Camlex 5.1 and Camlex.Client 3.2 have been released: support for Includes/NotIncludes operations

Good news for Sharepoint developers which use Camlex and Camlex.Client in their work (Camlex is free open source library for simplifying creation of CAML queries in Sharepoint by using C# lambda expressions): today new versions Camlex 5.1 and Camlex.Client 3.2 have been released. In this version support of Include/NotInclude CAML operations was added to the library. Here is what MSDN says about Includes element:

If the specified field is a Lookup field that allows multiple values, specifies that the Value element is included in the list item for the field that is specified by the FieldRef element.

and about NotIncludes:

If the specified field is a Lookup field that allows multiple values, specifies that the Value element is excluded from the list item for the field that is specified by the FieldRef element.

I.e. these operations are used for multi lookup fields. And although there are known workarounds which allows to use another operations to make similar queries (see e.g. CAML query for field of type “Person or Group” which allows multiple selections) I’ve decided to add support of official operations for multiple lookup field types in order to have complete set of CAML operations in Camlex. Let’s see how it works.

In order to create CAML query with Includes operation with Camlex use the following syntax:

string caml = Camlex.Query().Where(x => ((int)x["Foo"]).Includes(1)).ToString();

Here we used Includes extension method defined in Camlex. It will produce the following CAML:

<Where>
  <Includes>
    <FieldRef Name="Foo" />
    <Value Type="Integer">1</Value>
  </Includes>
</Where>

If we need to perform query using lookup id (i.e. add LookupId=”TRUE” attribute to FieldRef element) – use overloaded version of Includes method with boolean parameter and pass true there:

string caml = Camlex.Query().Where(x => ((int)x["Foo"]).Includes(1, true)).ToString();

which will produce:

<Where>
  <Includes>
    <FieldRef Name="Foo" LookupId="True" />
    <Value Type="Integer">1</Value>
  </Includes>
</Where>

The same functionality is also added to Camlex.Client – Camlex version built for CSOM. Both Camlex and Camlex.Client are available in Nuget. You may add them to your projects by using the following commands:

Install-Package Camlex.NET.dll

or for CSOM version:

Install-Package Camlex.Client.dll

Hope that new feature will help in your work.

Workaround for render error of SPFx web part

If on your Sharepoint site you use SPFx web part (ClientSideWebPart) you may face with the following error:

Failed to render client side web part. Web part … failed to render as manifest is not found

Web Part framework is not loaded

In order to  avoid this problem try the following workaround: go to App catalog, delete web part’s app package from there and upload it again.

Set DenyAddAndCustomizePages to Disabled for modern Sharepoint sites via PowerShell

Recently we faced with the following problem: when tried to set DenyAddAndCustomizePages property of modern Sharepoint site to Disabled (which means that customizations will be enabled for that site) using PnP PowerShell:

Set-PnPTenantSite -Url $url -NoScriptSite:$false

the following error was thrown:

Error in proc_GetSitesAllowDenyList, no rowset returned

In order to fix it you have to call Connect-PnPOnline for tenat’s admin center (https://{tenant}-admin.sharepoint.com) not to target site itself. Also using CSOM version works more stable than shown Set-PnPTenantSite. Here is the final code:

$adminUrl = $tenantUrl.Replace(".sharepoint", "-admin.sharepoint")
$adminConnection = Ensure-PnPConnection $adminUrl
$pnpSite = Get-PnPTenantSite -Url $url -Detailed -Connection $adminConnection
$pnpSite.DenyAddAndCustomizePages = "Disabled"
$pnpSite.Update()
$pnpSite.Context.ExecuteQuery()

After that error should gone.

How to fix Sharepoint search crawler when it stucks on Crawling full

If you use search on your Sharepoint site you may face with the issue that search crawler stuck in Crawling full status. In the logs you may find the following error:

Failed to create session with indexer ---> Microsoft.Ceres.SearchCore.Services.ContentRouter.ContentException: Unable to connect to index system

In this case try to execute the following PowerShell cmdlets:

$ssa = Get-SPEnterpriseSearchServiceApplication
Get-SPEnterpriseSearchStatus -Text -SearchApplication $ssa

It should show all components of search topology in Active state:

If there will be components which state is Degraded – your topology is in wrong state. In this case solution is to recreation of Search service application. After that run full crawl and it should work and stop successfully this time.