ERROR: WebFormMerge Template Error: Illegal expression

Huh what?

I get this error when I attempt to Preview Web Form

The Render Web Form has no errors.

Serious question – how do you know it doesn’t have any errors? Unfortunately, they can be very difficult to track down.

When I first did the Render Web Form, I had the usual list of errors that I worked through. Things like

[WARNING] Unsupported Super Flash Art alignment: Proportional
[WARNING] Unsupported Super Flash Art alignment: UpperCenter
[WARNING] Tile:Data object cannot be converted to HTML/CSS
[WARNING] “” is not a recommended web font.
[WARNING] Button object cannot be converted to HTML/CSS
[FORM COMPLETE] 36 objects converted, 2 objects skipped, 5 warnings

The above types of errors were all corrected and I now receive…

[FORM COMPLETE] 36 objects converted, 0 objects skipped, 0 warnings.

but only this error remains in a dialog…

ERROR: WebFormMerge Template Error: Illegal expression.

The More info says…

Statement RtnError

Parameter 'ERROR: WebFormMerge Template Error:
"+«_WebMergeError»

Procedure WEBFORMMERGE

Database _EnterpriseServerLib

Is there an idea for how to track down the resolution of this error?

You may have corrected the issue, but the permanent variables that stores the page data isn’t always fully refreshed. I’ve found it’s sometimes helpful to purge it using the process below with the Form Name in place of the XXX.

Permanent «_WebTemplate (XXX)»
«_WebTemplate (XXX)» = ""
ShowVariables «_WebTemplate (XXX)»

FileGlobal «_WebTemplate (XXX)»
«_WebTemplate (XXX)» = ""
ShowVariables «_WebTemplate (XXX)»

Then render the page again.

Ultimately I prefer to build my own HTML pages then have Enterprise merge them. As impressive as rendering is, it’s too much of a black box when troubles show up.

I was very optimist but alas, no change. After I ran the suggested procedure to clear the variables, I did check and they were still initialized but they were empty. I rendered it again, but the same error results.

Another idea perhaps?

Time to make a copy of the form and start eliminating objects.

Yep. Recognized that that might be the quickest path forward. I duped the form, then found a formula that it did not like until I erased it and replaced it with the same.

Thanks for your time James.