Monday, May 19, 2014

PivotTable Operation Failed - "An error occurred while working on the Data Model in the workbook"

I recently came upon this error when clicking on slicers in a PowerPivot report published to SharePoint 2013:



Fix: Try restarting both the SQL Server Analysis Services (POWERPIVOT) service and SQL Server PowerPivot System Service



  1. Restart SQL Server Analysis Services (POWERPIVOT) service
    • Has to be done on the server PowerPivot was set up on -- if you do not know the server go to Central Administration > Application Management > Manage service applications > select the Excel Service Application > Data Model Settings > server name will show up here if it has been set up. If there is no server listed here then this piece of the configuration MUST be completed! Refer to this TECHNET article)

  2. Restart SQL Server PowerPivot System Service
    • Central Administration > System Settings > Manage services on server > Stop and start the SQL Server PowerPivot System Service

The following technet article explains service dependencies and the effects of restarting these services. I recommend reviewing this before implementing the fix: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee637437(v=sql.105).aspx


Coming Soon...


Wednesday, April 9, 2014

SharePoint 2013 Search Series

I recently had several SharePoint 2013 search projects come up. I was anxious to work on something new and especially excited to delve into a few projects of this sort. Clearly there was much to learn in order to deliver a great end product so I spent -- and continue to spend -- a bit of time becoming familiar with the new features 2013 search offers. In addition to this, SharePoint conference had some great sessions on search so I was even more pumped to get to it.

A quick go-to resource I have found more than helpful has been a series that was published on Microsoft's technet blogs. They've done a great job presenting search from the bottom up. From creating result sources to creating verticals to improve your client's search experience. Also, from playing around with display templates to custom actions on the preview panel.

The series has many topics and subtopics and can become a bit annoying if you're trying to navigate to get to a specific topic in the series. Because of this, I created a table with all the main topics and subtopics included in each post. I hope this is helpful and time saving if you decide to use this as a reference.


























May this help you find your way sooner than later

Monday, February 3, 2014

InfoPath - hide/show fields based on SharePoint groups

Thank you to all who came to my presentation this past weekend at SharePoint Saturday!

In my presentation I mentioned that you can hide/show fields based on what SharePoint group the user opening the form is a member of. 
Someone asked about how to do that and it can be found on jaliya's BLOG.

I have also found this same method very useful when multiple groups (i.e. submitter, marketing, finance, etc.) use the same form. You can create a form load rule and switch the view to the one you need the individual to go to.
If using this approach on form load, make a quick modification to Step 6 -- change the condition to "is not equal to..."

Once you've done this you'll feel like...