Troubleshooting: Cannot import Web Part Error

Corey Roth has posted a nice guide to troubleshooting the dreaded 'Cannot import Web Part' error: Troubleshooting: Cannot import Web Part Error.

Has helped me a couple of times to get to the bottom of errors when deploying a web part.

Create a Custom NewForm/EditForm for a SharePoint List

After bullishly breaking an existing SharePoint List by taking a copy of the NewForm.aspx and making custom changes to it, I tried to resurrect the pages by following several sets of instructions on the web:

• How to recover broken supporting files in SharePoint Designer
• Custom list NewForm.aspx ruined in WSS 3.0

Unfortunately I think I had already gone to far down the line trying to ressurect it and it was beyond my skills and patience to repair it. So I exported the data from the existing list and imported it into a newly created list.

I then found a Create a Custom NewForm.aspx for a SharePoint List tutorial here which worked a treat to implement my custom changes. Looks like it all turned out ok in the end but was another fun SharePoint lesson learned the hard way.

Consuming SharePoint Web Services with WCF

I had a few problems getting the WCF config correct to call SharePoint web services so thought I would share the solution that worked for me:

ClientCredentials - client credentials are required

using (ListsSoapClient proxy = new ListsSoapClient())
{
    proxy.ClientCredentials.Windows.ClientCredential = new NetworkCredential();
    ...
}

Web.config or app.config - NTLM required

 <system.serviceModel>
  <bindings>
   <basicHttpBinding>
    <binding name="ListsSoap" maxReceivedMessageSize="9999999">
     <readerQuotas maxBytesPerRead="9999999"/>
     <security mode="TransportCredentialOnly">
      <transport clientCredentialType="Ntlm"/>
     </security>
    </binding>
   </basicHttpBinding>
  </bindings>
  <client>
   <endpoint address="http://corporate-portal.ccc/_vti_bin/Lists.asmx" binding="basicHttpBinding" bindingConfiguration="ListsSoap" contract="SPLists.ListsSoap" name="ListsSoap"/>
  </client>
 </system.serviceModel>

SharePoint 'Code blocks are not allowed in this file'

When trying to customise the GroupBoard Workspace ASPX pages I was getting the following error:

'Code blocks are not allowed in this file'

Thanks to this post on the MSDN forum we got past the problem:

<PageParserPaths>
    <PageParserPath VirtualPath="/pages/[file name].aspx" CompilationMode="Always" AllowServerSideScript="true" IncludeSubFolders="true" />
</PageParserPaths>

Using JavaScript to get a value using the SharePoint FieldInternalName

From the SharePoint JavaScripts blog:

<script type="text/javascript">  
/*************************************************************  
Type:  
Singelline tekst and multiline tekst (Plain text), Number, Currency  = text  
Multichoice checkbox = checkbox (returns commaseparated values)  
Date (returns date only, but works with both DateOnly and DateAndTime) = date  
RadioButton = radio  
Dropdown = dropdown  
Yes/No = bool  
Hyperlink or picture (returns commaseparated: description,url) = url  
Lookup - single (below and over 20 items), MultiLookup (returns array) = lookup  
Lookup Multiple - you can use plain 'lookup', but if you want only "multi" = lookupMulti  
Person - DisplayName = personDisplay  
Person - LoginName = personLogin  
Use: var value = returnValue('checkbox','FieldInternalNameOfYourField');  
*************************************************************/ 
function returnValue(type, fieldInternalName) {  
var arr = document.getElementsByTagName('!');//get all comments  
for (var i=0;i < arr.length; i++ ) {  
        // Date  
        if (type=='date' && arr[i].innerHTML.match('FieldInternalName="' + fieldInternalName + '"')) {  
            var fieldTitle = arr[i].innerHTML.substring(arr[i].innerHTML.indexOf('FieldName=')+11,arr[i].innerHTML.indexOf('\n')-2);  
            var tags = document.getElementsByTagName('input');  
            for (var i=0; i < tags.length; i++) {  
                if (tags[i].title == fieldTitle && tags[i].parentElement.parentElement.parentElement.parentElement.parentElement.parentElement.innerHTML.indexOf('FieldName="'+fieldTitle+'"') > -1)  
                {  
                return tags[i].value;  
                }  
            }  
        // RadioButton - Credit to http://blog.markuso.com/ - slightly modified by me to use FieldInternalName  
        }else if(type=='radio' && arr[i].innerHTML.match('FieldInternalName="' + fieldInternalName + '"')) {  
        var tags = document.getElementsByTagName("input");  
            for (var i=0; i < tags.length; i++) {  
            var nameString = tags[i].name;  
            // get selected radio button value only  
            if (tags[i].type == "radio") {  
                var tagParentHTML = tags[i].parentElement.parentElement.parentElement.parentElement.parentElement.parentElement.parentElement.innerHTML;  
                    if (tagParentHTML.indexOf('FieldInternalName="'+fieldInternalName+'"') > -1) {  
                    var radioButtons = document.getElementsByName(nameString);  
                    var radioValue = "";  
                    for (var x=0; x < radioButtons.length; x++) {  
                        if (radioButtons[x].checked) {  
                            radioValue = radioButtons[x].parentElement.title;  
                            break;  
                        }  
                    }  
                    var o = document.createElement("INPUT");  
                    o.type = "hidden";  
                    o.value = radioValue;  
                    return o.value;  
                    }  
            }  
        }  
        return null;  
        // Checkbox  
        }else if(type=='checkbox') {  
            var arr = [];  
            var arrValue = [];  
            var tags = document.getElementsByTagName("input");  
            for (var i=0; i < tags.length; i++) {  
                if (tags[i].type == "checkbox") {  
                var tagParentHTML = tags[i].parentElement.parentElement.parentElement.parentElement.parentElement.parentElement.parentElement.innerHTML;  
                    if (tagParentHTML.indexOf('FieldInternalName="'+fieldInternalName+'"') > -1) {  
                    arr.push(tags[i].id);  
                    }  
                }  
            }  
                for (var x=0; x < arr.length; x++) {  
                var chkBox = document.getElementById(arr[x]);  
                    if (chkBox.checked) {  
                        arrValue.push(chkBox.parentElement.title);  
                    }  
                }  
            return arrValue.toString();  
        // Text or Dropdown  
        }else if((type=='text' || type=='dropdown') && arr[i].innerHTML.match('FieldInternalName="' + fieldInternalName + '"')) {  
            return arr[i].parentNode.childNodes[1].childNodes[0].value;  
        // Hyperlink or Picture  
        }else if(type=='url' && arr[i].innerHTML.match('FieldInternalName="' + fieldInternalName + '"')) {  
            // returns commaseparated (description,url) so it can be split later  
            var hyperlink = [];  
            hyperlink.push(arr[i].parentNode.childNodes[1].childNodes[4].value);  
            hyperlink.push(arr[i].parentNode.childNodes[1].childNodes[1].value);  
            return hyperlink;  
        // Bool  
        }else if(type=='bool' && arr[i].innerHTML.match('FieldInternalName="' + fieldInternalName + '"')) {  
            return arr[i].parentNode.childNodes[1].childNodes[0].checked;  
        // Lookup  
        }else if(type=='lookup' && arr[i].innerHTML.match('FieldInternalName="' + fieldInternalName + '"')) {  
        // Under 20 items  
        var opt = arr[i].parentNode.childNodes[1].childNodes[0].options;  
            if(opt!=null) {  
                for (var x=0;x<opt.length;x++) {  
                    if(opt[x].selected == true) {  
                        return (opt[x].innerHTML);  
                    }  
                }  
            }else if(opt==null){  
                if(arr[i].parentNode.childNodes[1].childNodes[0].childNodes[0]!= null) {  
                    // Over 20 items  
                    return arr[i].parentNode.childNodes[1].childNodes[0].childNodes[0].value;  
                }else{  
                    // MultiLookup - optionally you can call the script with type='lookupMulti'  
                    var arrSelected = [];  
                    var fieldId = arr[i].parentNode.childNodes[1].childNodes[0].id;  
                    var selectResultId = fieldId.substr(0,fieldId.indexOf('MultiLookupPicker')) + 'SelectResult';  
                    var selectResultField = document.getElementById(selectResultId);  
                        for(var x=0;x < selectResultField.length; x++){  
                        arrSelected.push (selectResultField[x].innerHTML);  
                        }  
                    return arrSelected.toString();  
                }  
            }  
        }  
        // Lookup Multi (can also use plain 'lookup' as spacified above  
        else if(type=='lookupMulti' && arr[i].innerHTML.match('FieldInternalName="' + fieldInternalName + '"')) {  
        var arrSelected = [];  
        var fieldId = arr[i].parentNode.childNodes[1].childNodes[0].id;  
        var selectResultId = fieldId.substr(0,fieldId.indexOf('MultiLookupPicker')) + 'SelectResult';  
        var selectResultField = document.getElementById(selectResultId);  
            for(var x=0;x < selectResultField.length; x++){  
            arrSelected.push (selectResultField[x].innerHTML);  
            }  
        return arrSelected.toString();  
        // Person  
        }else if(type=='personDisplay' && arr[i].innerHTML.match('FieldInternalName="' + fieldInternalName + '"')) {  
        var rawString = arr[i].parentNode.childNodes[1].innerHTML;  
            if(rawString.indexOf('isresolved="True"')>0){  
            // user resolved OK  
                // Use these for DisplayName  
                var displayName = rawString.indexOf('displaytext="');  
                var start = displayName + 13;  
                var stopp = displayName + rawString.substring(rawString.indexOf('displaytext="')).indexOf('key="')-2;  
                var user = rawString.substring(start, stopp);  
                return user;  
            }else{  
            // user not resolved  
                return "";  
            }  
        }else if(type=='personLogin' && arr[i].innerHTML.match('FieldInternalName="' + fieldInternalName + '"')) {  
        var rawString = arr[i].parentNode.childNodes[1].innerHTML;  
            if(rawString.indexOf('isresolved="True"')>0){  
                // Use these for Loginname  
                var loginName = rawString.indexOf('isresolved="True"');  
                var start = loginName + rawString.substring(rawString.indexOf('isresolved="True"')).indexOf('key="')+5;  
                var stopp = loginName + rawString.substring(rawString.indexOf('isresolved="True"')).indexOf('">');  
                var user = rawString.substring(start, stopp);  
                return user;  
            }else{  
            // user not resolved  
                return "";  
            }  
        }  

    }  
}  
</script>