Unable to start Project Application Service?

When I started the Project Application Service, I was receiving the following error:

The password for the account [User] currently stored in SharePoint is not the same as current password for the Account in Active Directory. To fix this with Powershell, run Set-SPManagedAccount - UseExistingPassword.

The message also provides the resolution. So as stated, we opened the SharePoint Management Shell: Navigate to Start > Program Files > Microsoft SharePoint > SharePoint Management Shell and type the command.

Set-SPManagedAccount -UseExistingPassword

It asks for Identity and Password. Enter the ManagedAccount UserID and Password and start the service again. You should be fine.

If you are still reading this, may be you're not.

When we restarted the service, we came across another Error message.

This Project Web App instance is unavailable because there are no Project Application Service instances started to service this request. Contact the administrator to check that at least one Project Application Service instance is enabled on this farm.

For this just check the AppPool and start all the stopped App Pools.

Start > Administrative Tools > IIS > Application Pool (in the left navigation)

PS: I was using Microsoft SharePoint 2010

FAILED ON START (retrying) Workflow resolution might be easier than you think

When you click on FAILED ON START (retrying), it gives you a page which says "Error updating list item" and the outcome column gives "Unknown Error"

I noticed that the workflow (built using SPD 2007) wasn’t able to create a task for a SharePoint User and hence was failing with this error.

Looking into the SharePoint Logs (Workflow Infrastructure category) this is what I got:

Error in commiting pending workflow batch items: Microsoft.SharePoint.SPException: Invalid look-up value  A look-up field contains invalid data. Please check the value and try again. ---> System.Runtime.InteropServices.COMException 

• I first check if this user had access to SharePoint Site. Positive.
• I then checked if the User had a valid SharePoint User Profile. Positive.

However when I tried to create a new user profile for this user, it wasn't able to find as shown below.

Just for the sake of testing I tried to use another valid user account (account_b) to assign the task to him (via the workflow). This user had access on the SharePoint site and also had a valid SharePoint User Profile. In addition to that, when I inserted (account_b) user into the Account Name above, it resolved to an Active Directory account successfully.

And to my surprise, the workflow ran successfully and was able to create the task. Now the workflow state is "In Progress"

Though this resolved the issue something still boggling my mind.

1. This user alalik (as in the above image) was already available in SharePoint User Profile and also had access to the SharePoint Site.
2. When I manually created the task for this user alalik (as in the above image), SharePoint successfully created it.

Why then did it not create the task via the SPD workflow?

Questions still prevails, but thankfully resolution was permanent. I would appreciate if someone can answer this in the comments below and I hope this helps many out there.

How to fix: RENDER FAILED issue when you try to filter a SharePoint List (WSS3.0)

You have a SharePoint list that has more than 500 items. The list has a column of "People and Groups" type with the "Allow multiple selections" setting set to "Yes". If you click Show Filter Choices in this list, you receive the following error message:

#RENDER FAILED

My SharePoint log displayed the below error:

Unknown SQL Exception 4104 occured. Additional error information from SQL Server is included below.  The multi-part identifier "UserData.nvarchar5" could not be bound.  The multi-part identifier "UserData.tp_ID" could not be bound.  ORDER BY items must appear in the select list if SELECT DISTINCT is specified.

Applying KB article : 970946 will fix the issue

How to fix: "The security validation for this page is invalid." error

When you want to programmatically update a column for a list or library item, an error similar to the below might be thrown.

The security validation for this page is invalid. Click Back in your Web browser, refresh the page, and try your operation again.

Now, I have many web methods which are updating many different libraries in my site, but this particular issue occurred on one of the web methods connected to one particular library. Though I have not been able to understand why, but I was able to resolve the issue by using the following command.

myWeb.AllowUnsafeUpdate = true;

myListItem["Status"] = "Approved";

myListItem.Update(); 

I still want to know the reason why only one of the web method and library needed this extra piece of code? All other web methods are updating library items without the use of this code.

I would appreciate your comments if you may know the reason for this. If you have found this helpful, let me know that too :)

How to fix: "Unable to display this Web Part" when you want to initiate a workflow manually

Issue

This was a recent encounter (error message below) while starting a Workflow manually in MOSS (SharePoint 2007).

Unable to display this Web Part. To troubleshoot the problem, open this Web page in a Windows SharePoint Services-compatible HTML editor such as Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer. If the problem persists, contact your Web server administrator.

For your better understanding, let me first explain you where I was at, and where I was heading. I wanted to start a workflow manually on a Document Library. [That wasn't tough :)]

I navigated to the:

• Document Library >
• Library Item >
• Edit Menu >
• Click on Workflows.
• Under Start a New Workflow section, I clicked on the Workflow and was eye to eye with the error.

Analysis

As the error was instructing me to use SharePoint Designer, so I opened. And since this was a web part that was failing, I thought if I could remove the web part from the page and add it again. This was my source of greater understanding.

But since this was related to Workflows, I opened the particular workflow that was failing and noticed an .aspx page in the bundle (as below). This ASPX page represents the page that we use to manually run the workflow.

Resolution

I backed up this .aspx page, merely by changing its name. I then opened the Workflow (.xoml file) and published it. This action created a new ASPX page for me.

Now when I clicked on Start a New Workflow, the page appeared fine and I was able to run the workflow.