External ID doesn't work when copying from Fusion UI

​@Markus Pettersen The \xa0 character is the Unicode representation for a non-breaking space (NBSP), which is different from a regular space (' ', Unicode U+0020). In text processing, this non-breaking space prevents automatic line breaks at its position.

I tried to recreate your issue using the API. However I’m not able to create a time series with the \xa0 character.

{
    "error": {
        "code": 400,
        "message": "Incorrect json syntax at items[0].externalId"
    }
}

When I tried to create it with the SDK, I was able to recreate your issue. This looks like a bug in the SDK. The SDK should show an error as the API when creating the time series with the \xa0 character. I’ll create a support ticket for this issue. The support team will reach out to you.

Got some feedback from the Cognite help desk, they’ve pointed out a discrepancy between how the Python SDK and the API handles these characters. In addition, I’ve looked into it on our end and we use CDF Transformations to both create the time series headers and to populate the data points. 

So the different parts of CDF handles this differently, the API throws an error (as it should), but the SDK and transformations allows it, and the Fusion UI does not support it. Ideally CDF would behave consistent regardless of the interface used.

As I read through the relevant Hub Post created by you, I can see that a discussion has already been started with the initial investigations showing that the issue is reproducible when creating Time Series with the \xa0 character using the SDK. However, using the same characters with the API produces an error due to such naming practices. Therefore, it is evident that there is a discrepancy in the behaviour.

So the different parts of CDF handles this differently, the API throws an error (as it should), but the SDK and transformations allows it, and the Fusion UI does not support it. Ideally CDF would behave consistent regardless of the interface used.

Yes, what you are saying is ture. CDF should behave consistent regardless of the interface used. We will escalate this to the enginnering team. Thank you for reporting this issue.

Note that both the SDK and Transformations as well as the user interface are implemented as clients of the CDF API. The API server is the final arbiter of what characters are permitted in externalIds and not, and the SDK and Transformations cannot allow something that the API does not allow. There _does_ appear to be a discrepancy in how different compontents treat these special characters, though, and the non-breaking space disappearing when you copy something from the web UI is most likely caused by text processing in some part of the UI, most likely intended to make rendering safe and predictable.