[flexcoders] Errors in flash.external::ExternalInterface$/call()

[michael_regert]

I'm working on a bug which has us puzzled and I'm looking for a bit of 
direction.  When we launch our external help documents (HTML) with the 
following command, sometimes we get an array of XML parse errors.  It is very 
inconsistent and sometimes requires clicking the help button multiple times 
before it appears.  I cannot step into the ExternalInterface code to see what 
it is failing on.  The help page DOES launch correctly, so I know the URL is 
fine.  But when I close the HTML page, I get an error sometimes.  The error is 
not consistent either.  Any pointers on how to debug this?  Is the XML it is 
trying to parse the actual HTML?  I would think that Flex would just open a 
browser window, ignoring the content.  We're using Flex 4.0 SDK.

We're calling:
     
ExternalInterface.call("window.open",urlString,"_blank","status=1,scrollbars=1,toolbar=1,menubar=1,location=1,resizable=1");

Errors seen include:
     TypeError: Error #1090: XML parser failure: element is malformed.
        at flash.external::ExternalInterface$/call()

     TypeError: Error #1095: XML parser failure: Unterminated attribute.
        at flash.external::ExternalInterface$/call()

     Error: Error #1502: A script has executed for longer than the default 
timeout period of 15 seconds.
        at flash.external::ExternalInterface$/_argumentsToXML()
        at flash.external::ExternalInterface$/call()


- Michael J. Regert