I am getting this error inconsistently while working with Excel table connected to a SharePoint list. Similar issue has been reported on TechNet and it indicates it could be due to certain column types such as Date and Time, Lookup, or Calculated ... I would like to know when and why exactly this happens? What's more interesting is the error is not consistent, it just happens randomly.
Thanks in advance.
MOSS 2007 on Windows Server 2003 x86 Standard Edition
In my case I exported the list into Access and made some changes which I synched with Sharepoint afterwords.
I found the solution under List Settings > Change Column:
As I exported the List in excel, I saw the error message "Cannot get the list schema column property from SharePoint list". However excel was able to read the data from Sharepoint but two columns were missing.
The problem was that the columns with a date format (Not date and time, only date), had "Today's Date" as default value initially. After the synch, the default value was changed into the manual input option below "Today's Date". After I changed the default value back to "Today's Date" the problem was gone. So it was a problem about incoherent cell value and default value. This could also happen in different cell types.
I was debugging this same issue just recently. I ran into a lot of explanations that an update had changed the default value for the Date columns. Solutions presented were to set a new, real default value, save, then clear it out again. Others suggested converting to Text and converting back.
In my case I was able to identify the column was not a Date field but a Lookup field. I was pulling my hair until I ran across this blog post. It mentioned this problem could happen with Lookup columns which pull data from Calculated columns. That's exactly what my problem was. Except it worked when it was first created. It wasn't until after a user accidentally deleted the Lookup column and we recreated it. That's when the trouble started.
Interestingly we have another Lookup column bound to the same list to a different calculated column but it does not trigger the error.
I did a more thorough write-up and explanation on my own blog detailing the steps we went through until we solved it.
In my case, the solution was to check the data pulled by a lookup column. After i selected the value in the lookup column, i pulled also other column data related to that value. The secondary column of the lookup contained some weird characters "#&" . After removing it, the export worked.
With office 2013 there was no problem even with the special characters.
Related
I have been using PowerApps for a couple of years now to create simple user interfaces with SharePoint lists as the database.
Since last week I have started to experience a number of issues with my apps. For example, when referencing a SharePoint list single line of text column by its field name, PowerApps says that it doesn't recognise the identifier. I use the exact same formula for a different single line of text column in the same database and it works fine.
I have a gallery that I have added a couple of extra label fields to. The formula that I am using is simply 'ThisItem.ColumnName'. For one that works this is 'ThisItem.Address' and this displays the address which comes from a single line of text column. One that doesn't work is 'ThisItem.Industry'. The internal field name for the column is definitely Industry and it is definitely also a single line of text column. In the label itself I have switched between both formulas and again the Address column displays fine but the Industry column is not recognised.
I have further tried:
Recreating the database from scratch
Deleting the column/s that aren't being recognised and recreating them
Refreshing the data connections, including deleting and re-adding
Using Edge instead of Chrome
Creating a database on a different teamsite (same site collection tho)
Turning off all experimental features in the settings
I would upload some screenshots but as this is my first post, I'm not allowed to....
Has anyone else experienced anything similar? Anyone able to provide some insight as to why this has suddenly started occurring? HELP, anyone????
Thanks in advance.
Shannon
So i found what was causing the issue, still in the dark as to why though.
The gallery is linked to multiple databases (sharePoint lists) through an IF statement. The user selects a district from a drop down box and depending on what they select, the gallery is filtered using this IF statement.
The weird thing is, that the filter on the gallery works perfectly fine and displays all the records from that database. But for some reason, it only chooses to recognise a select few of the columns within that database.
When i removed the IF statement and just linked up one database, it works perfectly fine and all columns are recognised and display fine.
So, back to the drawing board on this one. At least i know now that i need to rework my gallery set up and that it isn't a case of corruption with the app or the database (that was my biggest fear!)
Hope this info provides some help if anyone else experiences this same issue.
I am setting up a SharePoint app/list to house my business team's project proposals for the next budget year. I've created a custom content type (named CostProject) that has several columns in it that describe our cost projects.
Because we plan on using this process for years to come, I'm envisioning a structure where CostProject is the generic content type, with sub-content types for each budget year (2018 CostProject, 2019 CostProject, etc.). So I created another custom content type (named 2018 CostProject) that inherits all of the columns from CostProject.
Now I'm trying to create a list of all of these cost projects. So I added a new app (type: Custom List) and named it ITDD Cost Projects. I went into list settings >> advanced settings and checked the option to "Allow management of content types." Back on the list settings, I scrolled down to the content types section and clicked "Add from existing site content types."
This brought up a form where I could select various content types, so I selected 2018 CostProject from the available content types and clicked "Add >" then clicked "OK." After clicking OK, this is the error I get every time:
"The formula cannot refer to another column. Check the formula for
spelling mistakes or update the formula to reference only this
column."
Thinking this might have something to do with the syntax of one of my calculated columns, I went back the CostProject content type and removed all of the calculated columns (copied their formulas, etc. into a document so I can come back to them later). However I still get the same error message every time I try to add the content type to the list.
Any idea what I'm missing here? I'm pretty new to SharePoint so perhaps it's something basic--any help would be greatly appreciated!
THANK YOU!!!
So for the sake of people not reading comments. When you encounter an error which states that:
The formula cannot refer to another column. Check the formula for
spelling mistakes or update the formula to reference only this
column.
You should check your validation formulas on columns.
It may occur in different situations, but the core issue is that field cannot be added to list:
Here is reported bug when creating list from template and this is possible workaround.
I have a calculated column in SharePoint On-Premises that shows the number of days till a due date which works perfectly for a day or so then stops calculating, but if I go to the list settings and click the column and click ok then it calculates again?
Has anyone experienced an issue similar to this. I had this issue in both 2013 but within a few weeks moved to 2016 and still the same issue.
I've tried " " blank and also "" empty so not sure if that is causing the issue??
Is it a problem with the formula?
Here is the formula:
=IF(ISBLANK([Due Date])," ",
IF(ISERROR(DATEDIF(NOW(),[Due Date],"d"))," ",DATEDIF(NOW(),[Due Date],"d")))
Calculated columns cannot contain volatile functions, which includes those that depend on the current date.
The values in SharePoint columns--even in calculated columns--are stored in SharePoint's underlying SQL Server database.
The calculations in calculated columns are not performed upon page load; rather, they are recalculated only whenever an item is changed (in which case the formula is recalculated just for that specific item), or whenever the column formula is changed (in which case the formula is recalculated for all items).
If you need to show a dynamic value that changes with the passage of time, you have a few alternatives.
Client-Side Rendering
Consider using client-side rendering which lets you use JavaScript to dynamically determine how records in a list view are displayed. This JavaScript runs upon page load, so it can handle current time-dependent values much better than a calculated column.
To use client-side rendering, you create a JavaScript file that controls how the view displays. You upload that file to somewhere on SharePoint where people will have at least Read access to it, then edit the list view web part that you want to display differently and set its "JSLink" property to point to your JavaScript file.
Check out this answer for an example of using a JSLink file to spoof a dynamic date field.
Microsoft also provides some documentation here but I think they do more work than is necessary (creating an entire new list definition project in Visual Studio for their example instead of just creating a JSLink JavaScript file for an existing list).
Other Options
A few other options are mentioned in the older question linked above:
Conditional Formatting: You can apply conditional formatting to highlight records that meet certain criteria. This can be done using SharePoint Designer or HTML/JavaScript.
Filtered List views: Since views of lists are queried and generated in real time, you can use volatile values in list view filters. You can set up a list view web part that only shows items where Created is equal to [Today]. Since you can place multiple list view web parts on one page, you could have one section for today's items, and another web part for all the other items, giving you a visual separation.
A workflow, timer job, or scheduled task: You can use a repeating process to set the value of a normal (non-calculated) column on a daily basis. You need to be careful with this approach to ensure good performance; you wouldn't want it to query for and update every item in the list if the list has surpassed the list view threshold, for example.
To expand on the Filtered List Views option, you can have a view that shows only items that are due within a certain number of days. For example, you can display all the items due within 7 days by filtering where the Due Date field is less than [Today]+7 and Due Date is greater than or equal to [Today]. You could also sort the view to show the items with earlier due dates closer to the top.
In my list i have created calculated field to get the difference between the last modified date and today's date.
I use the formula
=datedif([modified],[today],"d")
It is throwing an error : The formula contains reference(s) to field(s).
Please advise.
I do not have a separate column to hold today's date.
Regretfully, you cannot use [Today] for calculated fields. Calculated fields only update when an item is modified, so the Today Trick of creating a column named Today, setting your calculated field, then deleting that column, is a bad move.
You have a couple options, the best of which is probably to use JavaScript within a Content Editor Web Part on the page to do the calculation for you. You could also try using SharePoint designer and custom XPath and xslt to get "days since modified" to appear on your page.
Generally, if you want something to identify items that haven't been modified in a while, it should be done with filter library views: they can use [Today], and they don't require tricks or workarounds.
I have something funky going on with MOSS & was wondering if anyone out there has seen anything like it:
I have a document library in MOSS that has several custom columns added to it. I have a column of type choice. For one document in the library (a word document), the selected value does not get displayed for the one column - all of the other columns are fine & the other 60 documents in the folder display the selected values correctly. When I edit the properties of the document, the value of the column is defaulted to blank, I can change it to another value & save it. However the new value doesn't get displayed in the list view, nor does it show up if I edit the properties again.
If, I open the document in word & view the Document Information Panel it displayes the value that I had selected & saved for the column. However, the column is being displayed as a text box & not a drop down. The value still does not get displayed in the list view or properties view after a save.
Has anyone seen behaviour like this before?
My first guess is a name collision between your custom column and the columns that ship with SharePoint out of the box. What is the column name that is causing the problem?
I have seen situations like this when there are documents in a library, and then columns are added. The existing information does not get updated properly.
If you reupload the document as a second content, does this happends again ?
If yes, you may check advanced properties of the document before uploadind it. There may be some data in it that SharePoint try to use when importing the file. It may explain that you don't have the issue when you copy/paste only the content.
Along a similar line, it could be that the problem doc has a Word metadata field named subject, and MOSS is doing its property promotion thing to mess up your field. If so, clearing the Word metadata might fix it.