Description This article describes an issue with Ektron Automatic aliases that are not present in the CMS. In the database for these aliases there will be negative mapping IDs. An example is seen below. Resolution To resolve the issue please follow one of these directions: If there is only a few content items, one can just republish those items in the CMS. If there a lot of content items, then one can either: Use the ContentManager to retrieve and republish these content it...

DescriptionWhen you need to change the content status via the database, you need to change more then just the content_status column in the content table. This process may need to be run in cases where a content item is displaying an error in the workarea, or the status is not in a recognized state. The following script will fix the issue by updating the content item's status as well as associated tables. CauseContent may become stuck in a particular status if someone may leave the compa...

Description What methods of encrypting the Ektron database have been tested and are supported? Resolution Encrypting the Ektron databases further has not been tested within the Ektron CMS. Many forms of encryption are likely to cause issues within the CMS, but is is suspected that Transparent Data Encryption (TDE) would likely not impact the CMS. TDE encryption has not been tested within the CMS, but the following article has more information. Transparent Data Encryption (TDE)...

DescriptionOccasionally when troubleshooting issues, such as eSync and Go-Live functionality, the support tech may ask you to clear out your "AssetServerTable" and stop and start the Ektron Windows Service.  ResolutionWhen requested to clear the "AssetServerTable", please run the following SQL script: delete from assetservertable Once finished, stop and start the Ektron Windows Service to regenerate the table's contents. Note: Doing this should not require a database backup because the ...

DescriptionWhen troubleshooting Go-Live or archive issues, a support tech may ask you to clear your perform_action table.The perform_action table acts as a "bucket," where current actions in the CMS are temporarily stored. For example, if you publish content, the content temporarily resides in the "perform_action" table until the system processes the request. Occasionally, a perform_action table gets backed up. This backup can cause some items to not go live on schedule, or be published in a...

DescriptionIncorrect results may return when using the API below with the recursive property set.  In this case, results from other folders may appear in the results. ContentManager cm = new ContentManager(Ektron.Cms.Framework.ApiAccessMode.Admin); ContentCriteria criteria = new ContentCriteria(); criteria.FolderRecursive = true; CauseThe real cause is that there is corrupt content in the folder or one of it's sub folders.  You can usually identify the errant content as it will...

Description This article describes a product issue when creating a new catalog entry content with a content selector metadata. The complete error would look like the sample below. Timestamp: 1/18/2016 8:36:23 PMMessage: Exception thrown from: /WorkArea/medialist.aspx?action=ViewLibraryByCategory&actionType=library&autonavfolder=-1&scope=&autonav=%5c&dentrylink=0&EditorName=&enhancedmetaselect=1&selectids=&selecttitles=&separator=&metadataformtagid=4TrueConversion from type 'DBNull' to t...

Description At some point you may run into an issue which requires you to backup your database and upload it to Ektron support. To that end, here are some simple steps to create a backup. Resolution 1) In SQL Server Management Studio(SSMS), connect to the database server. 2) Right click on the database you would like to backup, choose tasks, and then backup. 3) In the window that appears choose the full backup option, give it a name, backup to disk, take note of the file locati...

DescriptionWhich database permissions are necessary to set up a restored database to work with a minSite? ResolutionThe user account in the connectionstring must have the following database permissions: 

DescriptionOne may experience issues receiving errors similar to the one below in the Event Viewer or while navigating around the CMS. These errors can also occur when using the Ektron APIs. Message: System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException (0x80131904): Invalid column name 'Name'Typically the cause of the error message is that the CMS site root files do not match the version of the Ektron database. ResolutionHere are steps to avoid this behavior When running the SiteSetup Utility to apply a...

DescriptionWhen installing a min site with a min database for the first time you may run into the following error message when logging into the workarea or in the event viewer: Error Message:Receive following in the event log Timestamp: 3/10/2014 5:05:13 PM Message: Exception thrown from: / Object reference not set to an instance of an object. at Ektron.Cms.DataIO.LicenseManager.LicenseManager.a() at Ektron.Cms.DataIO.LicenseManager.LicenseManager.a(EkRequestInformation A_0) at Ektron.C...

DescriptionSome users may notice when upgrading an MVC site based of the Synergy 2011 MVC Sample (created on Ektron 8.6) to Ektron 9.1 that they are receiving errors similar to the following when using the select Ektron APIs:[CommunicationException: An error occurred while receiving the HTTP response to http://mysite/workarea/services/SiteService.svc.For security reasons, Ektron restricts access to the database from a 3-tier presentation layer or an MVC application. Some Ektron APIs check fo...

DescriptionWhen querying the Ektron database for troubleshooting, sometimes it is necessary to find the location of the content item in the workarea or in the case of assets and library items, the actual file on the file system. ResolutionWhen querying the database, the following script can be run to return the location of the content item in the workarea as well as its folder path on the file system to locate the file. This query will return the path to the content in the workarea and ...

DescriptionSome users have different values on their connection string the the Ektron CMS. The format of this string does matter for certain areas of the product to function correctly. Please make sure your connection string matches below. ResolutionThe connection string is located in the site root's web.config file and must be located in this file rather than a separate connection configuration file. Also we do NOT support encrypting your connection string at this time.Search for the k...

Description How to migrate a database to a new SQL server. Resolution Backup the source database. Copy, then restore the source backup onto the destination SQL Server. Ensure the SQL account for the connection has the necessary role memberships (minimally: db_datareader, db_datawriter, db_ddladmin, and db_executor). Update the the web server's web.config connectionString so it points to the restored database. Update server information/SQL user as necessary. Restart the EktronWi...

Description From time to time, Ektron Support may request a manual upgrade of a database. The manual upgrade process is good for upgrading a database to a base release without rerunning the site setup utility. It can also sometimes circumvent errors within the site setup utility, or identify what portion of the database upgrade is throwing an error message. As always, our support team recommends backing up the database before running any upgrade or direct manipulation of the database. N...

Description When running an upgrade to a 9.1+ series from an earlier version of Ektron a Invalid object name 'ContentCollectionView' error message is thrown. After you may also see this error.  Error:Invalid object name 'dbo.SiteViewSchemabound'. Error:Invalid object name 'dbo.ContentCollectionView'.   Cause This error message is caused by the site missing data entry that is present within later versions of the product. Resolution To upgrade the site to the desired v...

DescriptionYou may experience issues upgrading your Ektron database if it contains custom database triggers.To clarify, a database trigger is a database object that is attached to table similar to a stored procedure. These triggers are only fired when an INSERT, UPDATE or DELETE statement occurs. A database trigger can cause issues with the Ektron SiteSetup Utility, as it runs SQL calls to the database containing these statements which may fire off these elements that are not standard to an ...

DescriptionWhen developing, it is useful to know what content types and sub types you are working with. Below is a list of these types as defined in the EkEnumeration class. ResolutionContent Types  NameValue All Types -1 Undefined 0 Content 1 Forms 2 Archived Content 3 Archived Forms 4 Library Item 7 Assets 8 Archived Assets 9 Archived Media 12 Non Library Content 99 Multimedia 104 Discussion Topic 1111 Catalog Entry 3333   Content Sub Types NameValu...

DescriptionIn a multilingual environment, you are getting the following error when trying to add sub taxonomies to particular taxonomies:Error occured while executing cms_createtaxonomy: The INSERT statement conflicted with the FOREIGN KEY constraint "taxonomy_children_tbl_fk1".  The conflict ocurred in database "CMQA87" , table "dbo.taxonomy_tbl" . Warning: Null value is eliminated by an aggregate or other SET operation.    Referrer: ...Workarea/taxonomy.aspx?action=add&parentid=25276&LangT...

DescriptionWhen trying to publish content, an error may be thrown: The type initializer for 'Ektron.Cms.LanguageHelper' threw an exception CauseTypically this error stems from code that is making calls to the database and then not closing the connection. Making direct calls to the database is not recommended. ResolutionReview the code on the template in which the error was thrown to see if there are any calls to the database. If so, verify that the connections are being closed p...

DescriptionUpon 8.5 upgrade, error The transaction log for database 'name' is full. To find out why space in the log cannot be reused, see the log_reuse_wait_desc column in sys.databasesResolutionTo fix this problem, change the Database Recovery Model from "Full" to "Simple". To do this Right click the database.  Open Properties.  Click Options.  Change the Recovery Model to Simple.

DescriptionA SQL Deadlock occurs when two or more tasks permanently block each other. Each task locks a resource which the other tasks are trying to lock. The following resource types can be deadlocked:Locks - Waiting to acquire locks on resources such as objects, pages, metadata, and applications.Worker threads - Queued tasks waiting for an available worker thread.Memory - Requests are waiting for memory grants, and no memory is available.How a Deadlock is normally detectedBy default, SQL S...

DescriptionWhen you upgrade to Ektron 9.00 SP2, the database portion of the upgrade displayed the following error:ERROR! Failed to execute script!  Error[cms_SetupDefaultNotificationPreferencesForActivity}: Violation of PRIMARY KEY constraint 'PK_notification_publish_preference_tbl'. Cannot insert duplicate key in object 'dbo.notification_publish_preference_tbl'. The duplicate key value is (10082,4).  CauseAn association between a user and an activity type already exists. Resol...

Description When adding content, a user, a menu, taxonomy, or any other item in the workarea or via the API an error stating, "Violation of PRIMARY KEY constraint "column_name". Cannont insert duplicate key in object 'object_name'" occurs.  Before running any scripts listed below, please make a backup of your existing database. Cause This type of PK issue is caused by the maxentries table going beyond its set value of max entries allowed.  Resolution To resolve this issu...

DescriptionUsing the following sample will throw the error: Server Error in '<site>' Application. Invalid column name 'Description'. Description: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code. Exception Details: System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException: Invalid column name 'Description'. using System; using System.Collections.Generic; using System.Linq; usin...