strange behavior web service lists.asmx web method UpdateListItems


Badge +4

In a workflow we use web service lists.asmx with method UpdateListItems to create an item in another list and later on to update this item.

This all worked fine while testing on Preproduction and for four weeks after go-live to Production.

A week ago the web service started to work only intermittently. Some items can be created while others fail.

The web service is configured to capture errors but it does not throw any error when the item creation fails!

I tested capturing errors with forbidden character in the item name and these errors are captured.

Since the web service does not throw an error when it fails to copy the item I don't know how to fix this.

Does any of you have an idea why this fails?

If you need more information e.g. web service soap xml please let me know.

We use SharePoint / Nintex 2010 (v2.4.6.0 - International).

Thank you.


4 replies

Userlevel 5
Badge +12

You may have to check the ULS logs while testing to see if any errors are being spit out behind the scenes.   This should give you a better indication of what might be taking place.

Thanks,

Mike

Badge +4

Thanks Mike.

I found the following error:

05/17/2016 14:31:12.48 w3wp.exe (0x19FC) 0x1568 SharePoint Foundation General c3pa High Batchmgr Method error. Errorcode: 0x41ff9f40. Error message: The user does not exist or is not unique. 3e2ba1b1-c305-4e7b-9e2c-5ab6b63cf067

There is indeed a mailbox involved that is not unique. We have to resolve this.

But why is it working intermittently? This mailbox is being used all the time and it fails very rarely!?

While this error is logged in ULS the web service action does not throw an error.

Is there a way to configure the web service call to catch this particular error?

Thank you.

Userlevel 5
Badge +12

Hi Thomas,


I've seen similar things before, and sometimes just selecting the"right" user is enough to fix it.  It can get pretty confusing when two or more objects have the same name.   I  can't be 100% but it might be that different web front ends are handling the workflow (do you have more than one?) and thus you see the different behavior.   I've seen similar things along those lines.   If you  are  already setting the webservice to  catch the error then you probably  won't be able to log it further as far as the Nintex designer is concerned.   You could turn on verbose logging to get more output in your ULS logs which may or  may not help.  Hopefully this is enough to  get you started down the right path.

Thanks

Mike

Badge +4

Thank you Mike.

I know what you mean. I also experienced some strange things and scratched my head about SharePoint and workflows.

I marked your answer as correct.

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