Top 3 SharePoint Gotchas and their Remedies

The following are three SharePoint gotchas and their remedies:

1. Column Naming: When working with lists or list items, ensure one uses the correct column name—either external or internal. Internal column names remain invariant once created, and SharePoint encodes special characters differently.
2. Lookup Columns: If one’s list template includes a lookup column, be cautious when creating a new list from it. Lookup columns reference lists within the same site collection. If one creates a child list in a different site collection, the referenced list won’t exist. To fix, recreate the referenced list in the other site collection and update the lookup column accordingly.
3. Workflow Troubleshooting: If one’s custom workflow activity isn’t triggering, consider these factors:
• Workflows will not trigger if the action was performed by the System Account. Impersonation or running under a service account may be necessary when triggering workflows from a timer job.
• Ensure the client application running the object model has appropriate permissions.