Issues Mapping SharePoint Content Columns to Ektron Metadata

  • Updated

One may experience issues when mapping SharePoint columns to Ektron Metadata. Common error messages associated to mapping issues are as follows:

  • SaveAssetObjectInstanceL Save Failed. No mapping found for object SmartForm/Sharepoint/SP/ListName/ItemName
  • Field with ID: DXH/ContentHtml/MetaData/1 has a null value field. The CMS MetaData will not be set.
  • Could not save Event /SP/ListName/ItemName Timeout Expired.

This is typically due to an invalid data type, null value, or an incorrect value being passed into the Ektron Metadata (meaning a text value being passed into an integer type).

There are a few things to avoid when mapping SharePoint content with Ektron content.

  1. Make sure the SharePoint column data is an acceptable datatype for the Ektron MetaData definition. Below is a list of accepted types that can be used.
    • Byte
    • Date
    • Float
    • Integer
    • Long
    • Multiple Selections (Has Limitations)
    • Number(generic)
    • Select from list
    • Short
    • Text
    • Yes or No
  2. Verify that the SharePoint column types correspond to the Ektron metadata types. If the SharePoint column is a text type for example, it cannot be mapped to an Ektron Metadata integer type.
  3. Null reference exceptions that correspond to metadata mappings are just warnings, however, if there is a metadata item that is throwing the message that is supposed to be mapped, there may be a missing or broken column on the SharePoint content. Take a SharePoint form for example, when creating the form fields one can also create a data column and assign it to that field. If the column is not assigned or is not referenced correctly in SharePoint, it cannot be mapped to the Ektron MetaData. The null reference is thrown because there is a MetaData definition assigned to the SharePoint folder but it has not been mapped to a SharePoint column.
  4. Make sure not to remove or modify Column information in SharePoint once it has been mapped to Ektron Metadata definitions as it may cause issues the automatic update functionality (followed by one of the error messages listed above). This functionality is used to automatically update the content in Ektron when it has been update, deleted, or added in SharePoint. If the column data has been modified in SharePoint other that the stored content, it may potentially break the mappings for that MetaData definition.
 

For more information on mapping SharePoint columns to Ektron Metadata click here.