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SharePoint

SharePoint Designer – Error: Could not save the list changes to the server

I was working with a client recently and tried to create a new form for a list within SharePoint Designer and received the unfriendly error:

“Could not save the list changes to the server.”

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I had created list forms on this list before, so I began back tracking what has changed since I had created one on this list before.  One thing I did was change a set of Lookup columns within the list to point to new lists and removed the old lists where lookup columns used to point to.

When looking at the list columns I found the lookup column that didn’t have a list that it pointed to:

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When you go into the column you will see again there is no corresponding list for the lookup:

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I deleted the old column and REFRESHED SharePoint Designer.  If you just try to create the form without refreshing you will receive the same error.

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Once I refreshed…Voila!

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Hopefully if anyone else gets this error this post will be helpful!

 

Changing a site column or content type group to the _Hidden group

Content types and columns use Groups to organize them. These are used so things are easier to find as there are a lot of default columns and content types (600+ columns and 80+ content types). As you turn on more features you will continue to get other content types and columns added to your site for you to use. You can access the site column and site content type through the Site Settings page.

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Once you go into either page you will see the information organized by Groups with a Show Groups drop down on the top right of the page to easily filter.

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What you WON’T see on either of these pages are a collection hidden content types and columns.  A good example is the overall Title column for the Item content type. This is a very crucial column that is used across many site content types. So if you change the Title column at the site level, it will cascade to all of your content types and lists that are using that column. I have worked with many clients that did not fully understand what they were updating when they did this so it’s fairly common to see a field like this renamed. If you go into the site columns page you will not see this column because it is part of the _Hidden group. If I go in through site content types -> Item -> Title column, you will see that the column exists in the _Hidden group.

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To change the group of this column you can either select an existing group or create a new group.

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Once you make your changes the column or content type that you changed will now be viewable under the site columns or site content types page in the group that you selected.

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Now what if you wanted to change this back or add a new column or content type to the _Hidden group? When you go back to the edit page you will see that under the Existing group drop down you don’t have the _Hidden option.

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All you need to do is type “_Hidden” in the New group text box and it will move it into the _Hidden group and it will NOT create a new group.

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Now when you go back to the site columns or site content types page you will no longer see what you moved to the _Hidden group.

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SharePoint Server 2016 Webinar

I recently did a webinar with my coworker Matt Engibous on SharePoint Server 2016.  This webinar was recorded and I wanted to pass along a link to the recording.

Link to webinar video

Here is detailed information about what we discussed in the webinar…

Learn What You Need to Know about SharePoint 2016

Are you falling behind with your current version of SharePoint? Join us for a webinar to learn what’s new in SharePoint 2016 to keep your business on the leading edge. We’ll walk through:

  • How did we get here?
  • New key features
  • What is being deprecated in this version
  • Upgrade options
  • And more!

SharePoint Server 2016 Goes RTM

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After multiple previews of SharePoint Server 2016 being available for the public to test and learn, the RTM (Release to Manufacturing) version of SharePoint Server 2016 is now available to download.  Today also announced general availability of the Cloud Hybrid Search solution for SharePoint.  General availability of SharePoint Server 2016 will be occurring in May.

The product key for a trial of RTM can be same as the product key provided for Beta 2:

NQGJR-63HC8-XCRQH-MYVCH-3J3QR

 

Here are the detailed links:

Steps to hide content from Delve in Office 365

When Delve was released by Microsoft it was pretty groundbreaking in the content management world. There was finally a tool that would help people find content no matter where it was located. This is one of the primary struggles that I work with clients with all the time. People love to think that adding custom managed metadata and building a super complex information architecture will allow people to find content easier. In some use cases this works but as a daily business practice this can drive people away. And once you break down those ECM walls you end up with unorganized chaos. As an ECM guy my palms get sweaty just thinking about some of the setups I have worked on where millions of files are strewn across file shares with no good way to ever find anything. So when Delve came along and basically said; “I don’t care where your content is – here are the files that I think you should be using.” this lessened the need of an in-depth ECM process and at the same time opened up people’s eyes around content security. I don’t want to go too much into Delve as a whole but here is some quick info and handy links before I break down how to hide content.

What is Office Delve?

  • Delve helps you discover the information that’s likely to be most interesting to you right now – across Office 365. Find information about people – and through people – and help others find you.
  • You don’t have to remember the title of a document or where it’s stored. Delve shows you documents no matter where they’re stored in OneDrive for Business or in Sites in Office 365.
  • Delve never changes any permissions, so you’ll only see documents that you already have access to. Other people will not see your private documents.
  • Office Delve for Office 365 admins

Hiding content from Delve

You may have a scenario in which you don’t want content to appear in Delve no matter what. Some examples could be high volume transactional processing files or payroll tracking information. Thankfully Microsoft has given us a simple way to hide content from Delve by using a site column called HideFromDelve. This can be done at the library level as well but I wanted to provide instructions so end users can have the power to add this column after it has been created once.

Important note: This will only hide content from the Delve app itself. The document will still be viewable via search and the Office Graph.

  1. Navigate to the site that has a library of files in which you want to be able to hide them from Delve
  2. Use the gear in the top right to go to Site Settings

  3. Under Web Designer Galleries, click on Site columns

  4. Click Create


  5. Enter the column information and click Ok, the name and type have to be EXACT for this to work.
    1. Name: HideFromDelve
    2. Type: Yes/No (checkbox)
    3. Default value: No


  6. Navigate to the library that you want to hide content and go to Library Settings via the ribbon


  7. Under the list of columns, click the link Add from existing site columns

  8. Scrolls down in the Available site columns list and select the newly created HideFromDelve column and click the add button to move it across. Then click Ok

  9. Navigate back to your library and you can begin marking documents to be hidden from Delve. The quickest way to do this is through the Quick Edit view.

  10. After the next scheduled crawl, the document will no longer appear in Delve!