com.sap.aii.ib.core.abapcache.CacheRefreshException: Tag empty is not permitted as a root element. definitions is expected.

while doing cache refresh if you get this error

T-code:SXI_CACHE, go to context menu 'Runtime Cache' and execute Start Delta/Complete Cache Refresh


In recent release of SAP pre-delivered ESR(XI) contents, there're invalid IDoc/RFC definitions which have empty/container tag as the root element or some IDocs/RFCs defined in the ESR are inconsistent and their definition needs to be re-imported into the ESR

E.g.

SAP SRM SERVER 5.0
SWIFT 622
SAP BASIS 6.20
SAP BASIS 7.11
SAP BASIS 7.31
SRM SERVER 7.0
SRM SERVER IC 7.02

This will cause cache refresh to fail with the mentioned error.

Solution

There're mainly 3 ways to resolve this:

Option 1:
Delete the Software component version(SWCV) directly in ESR or if the incorrect IDoc/RFC definitions are known
          then delete them and activate the deletion.



Option 2:
Re-import and correct the IDoc definition from the source system. This is only recommended for custom SWCV.


Option 3:
Create message in corresponding component (e.g SRM, CRM ....) and reuqest to fix the XI/ESR content.
In case of SAP delivered content, instead of deleting the entire SWCV(since you're probably going to use it),

you can temporarily change the SWCV to modifiable and only delete the incorrect IDoc/RFC. When SAP delivers

a patch of that content with the correct IDoc/RFC, you can delete the SWCV then import the patch again.

After re-import verify if the import was successful by opening the IDoc/RFC in the editor in the ESR.