Google Parsing Error

[shepherd]

The sitemap produced looks fine to me, having read Google's schema requirements, but when submitted, either manually at the webmasters Google site in my account, or by automatic ping, I get the report...

"Parsing error
We were unable to read your Sitemap. It may contain an entry we are unable to recognize."

I tried changing the <?phpxml... opening tag to just <?xml...> but that made no difference. It's encoded correctly.

I can't see what their problem is but also I don't know how to validate the XML (using the command line tools Google recommends) to find out. And in any case, of course I need the program to produce a valid sitemap.

Any ideas?

The sitemap is at [external links are visible to admins only]

Regards, Peter

[admin]

Hi Peter,

there was a small problem with the recent dev version of generator (that is not released yet) installed at yout host.
I updated it now, please check again.

[shepherd]

Great, thanks for your quick action.

I'll have to wait until Google downloads and parses it and then check again at
[external links are visible to admins only]

I'll let you know soonest if it's read OK by Google this time.

Best, Peter

[shepherd]

Google still saying Parsing Error, though the sitemap has the normal <?xml header now.

I have just tried resubmitting a new sitemap with no 404 errors, as the previous contained a directory with known errors that a colleague refuses to correct, but now I've added that directory to the exclude list. See what happens with that. It looks perfect...

Regards, Peter

[shepherd]

Finally I have an OK status from Google on the sitemap.

Thanks for all your help in getting this going!

Best, Peter

[admin]

Great, Peter!
Thanks for informing us