--- a/src/ldt/ldt/ldt_utils/models.py	Mon Oct 28 12:28:03 2013 +0100
+++ b/src/ldt/ldt/ldt_utils/models.py	Thu Oct 31 11:56:12 2013 +0100
@@ -1,4 +1,10 @@
-from .events import post_project_save
+import datetime
+import mimetypes
+import os.path
+import re
+from shutil import move
+import uuid
+
 from django.conf import settings
 from django.contrib.auth import get_user_model
 from django.contrib.auth.models import Group
@@ -6,6 +12,11 @@
 from django.db import models
 from django.utils.translation import ugettext_lazy as _
 from guardian.shortcuts import assign, remove_perm, get_perms
+import lxml.etree #@UnresolvedImport
+from sorl.thumbnail import ImageField
+import tagging.fields
+from tagging.models import Tag
+
 from ldt.core.models import Document
 from ldt.security import (get_current_user_or_admin, set_current_user, 
     get_current_user)
@@ -13,18 +24,11 @@
 from ldt.security.models import SafeModel
 from ldt.utils import generate_hash, url as url_utils
 from ldt.utils.web_url_management import get_web_url
-from shutil import move
-from sorl.thumbnail import ImageField
-from tagging.models import Tag
 from utils import (create_ldt, copy_ldt, create_empty_iri, update_iri, 
     generate_uuid)
-import datetime
-import lxml.etree #@UnresolvedImport
-import mimetypes
-import os.path
-import re
-import tagging.fields
-import uuid
+
+from .events import post_project_save
+
 
 User = get_user_model()
 
@@ -625,6 +629,9 @@
         if name == "ldt" and hasattr(self, "__ldt_encoded"):
             del self.__ldt_encoded
         
+    def get_xml_doc(self):
+        #remove the xml header declaration
+        return lxml.etree.fromstring(re.sub(r"^<\?\s*xml .*\?>", "", self.ldt))
 
     def __unicode__(self):
         return unicode(self.id) + u"::" + unicode(self.ldt_id) + u"::" + unicode(self.title)
@@ -636,7 +643,7 @@
     def get_description(self, doc=None):
         
         if doc is None:
-            doc = lxml.etree.fromstring(self.ldt) #@UndefinedVariable
+            doc =  self.get_xml_doc()#@UndefinedVariable
         
         res = doc.xpath("/iri/project")
         if len(res) > 0:
@@ -756,7 +763,7 @@
         
     def has_annotations(self):
         nb_annot = 0
-        doc = lxml.etree.fromstring(self.ldt) #@UndefinedVariable
+        doc = self.get_xml_doc()
         res = doc.xpath("/iri/annotations/content/ensemble/decoupage")
         for r in res:
             nb_annot = nb_annot + r.find('elements').__len__()