Troubleshooting Dynamics

About this article

The intention of this article is to troubleshoot Dynamics issues. In many cases the validation in Template Designer or the Admin Center shows an error message if a template is configured incorrectly. However if no error message is shown this guide can help you to find a solution.

• Generic issues
• Creating a new template or uploading a template fails
• Fields are not shown on the Template tab

• Binding errors
• Validation error in Template Designer
• Validation error in Admin Center

• Content elements

• Creating a document
• Formatting is not applied to content control
• Share value is not working
• Filtering dropdown is not working
• Values in a table are shown twice
• Image field is empty
• Creating document failed error message
• The asset you are trying to access does not exist or is not available to you

• Updating a document
• The Update Document button is not available
• Dynamic bindings in the document are not updated
• Document update failed

• Text Elements

• Languages and Translations
• Translations are not working
• Proofing language is not working

 

Generic issues

Creating a new template or uploading a template fails

When you open Template Designer the message Generated by Templafy is shown, or when you upload a template to the Admin Center the message Processing document failed (Word document) or Processing presentation failed (PowerPoint presentation) is shown:

 

This happens when the document has been generated with Templafy. A generated document contains document specific information, like the document properties TemplafyTenantId, TemplafyTemplateId and TemplafyUserProfileId. You should not use a document (that contains document specific information) as base for a template.

The recommended solution is that the administrator downloads the original template from the Admin Center, makes the desired changes and then replaces the current version.

You can delete document properties and remove other settings with the 'Inspect document' feature from Microsoft Office in a generated document, but this might result in unexpected behavior or a non-working template! So always use the recommended solution described above.

 

If you want to create a new template from scratch then always choose MS Themes -> Blank Document (or Blank Presentation).
Do not use Create a blank <company name> document (or presentation) on the Home tab, as this will create a Templafy document/presentation and you'll get the same message shown above. 

 

Fields are not shown on the Template tab

In PowerPoint the template e.g. contains a Title, Subtitle and UserProfile.DisplayName shape, but in the task pane on the Template tab only the field UserProfile.DisplayName is shown:

 

This occurs when shapes are grouped. Templafy only shows ungrouped shapes. When you ungroup the shapes (in this example the Title and Subtitle field) all fields are shown in the task pane:

 

Note that the task pane only shows the fields on the current layout. If some fields are part of another layout or the Slide Master, they will only be shown when that layout or the Slide Master is selected.

 

Binding errors

Validation error in Template Designer

When inserting a smart field via e.g. Form responses this works without any issues, because you just have to click the field you want to use, but if you want to insert a field via e.g. Custom text binding or Custom image binding you have to type a binding yourself, which can cause error messages like this:

 

The 'error at position 2-19' in the example above means that the error begins at character '2' and ends at character '19' (note that counting starts with '0'):

• Expression UserProfile has a type UserProfileType which does not contain member with name <name>: In this case it means that the User Profile doesn't contain a form field named 'Office'.
• Expression does not evaluate to a type String: The (correct) column name is not used in the binding. For example the binding {{UserProfile.Office}} is used while it should be {{UserProfile.Office.Name}}.

 

Validation error in Admin Center

The Admin Center validates a template when you upload or replace it. It shows Processing this document failed for Word templates or Processing this presentation failed for PowerPoint templates and below the cause of the validation error:

 

For example these error messages can be shown:

• A malformed URI was found in the document: the template contains an incorrect hyperlink (URL/mailto). Fix the incorrect hyperlink(s) in the template:
  
  
   
• Expression UserProfile has a type UserProfileType which does not contain member with name <name>: the User Profile doesn't contain a form field named '<name>'.
• Missing data source: <data source name>: restore the missing data source.
• Nested repeating groups are not supported: remove the nested repeating groups (adaptive sections) and create separate repeating groups.
• Text elements are not supported inside repeating groups: Remove text element insertion within repeating groups (adaptive sections).
• The asset requires module Dynamics Templates to be enabled: ask Templafy to activate the module if it was purchased (after this is done you need to click Reprocess in the Admin Center), or remove Dynamics functionality (bindings, form fields etc.) from the template if the module wasn't purchased.
• Updating document is not supported for documents with repeating groups: Disable Document content updater if a template contains repeating groups (adaptive sections).

Templates are already validated in Template Designer. If the error messages above are shown in the Admin Center it could be because of the template being uploaded to a different tenant than the one where it was created. Make sure the destination tenant has the correct data sources and user profile fields with the same names as the original tenant. HostSystem bindings (used for external data) are not validated.

 

Content elements

When uploading or replacing a template this message can be shown:

 

A template with a large amount of XML may cause performance implications, which is why we have set a limit and cannot support templates exceeding this limit. 

 

Current limitation for PowerPoint: 5.000.000 content-elements Current limitation for Word: 500.000 content-elements Current limitation for Excel: 5.000.000 content-elements

 

This is most often happening on PowerPoint presentations containing a lot of shapes that can be edited by the end-user (world maps for example). In this case, we recommend: 

• The shapes do not need to be edited by the end-user: replace the content elements (shapes) with a picture. You can do so by copying the group of shapes and pasting it as a picture. 
• The shapes do require to be edited by the end-user: split the presentation into several smaller ones so it fits into the maximum allowed number of content-elements.

 

Creating a document

Formatting is not applied to content control

In a template the content control of a Templafy field is set to e.g. show bold+italic text, but when a user creates a document, the text is not bold+italic.

This can occur if no placeholder text is used when adding a smart field to a template.
For example, a 'Subject' field is created and then added to the template by clicking Add to template:

 

The Display name is shown in grey text when no placeholder text is used (1). Then the formatting of the content control is changed to bold+italic (2), but the result (when a document is created) is that 'hello world' is not bold+italic. Note that even the font size has become smaller (3):

 

The solution is to (always) use a placeholder text. In this case the Display name shows the placeholder text '[Subject]' (1). Then the formatting of the content control is changed to bold+italic (2), and this time the result is that 'hello world' is shown in bold+italic text (in the correct font size) as expected:

 

Share value is not working

The option Share value is used to display a form field only once, even if the form field is used multiple times. For example the form field is used in a document (template), but the same form field is also used in a text element that is dynamically inserted into the document.

This can occur in these situations:

• The option Share value is only enabled in the template or text element. The option Share value only works when it's enabled in both the template and text element.
• The name of the form field in the template and text element is different. The form type and name should be the same. For dropdowns make sure the same data source and column are used.
 

Filtering dropdown is not working

This can occur when data sources are not configured correctly. To be able to use field A to filter field B, the data source for field A needs to be a reference in the data source used for field B.

For example if you want to filter a city (dropdown) based on a country (dropdown), you need to have a separate Country data source and used that as a reference in the City data source.

 

Values in a table are shown twice

A table contains for example only one Address field, but in the created document the address is shown twice:

This can occur when the Text wrapping is set to Around (marked red):

 

Change the setting to None (marked green). Note that you now have no text wrapping! If you need text wrapping, then the solution is to replace the Table by a Shape.

 

Image field is empty

In the document an empty image field is shown:

 

This can occur if a data source record (intentionally) contains no image. To solve it use a dummy image file for this record (e.g. 'dummy.png') that consists of 1 (white or transparent) pixel.

 

Creating document failed error message

When creating a document the message Creating document failed and/or Failed is shown:

 

The Failed message often contains a 'Tracking id', that shows detailed information about what went wrong. For example:

• Invalid measure unit string value. (Parameter 'stringValue'): An Image Header has e.g. the binding {{UserProfile.Office.Logo.LeftOffset}} in the Left Offset field. In the data source the LeftOffset column contains e.g. the value '3.75'. The error is shown because the measure unit (centimeters) is missing. Change '3.75' to '3.75 cm'.

 

The asset you are trying to access does not exist or is not available to you

This error message can be shown in these situations:

• In the header or footer of a Word template both the first page and Different first page contain a binding to the same text element. Delete one of the bindings.
• A text element used in a template does not have a placeholder (on the Template tab the Placeholder field is empty). Add a placeholder. If that doesn't solve the issue, then delete the content control in the template and recreate the binding to the text element.
• In Word Restrict Editing is enabled (with 'Filling in forms' allowed). This is not supported by Templafy. Disable Restrict Editing.

 

Updating a document

The Update Document button is not available

This can occur in these situations:

• In the template Document content updater is not enabled. In Template Designer open Settings and enable Document content updater.
• You are using a different MSI than the tenant you are creating the document from.
  This is expected behavior. Always use the correct MSI, for example if you switch between a test and production tenant.

 

Dynamic bindings in the document are not updated

This can occur in these situations:

• Text element (fixed part of template): if the option Replace On Update on the Template tab is not enabled then values of form fields still will be updated, but if the content of the text element has changed (e.g. in the Admin Center the original version is replace by a new version) this will not be updated.
• Text element (inserted via dropdown): if the option Replace On Update on the Template tab is not enabled then the dropdown will not be shown anymore. For example if the user can choose to Yes/No insert a text element and chooses 'No', then it's not possible anymore (after the document is created) to change it to 'Yes'. If you want the user to be able to change the answer then Replace On Update needs to be enabled.
• Text or Image binding: if the option Allow updates is not checked. There are 3 possible settings:
  • Only Allow updates is checked: values are updated.
  • Only Remove And Keep Content is checked: values are not updated, because the content control is removed (the value now has become plain text).
  • Both Allow updates and Remove and Keep Content are not checked: values are not updated.
• Visibility binding: In the Visibility expression field VisibilityType.Delete is used. If a content control is deleted updating is not possible anymore. Use VisibilityType.Hidden instead.

The functionVisibilityType.Delete is not supported in PowerPoint. If you use VisibilityType.Hidden in Word, keep in mind that users will see the (hidden) value if they have enabled the option to show hidden text.

 

Document update failed

Creating a document works as expected, but when you try to update the document the message Document update failed is shown:

 

This can occur in these situations:

• When a 2 letter code likeenorfris used in the Proofing Language field. Only 4 letter codes likeen-USorfr-FRare supported.
• The template contains a corrupt field. For example an image field should show the icon marked green below, but instead it shows the icon marked red. Delete the field and create a new one.
  
  
  
 
• In Word Restrict Editing is enabled. This is not supported by Templafy. Disable Restrict Editing.

 

Text Elements

When you upload or replace a text element the error message TextElement<number> cannot be inline text can be shown:

 

This means the template contains a text element content control inside a sentence (marked red below). This is not supported, the content control needs to be created in it's own paragraph (marked green) or table cell:

 

A correctly used text element content control can be recognized by two (start and end) textElement tags (when Design Mode is enabled).
When it's not used correctly it will only have one (start) textElement tag (marked red above). Deleting the sentence will not solve the issue: the end tag is deleted permanently. The solution is to delete the current content control and create a new one.

 

Languages and Translations

Translations are not working

This can occur in these situations:

• There's a mismatch between the binding and the data source. For example the binding is {{Translate("Subject")}} but the name in the data source is "Subject ". The extra space creates a mismatch. As result the value in the Name column is used. Verify the value is written correctly (note that it is also case sensitive).
• If the column name parameter is not used, then e.g. {{Translate("Subject")}} assumes the user profile contains a Language dropdown named DocumentLanguage. When a different name is used (which is not recommended) then you need to add the column name parameter, e.g. {{Translate("Subject", Language)}}. So either rename the user profile field to DocumentLanguage or specify the different name in the binding.

Proofing language is not working

This can occur in these situations:

• The language is not available in the Languages data source. Add the correct language.
• If the binding {{DocumentLanguage}} is used in the Language field on the Advanced tab, but the user profile does not contain a Language dropdown named DocumentLanguage. So either rename the user profile field to DocumentLanguage or specify the different name in the binding.

 

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