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XMLDir

XML error · InvalidAttr

Attribute is without value (unquoted attribute value)

An attribute value is not quoted. XML requires quotes around every value, including numbers.

Attribute 'priority' is without value.

What it means

Every XML attribute value must be wrapped in single or double quotes. HTML allows bare values like width=100; XML does not, and the parser reports the attribute as having no value at all.

Note what this error is not: XMLDir accepts HTML-style boolean attributes such as <video controls/>, because ingestion runs with the parser's allowBooleanAttributes option on. Stricter validators reject those separately as "boolean attribute is not allowed".

What usually causes it

  • An unquoted value: <url priority=0.8/>.
  • A template variable that rendered empty and collapsed the ="" entirely.
  • A quote stripped by a shell, a CSV round-trip, or an over-eager sanitiser.
  • A stray word inside a tag, usually a leftover from an edit.

How to fix it

  • Quote all attribute values, including numbers and booleans.
  • Render empty variables as ="" rather than omitting the assignment.
  • For HTML-style booleans, repeat the name: controls="controls".

The same error elsewhere

Different parsers, same defect. If you arrived with one of these messages, you are in the right place.

  • Xerces (Java)

    Open quote is expected for attribute "priority" associated with an element type "url".

  • libxml2 (PHP, lxml, Nokogiri)

    AttValue: " or ' expected

  • expat (Python)

    not well-formed (invalid token)

  • .NET System.Xml

    Expected an attribute value, but found '0'.

Before and after

Both snippets are checked on every build: the first is confirmed to produce the error above, the second to parse cleanly.

Fails
<url priority=0.8>
  <loc>https://example.com/</loc>
</url>
Parses
<url priority="0.8">
  <loc>https://example.com/</loc>
</url>
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