Metadata column not visible for users other than site collection administrators

Recently I came across an issue, where data from a column of the type "Managed Metadata" did not show up for users. Only the site collection administrators were able to see the content.

Cause:
Users did not have permissions on a hidden list. List is called Hidden Taxonomy List and the url is something like this: http://...SITEURL.../lists/taxonomyhiddenlist

Granting permissions on this list makes the managed metadata accessible to users (who have permissions) on this list. This information comes from the manged metadata store (term store).

Resolution
Browse to the hidden taxonomy list.
Check the permissions of this list and check if users have at least read permissions. Usually, it is preferred to give "NT AUTHORITY\AUTHENTICATED USERS" read permissions on this list.

Update: About a year later, Microsoft has now published a KB article for this issue
Managed Metadata column on a SharePoint 2010 list does not display values added from term store

SharePoint User Profile Service stuck in "Starting" state

The reason for this can be many. This issue can be avoided if the steps mentioned in the following articles are done properly. The article is very reference for setting up UPS. (I am feeling a bit lazy today, so pointing you guys to some very informative articles on the net. In case you have messed up User profile service application while setup, I would recommend to do it from scratch by following these articles)

Rational Guide to implementing SharePoint Server 2010 User Profile Synchronization
http://www.harbar.net/articles/sp2010ups.aspx

“Stuck on Starting”: Common Issues with SharePoint Server 2010 User Profile Synchronization
http://www.harbar.net/articles/sp2010ups2.aspx

Enabling SharePoint Developer Dashboard

SharePoint 2010 introduces a new feature called "Developer toolbar". This toolbar can be useful to administrators as well as developers to identify potential issues at user interface level and resolve them.


The information provided by enabling developer dashboard is very useful for diagnosis of performance, web parts and other interface/web related issues. We can even get ASP.NET trace information from this page if required.

To enable it, we can use stsadm or powershell.

STSADM commands to enable developer dashboard
On Demand (Developer Dashboard only visible when requested)

stsadm -o setproperty -pn developer-dashboard -pv ondemand

Always On (Dashboard will be displayed on all the pages)

stsadm -o setproperty -pn developer-dashboard -pv on

Off (Dashboard will not be displayed. This is the default setting)

stsadm -o setproperty -pn developer-dashboard -pv off

Powershell way to enable Developer Dashboard
- Start SharePoint 2010 Management Shell from Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Products menu.
- Run the following powershell script at the prompt

$dashbrd = [Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPWebService]::ContentService.DeveloperDashboardSettings;
$dashbrd.DisplayLevel = 'OnDemand';
$dashbrd.TraceEnabled = $true;
$dashbrd.Update();

Using the above script we are setting the dashboard to be OnDemand. We can set it to "Off" or "On" like the stsadm commands.

Navigate to the site and you will now see an icon near your login/display name near the top right corner. Clicking on this icon will show or hide the dashboard



Happy SharePointing!

Cascading lookup field in SharePoint 2007 / 2010

Check out this articles. They provide a nice and easy way to create cascading drop down lookup fields in your new or edit form.

SharePoint 2010: How to create Cascading Lookup Field (InfoPath approach)
http://blog.libinuko.com/2010/07/21/sharepoint-2010-how-to-create-cascading-lookup-field/

SharePoint 2010: How to create Cascading Lookup Field using Client Object Model
http://blog.libinuko.com/2011/01/29/sharepoint-2010-how-to-create-cascading-lookup-field-using-client-object-model/

There is also a ready to use solution available on codeplex which uses a different approach of using custom field controls for achieving the cascading effect.
http://cascddlistwithfilter.codeplex.com/

Reference:
http://datacogs.com/datablogs/archive/2007/08/26/641.aspx

Increase Rich Text Editor’s Field Width in SharePoint site

There are times when you would like that the rich text editor on your SharePoint site fits the entire page width so that you can edit the content easily. By default, the editor field is around 400 pixels in width and does not increase beyond it. It is due to the CSS style applied on that SharePoint field control.

I wanted something like this on my site:

This is how you achieve it:
https://zsharepoint.wordpress.com/2013/05/15/sharepoint-101-full-width-rich-text-editor/

Thanks to Zach. This was a very simple CSS hack to modify the width of the rich text editor.

1. Create a new .css file and enter the following code over there:

#onetIDListForm, #onetIDListForm .ms-formbody, #onetIDListForm 
iframe[title="Rich Text Editor"]{width:100% !important;} 
.ms-formbody span span div iframe, .ms-formbody span span 
table.ms-long{width:100%; text-align:left;} 

2. Save the .css file in a document library on your site.
3. Reference the .css file in the masterpage using the following code.

NOTE: There is some problem with blogger, not allowing me to post the entire code. Please refer to the link mentioned above for the code to reference your CSS file in your masterpage. 4. Save the changes to MasterPage and refresh the page.

Or you can check out my another blog - http://sharepointservices.wordpress.com/2011/03/09/increase-rich-text-editors-field-width-in-sharepoint-site