Managed Properties Not Populating with Data – Metadata Property Mappings

I had an issue with managed properties and custom search results, where i was unable to properly search across custom fields as well as customising the search results.  The objective was to create a custom search engine that uses a scope configured to include results for items from a specific content type, where the content type has been deployed to multiple Site Collections.  The issue was that the managed property was not being populated with the expected data from all site collections.  Instances where the custom metadata fields was found on the primary collection worked fine, allowing the custom field to be included in the search and displayed in the results.

For all items on other site collection that use the same content type, the expected value was not included in the Managed Property.  When viewing search results, items from these site collections had no data for the value of the managed property when viewing the search results.

I found that the issue related to deploying the content type to each site collection.  After the deploy was complete, only the custom column from the primary site collection was accessible when mapping fields to the managed property.  The internal names for the equivelant columns on each of the other site collections were set in the format of an Id.  Redeploying the content types allowed the columns accross each site collection to be referrenced using the standard internal name instead of the column Id, or removing and re-adding the problem columns from the content types.  A temporary workaround was to map each instance of the columns from each site collection to the required managed property, with the option “Include values from a single crawled property based on the order specified” selected.

See Managed Properties Not Populating with Data – Metadata Property Mappings for details.

Web Part Connection Issues

I was having some trouble configuring Web Part connections between multiple web parts on a single page. The following article was able to assist, as there are a number of custom (third party) Web Parts on the page that being used in the connections to collect and pass parameters or filter values to Web Parts.

The issue occurred if the page was saved using SharePoint Designer. When the page is saved using SharePoint Designer after configuring a Web Part Connection, all Web Parts with previously configured connections disappear off the page. when in design mode, the Web Parts are still on the page, but are not visible when viewing the shared view of the page.

See Web Part Connection Issues for details.

Issue Deploying Solution After adding to Solution Store – SharePoint (MOSS 2007)

Deployment Status remains as “None” after deploying a solution, even thought result of the last operation states: “The solution was successfully deployed”.

The following article explains how to deploy the solution manually on the frontend server of the SharePoint Farm:
Issue Deploying Solution After adding to Solution Store – SharePoint (MOSS 2007)

SharePoint Metadata Not Saving After Editing Properties

Document metadata not saving when editing using the SharePoint web/browser interface. The issue seemed to relate to the version of Microsoft Office Client applications such as Word and Excel, where the metadata would revert to the default values after saving the document from SharePoint.

See Metadata Error: Metadata not saving on item in Document Library after editing Properties for details

SharePoint News & Development Resources
DevSharePoint.com provides the latest SharePoint news and resources. Stay up to date with SharePoint 2010, MOSS 2007, WSS, SharePoint Designer (2007/2010), InfoPath.

InfoPath & SharePoint Development Tutorials, Resources & How To’s
InfoPathSharePoint.net provides the latest InfoPath development tutorials, InfoPath Form Services administration tips, tricks and how to’s. InfoPath SharePoint Integration: Integrate InfoPath Forms with SharePoint lists, libraries & workflow.

SharePoint & InfoPath News & Resources
SharePoint Administration, Development, Design & Customization Resources from around the internet. SharePoint & InfoPath News. InfoPath SharePoint Integration. InfoPath Form Template Design. InfoPath Form layouts, design tips & techniques.

SharePoint Forums

Popular SharePoint forums and development communities to help when learning to develop, customise and troubleshoot SharePoint environments.  Each of the SharePoint Forums listed have many members of the community who are willing to help people with SharePoint queries by responding to forum threads, as well as helping to maintain high quality, relevant and accessable information.

SharePoint Blogs

Many blogs relating to Sharepoint by some of the leading SharePoint developers and Administrators.  Many of the sharepoint Blogs listed on the page are Sharepoint MVPs with many years of experience.

SharePoint Groups & Discussion Communities

SharePoint discussion groups.

SharePoint Workflow Errors: Descriptions, resolutions and Workarounds SharePoint Workflow Errors

There are many cases where a workflow developed using SharePoint Designer will stop due to a workflow error. A number of factors can cause a workflow error, including list permissions, data types, incorrect lookups to items that don’t exist based on the criteria specified or document libraries and lists with Force Checkout and Content Approval enabled.

Workflow errors can also be used intentionally to break / stopping a looping workflow sequence. For example, a looping workflow that is configured to processe all items from a list will stop once all items have been processed as it will not be able to find the next item to process. The result will be a “List item not found” error which will cause the looping workflow sequence to break / stop.

For more information about workflow errors in SharePoint including examples, common causes and workarounds / resolutions, see SharePoint Workflow Errors.

Common Workflow Errors:

• List Item Not Found
• Error updating a list item
• Access Denied
• Failed on Start (retrying)
• Document must be checked out
• Error Deleting a list item

In an InfoPath Form, I had a Data Connection to a SharePoint list which has almost 500 items.

When I open or preview the form, only 100 items are being returned from the SharePoint list using the Secondary Data Source of the SharePoint data connection.

InfoPath loads items from SharePoint which appear in the default view of the specified list or library. By default, SharePoint limits the total results of a view to 100, which can be changed by modifying the default view.

See InfoPath data connection not returning all results from a SharePoint list for details.

If you are getting an Updating Content Type failed error after waiting for a few seconds when trying to publish an InfoPath form to a SharePoint Content Type, you may need to reduce the number of fields/columns that are promoted to SharePoint columns in the Content Type. If there are a large numebr of fiwelds being promoted, the form will not publish every time, or at all.

If this is the reason that the form is not publishing, one solution is to create or modify an item in a separate list from the InfoPath form using the SharePoint Site’s Lists Web Service and the UpdateListItems method. The article InfoPath Error – Updating Content Type Failed When Publishing to SharePoint explains how to reduce the number of promoted fields, by sending the data to SharePoint using a CAML (XML) template, the web service and an additional submit data connection.

A common change to the web.config file for a SharePoint instance is to enable custom errors, and the stack trace of an error when it ocurrs.  Enabling custom errors will result in a more detailed description being displayed instead of the “An Unexpected Error has Ocurred” message or similar.  This will help when troubeshooting issues, as it will tell you where the problem is, or at least point you in the right direction.

The article SharePoint Web.Config: How to Show Full Errors explains the various configuration changes which can be made in order to display more information when an error ocurrs, including enabling custom errors, enabling the call Stack Trace feature, enabling debugging mode, and enabling the ASP.NET tracing feature.  Additional information and tips are also provided for when making changes to web.config files relating to some important steps and considerations which should be taken before making and applying changes to a web.config file.

SharePoint Web.Config: How to Show Full Errors