Symptoms

The user presented with a workflow deployment error that read

Deployment Failed

System.Xml.XmlException:Root Element is missing.

The error occurred when the user attempted to deploy a workflow that was built in K2 designer but was NOT built out of the artifacts page
 

Diagnoses

The problem here was that the user had constructed a workflow from K2 Designer directly (i.e. not from the artifacts page) and was trying to use a Library as a data source. In order to use a Library or even a list in such a way the given data source needs to be appified and the workflow should be constructed out of the artifacts page. In this way we ensure that the workflow was access to the proper SmartObjects to access the given data source.



 

Resolution

To resolve this the user deleted their current workflow and rebuilt it from the artifacts page for the appified data source.