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.

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3. Where is SharePoint web.config?

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.

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1. InfoPath data connection not returning all results
2. Managed Properties Not Populating with Data – Metadata Property Mappings
3. Issue Deploying Solution After adding to Solution Store

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)

Related posts:

1. Managed Properties Not Populating with Data – Metadata Property Mappings
2. Where is SharePoint web.config?
3. Web Part Connection Issues

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

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1. Managed Properties Not Populating with Data – Metadata Property Mappings
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3. SPD Workflow Issue Solved – List item not found error when finding item using metadata value

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.

Related posts:

1. SharePoint InfoPath Forms
2. InfoPath SharePoint Integration
3. InfoPath Forms in SharePoint

Related posts:

1. Managed Properties Not Populating with Data – Metadata Property Mappings

Customize TOC Web Part CSS

How to Replace default CSS styles used by a TOCWP with new CSS Classes
How to modify the default XSL Style Sheets used by Table of Contents web Parts to replace the default CSS classes with new ones.  Modify styles for all TOCWPs accross a SharePoint site collection.

How to differentiate styles between the Horizontal & Vertical Presentation Layouts of a TOCWP
Various presentation layouts available for a Table of Contents web Part use identical class names as other presentation layouts.  To differentiate classes that are used by multiple presentation layouts, you can write new CSS classes, then replace the default by modifying the XSL Style Sheet used to format TOC Web Parts.

Where to find the default XSL Style Sheets for a TOCWP in SharePoint (MOSS)
Where are the default XSL Style Sheets located for a Table of Contents Web Part (TOCWP)?  The default XSL style Sheets used are located in the style library of the site collection (http://sitecollectionurl/Style Library/XSL Style Sheets/LevelStyle.xsl).

How to modify and apply changes to the Default XSL Style Sheet for TOC Web Parts
How to make changes to the global (default) XSL Style Sheets for application to all Table of Contents Web Parts accross a Site Collection, and how to implement CSS styles that correspond to the changes to allow TOC Web Parts to be rendered with the modified styles. 

Download sample image set and style sheets for TOCWPs
Customise the Table of Contents Web Part styles with background images and and alternate theme.  Download a sample image set and corresponding style sheets to apply customised styles to one or many Table of Contents Web Parts.

How to Customise All Table Of Contents Web Parts in a Site Collection
How to modify default style classes, and/or the default XSL style sheet used by Table Of Contents Web Parts accross an entire Site Collection.  Override or replace default styles used by a TOCWP, then apply the styles to a globally available style sheet for use by any Table of Contents Web Part in a Site Collection.

See Customize TOC Web Part CSS for details.

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3. InfoPath SharePoint Development

Customize TOC Web Part CSS

How to override default CSS styles/classes for one or more TOC Web Part in SharePoint
How to override CSS classes used by one or many Table of Contents web Parts (TOCWP) without affecting the default classes or XSL stylesheets.  Using CSS, the styles of one or more TOC Web Parts can be customised by overriding the default classes and styles.  By placing styles direcly into a page, or attaching a stylesheet with the updated classes to the page containing a TOCWP, the default classes can be overridden when the updated classes have the same name.  This can be utilised to allow customisation of the TOCWP without haveing to modify core functionality or style sheets (core.css).

How to customise CSS styles of a single Table of Contents Web Part on a specific page
How to customise a single or specific set of Table of Contents Web Parts, but not others that may exist in a SharePoint site collection.  By Attaching an additional style sheet to a page containing a TOCWP, or by including styles directly in the page allows the TOCWP to be cusomised without having to modify core styles.

How to apply additional Styles to a SharePoint Site, Page or existing CSS Style Sheet
How to incorporate a new stylesheet into a SharePoint site or page.  There are a number of methods available for incorporating styles into a page on SharePoint, including associating the stylesheet as the style sheet to be used by the SharePoint Site, attaching an additional style sheet to a page using SharePoint Designer, or by including the CSS classes in a style tag in the head section of a specific page.

What CSS Classes Does a TOCWP Use by Default
How do I know which CSS classes to make changes to in order to customise a specific presentation layout for a Table of Contents Web Part?  The following provides a table containing the main classes and elements used to render a TOCWP.  The classes can be overridden or replaced with new ones to allow Table Of Contents Web Part styles to be customised.

How to differentiate the styles between the Horrizontal & Vertical presentation Layouts
Many of the Horizontal and Vertical presentation layouts available for a Table of Contents web Part are shared with other presentation layouts, making it hard to customise a specific one.  For example, the “Vertical with boxed title” and “Horizontal with boxed title” layouts both use the same class for the outer div container and title text.  Overriding CSS styles for one of these presentation layouts will affect TOCWPs on the page with wither of the two layouts.  To differentiate styles between the Vertical / Horizontal layouts (or any others), the XSL style sheet used to define elements and CSS classes for TOC Web Parts needs to be modified to include differentiated classes for the various presentation layouts.

How to include a custom background image for Table Of Contents Web Part Titles using CSS
How to override or replace the default classes used by a Table of Contents Web Part to incorporate background images and an alternate layout.  How to incorporate background images and CSS into a page or style sheet so that they are available to all TOCWP that require the new styles.

Free example image set and styles for Table of Contents Web Part
Download a free example image set for use as background and bullet images for a Table of Contents web Part.  Style Sheets are included to allow default classes to be overridden or replaced with new styles.

Incorporate company Branding into TOCWP Styles
Customise the CSS styles and classes used by a Table of Contents Web Part to include Company Branding.  Apply company branding and theme (fonts, colours, images) into a TOCWP in SharePoint.

See Customize TOC Web Part CSS for details.

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1. Customize TOC Web Part CSS – Part 2
2. SharePoint Data View Conditional Formatting using SharePoint Designer
3. How to configure a workflow to start at specific time, then loop / repeat periodically (Daily, Weekly)

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SharePoint InfoPath Forms

InfoPath forms can be a powerful tool for collecting organising, processing and submitting data of various types. Data Connections allow an infoPath Form to pull data from multiple data sources, including sharePoint. SharePoint InfoPath Forms can provide a rich interface and additional functionality when manipulating data in SharePoint lists and libraries than when using OOB browser forms.

When using InfoPath to open and complete forms, complex priocessing can be performed without impacting on performance of the SharePoint server as the procing is done by the client. Using SharePoint InfoPath Forms as an Interface to control workflow can provide greater functionality and control over the workflow process. Using an infoPath form to submit data to SharePoint lists can allows data from multiple lists to be updated once processed.

SharePoint InfoPath Forms

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