Error generating androidTWA package (Unexpected token  in JSON at position 0)

[d3viance]

I received the following error when generating a package for https://wise.tms.kimclark.com/tms/
I tried lots of things, but i cant find what's wrong with the manifest file...

Although, when i open the app on brower it works (service worker and stuff...)
But i want to publish it to Google play and therefore to export it to APK.

Thank you for help.

Error generating Android package.

Status code: 500

Error: Internal Server Error

Details: Error generating app package: FetchError: invalid json response body at https://wise.tms.kimclark.com/tms/manifest.json reason: Unexpected token  in JSON at position 0

[ghost]

Hello d3viance, thank you for opening an issue with us!

I have automatically added a "needs triage" label to help get things started. Our team will investigate the issue and help solve it ASAP. Other community members may also look into the issue and provide feedback 🙌

[davrous]

Hi @d3viance, thanks for the report. I'm reproducing the error, you normally need a 512x512 icon to generate a package but your issue is also raising another bug.

Pinging @JudahGabriel for the Android issue and @jgw96 for the 512x512 check that didn't happen.

[jgw96]

@JudahGabriel the error modal is now showing for this one as it should, also while debugging I noticed this

maybe related to CloudFlare?

[JudahGabriel]

Hi @d3viance

I think this is a legit issue with your manifest file.

Specifically, I suspect your manifest JSON file has a unicode character as the first character in the file - possibly a zero-width no break space character. See this bug that had the same issue as you.

Indeed, if I open the file as binary in Visual Studio, I see some suspicious first bytes that render it as invalid JSON:

Something quick to try that may fix it:

Open your manifest.json inside Notepad++ and save it as ANSI. That should remove this weird character at the beginning of your JSON. Replace your existing manifest.json with this new file and things will start working, I suspect. Give it a try?

[JudahGabriel]

I see your manifest has now been fixed and is properly detected by PWABuilder. Closing.

[d3viance]

Thanks it works!!!

Hi @d3viance

I think this is a legit issue with your manifest file.

Specifically, I suspect your manifest JSON file has a unicode character as the first character in the file - possibly a zero-width no break space character. See this bug that had the same issue as you.

Indeed, if I open the file as binary in Visual Studio, I see some suspicious first bytes that render it as invalid JSON:

Something quick to try that may fix it:

Open your manifest.json inside Notepad++ and save it as ANSI. That should remove this weird character at the beginning of your JSON. Replace your existing manifest.json with this new file and things will start working, I suspect. Give it a try?