for file /app/content/marketer/private/content/2012/13366/11/09/4b22126e-13ae75511c5-b9e6bcd68d4fb511170ab3fcff55179d.psv

This error indicates you did not save the file correctly in the expected encoding. Your team would need to get assistance from your database team to save in proper encoding.

If the encoding solution does not work, remove any special characters from the field names such as: #<>?[]{}&% etc.

Best practice is to use plain alpha/numeric characters and use underscores or hyphenations to replace spaces in your field names.

Note: Spaces are allowed and valid for Field Names but if you plan to use personalization within your URL's, spaces can potentially cause a link to break.