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Error: "Failed to read Placement.XML: GetFormPosition: Root element is missing"

How to fix the Placement.xml "Root element is missing" error in WiSys Agility applications by resetting the corrupted per-user window placement file.

Applies to: WiSys Agility applications (Agility Explorer, Fulfillment Manager, Shipment Update, Shop Floor Hours Entry) on SAP Business One and Macola

Symptoms

A user sees this error when opening, closing or working in a WiSys window:

Failed to read Placement.XML: GetFormPosition: Root element is missing.
Folder: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\WiSys\Agility\Placement.xml

Related symptoms:

  • A similar error when closing a window: SaveScreenPosition: SaveFormPosition: Root element is missing
  • The error comes back after almost every click
  • A window opens but is blank or greyed out
  • Usually only one user or one workstation is affected

Cause

WiSys saves each user's window sizes and screen positions in a file called Placement.xml in their Windows roaming profile. If the file gets corrupted or emptied (for example, it opens with no content or only NULL values), WiSys can't read it and shows this error. It's a per-user file, so other users aren't affected.

Resolution

Option 1: Delete or rename Placement.xml (fixes most cases)

  1. Close all WiSys applications for the affected user.
  2. In File Explorer, go to %APPDATA%\WiSys\Agility (the same as C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\WiSys\Agility).
    • AppData is hidden by default. To see it, go to View → Show → Hidden items.
  3. Rename Placement.xml to Placement_old.xml, or delete it.
  4. Reopen the WiSys application. It creates a new Placement.xml, and the error should be gone.

Note: Saved window sizes and positions go back to their defaults.

Option 2: Rename the user's WiSys roaming folder

If the error keeps happening:

  1. Close all WiSys applications.
  2. Go to %APPDATA% and rename the WiSys folder to WiSys_old.
  3. Reopen WiSys. The user's settings folder is rebuilt on launch.

Option 3: Rebuild the Windows user profile

If neither option helps, the Windows roaming profile itself may be damaged. Have local IT rebuild or recreate the user's Windows profile. Several customers fixed the issue this way.

Terminal / RDS servers (many users)

To clear the file for every user profile on the server:

  1. Make sure users are logged out of WiSys.
  2. Open PowerShell as Administrator and preview what will be removed: 
    Remove-Item "C:\Users\*\AppData\Roaming\WiSys\Agility\Placement.xml" -Force -WhatIf
  3. Remove -WhatIf and run the command again to delete the files.

Each user gets a new Placement.xml the next time they open WiSys.

Still having trouble?

Contact WiSys Support and include a screenshot of the error and the full file path it shows.