Serialization Exception in the Sitecore 8 Experience Explorer

I recently received a serialization exception when attempting trigger a Campaign within the new Experience Explorer feature in Sitecore 8, using the LaunchSitecore demo site.

Expecting state 'Element'.. Encountered 'Text' with name '', namespace ''.

[SerializationException: Expecting state 'Element'.. Encountered 'Text' with name '', namespace ''. ]
ReadArrayOfKeyValueOfstringstringFromJson(XmlReaderDelegator , XmlObjectSerializerReadContextComplexJson , XmlDictionaryString , XmlDictionaryString , CollectionDataContract ) +885
System.Runtime.Serialization.Json.JsonCollectionDataContract.ReadJsonValueCore(XmlReaderDelegator jsonReader, XmlObjectSerializerReadContextComplexJson context) +154
System.Runtime.Serialization.Json.JsonDataContract.ReadJsonValue(XmlReaderDelegator jsonReader, XmlObjectSerializerReadContextComplexJson context) +61
System.Runtime.Serialization.XmlObjectSerializerReadContext.InternalDeserialize(XmlReaderDelegator reader, String name, String ns, Type declaredType, DataContract& dataContract) +210
System.Runtime.Serialization.XmlObjectSerializerReadContext.InternalDeserialize(XmlReaderDelegator xmlReader, Type declaredType, DataContract dataContract, String name, String ns) +69
System.Runtime.Serialization.Json.DataContractJsonSerializer.InternalReadObject(XmlReaderDelegator xmlReader, Boolean verifyObjectName) +177
System.Runtime.Serialization.XmlObjectSerializer.ReadObjectHandleExceptions(XmlReaderDelegator reader, Boolean verifyObjectName, DataContractResolver dataContractResolver) +628
System.Runtime.Serialization.Json.DataContractJsonSerializer.ReadObject(XmlDictionaryReader reader) +73
Sitecore.Common.Serializer.Deserialize(String data, Type resultType) +541
Sitecore.Common.Serializer.Deserialize(String data) +89
Sitecore.SecurityModel.UserRuntimeSettings.DeserializeInnerDictionary(UserRuntimeSettings data, String dictionaryKey) +259
Sitecore.SecurityModel.UserRuntimeSettings.Deserialize(String data) +198
Sitecore.Security.Accounts.User.get_RuntimeSettings() +333


I also found the same issue when running my LaunchSitecoreTDS code base on a fresh instance…

Debugging this was difficult, as no exceptions were popping up in Visual Studio, and nothing useful was being written to the logs other that this exception.

Through the painful process of removing parts of code and testing about 50 times…I finally found the culprit.
The issue was to do with some code that accesses the current User Profile, and checks to see if they have anything in a Custom Property called ‘Favorites’.

While I couldn’t find the exact issue, I found that the Experience Explorer uses the user ‘sitecore\\eevirtualuser’.

I’ve now temporarily put a protecting statement around this block of code, checking for the eevirtualuser.

          List items = new List();
 
          Sitecore.Security.Accounts.User user = Sitecore.Context.User;
          if (user.Name == "sitecore\\eevirtualuser")
              return;
 
          Sitecore.Security.UserProfile profile = user.Profile;
          string ItemIds = profile.GetCustomProperty("Favorites");
 
          foreach (string itemId in ItemIds.Split('|'))
          {
          .
          .

I can now successfully run the Experience Explorer on the LaunchSitecore demo site.

A support ticket has been filed with Sitecore support to find a proper solution. This post will be updated once that ticket is addressed.