Be careful when editing the application.master page
Here’s an odd one.
We had customized our master pages by adding in the Search WebPart, so we could customize some of the parameters
We changed the following:
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderSearchArea" runat="server"></asp:ContentPlaceHolder>
To the following:
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderSearchArea" runat="server">
<SPSWC:SearchBoxEx webpart="true" runat="server" __webpartid="{2883947B-2B5C-4A56-92B3-33B7383F7C0D}" id="SearchBoxEx1"><WebPart xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WebPart/v2">
<Title />
<FrameType>None</FrameType>
<Description>Used to search document and items.</Description>
<IsIncluded>true</IsIncluded>
<ZoneID>ImportedPartZone</ZoneID>
<PartOrder>0</PartOrder>
<FrameState>Normal</FrameState>
<Height />
<Width />
<AllowRemove>true</AllowRemove>
<AllowZoneChange>true</AllowZoneChange>
<AllowMinimize>true</AllowMinimize>
<AllowConnect>true</AllowConnect>
<AllowEdit>true</AllowEdit>
<AllowHide>true</AllowHide>
<IsVisible>true</IsVisible>
<DetailLink />
<HelpLink />
<HelpMode>Modeless</HelpMode>
<Dir>Default</Dir>
<PartImageSmall />
<MissingAssembly>Cannot import this Web Part.</MissingAssembly>
<PartImageLarge />
<IsIncludedFilter />
<ExportControlledProperties>true</ExportControlledProperties>
<ConnectionID>00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000</ConnectionID>
<ID>g_455588d4_92a9_484e_9273_9221d7a9a97f</ID>
<GoImageUrl xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:SearchBoxEx">/_layouts/images/gosearch.gif</GoImageUrl>
<GoImageUrlRTL xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:SearchBoxEx">/_layouts/images/goRTL.gif</GoImageUrlRTL>
<GoImageActiveUrl xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:SearchBoxEx">/_layouts/images/gosearch.gif</GoImageActiveUrl>
<GoImageActiveUrlRTL xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:SearchBoxEx">/_layouts/images/goRTL.gif</GoImageActiveUrlRTL>
<DropDownModeEx xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:SearchBoxEx">ShowDD_DefaultContextual</DropDownModeEx>
<AdvancedSearchPageURL xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:SearchBoxEx">/SearchCenter/Pages/advanced.aspx</AdvancedSearchPageURL>
<SearchResultPageURL xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:SearchBoxEx">/SearchCenter/Pages/results.aspx</SearchResultPageURL>
<ScopeDisplayGroupName xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:SearchBoxEx">Search Dropdown</ScopeDisplayGroupName>
<RegisterStyles xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:SearchBoxEx">true</RegisterStyles>
<ShouldTakeFocusIfEmpty xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:SearchBoxEx">false</ShouldTakeFocusIfEmpty>
</WebPart>
</SPSWC:SearchBoxEx>
</asp:ContentPlaceHolder>
We did this in all our master pages including the application.master page.
All was working fine until we tried to delete a column in a list and we go the “Unknown Error” message and the column wasn’t deleted.
The following error message was be ing logged
Application error when access /_layouts/mngfield.aspx, Error=Unable to validate data. at System.Web.Configuration.MachineKeySection.GetDecodedData(Byte[] buf, Byte[] modifier, Int32 start, Int32 length, Int32& dataLength) at System.Web.UI.ObjectStateFormatter.Deserialize(String inputString)
After of a month or so of investigation with Microsoft support, we discovered that the Search Webpart was causing the problem in the application.master page and causing a conflict in one of the application pages in the “Layouts” directory, specifically the mngfield.aspx page.
We have removed the Search WebPart from the application.master page and all seems to be working fine.
Thank you for this post, without it I would’ve spent countless amount of hours and days in trying to resolve this issue.
In my case the problem encountered was that check-in and check-out gave “Unable to validate data” error.
I totally agree with Jussi. This just saved me a lot of time. THANK YOU!
Thank you! I also had the problem on check-in check-out. So, is there a way to impletement a search in application.master at all?
I think the best way would be to code your own Search WebPart. I have been doing some reverse engineering of it and it’s not the most prettiest of WebParts internally
The application.master wasn’t meant to be a page that should be edited. Not sure why?
Thanks! This post saved me a lot of grief. Have been banging my head on the wall trying to figure out what was wrong with the document ‘check in’ erroring with the same validation problem.
Thanks for sharing Toby! This was exactly my problem.
Thank you for posting this!!! I did the same thing in trying to dress up the sites. Adding a workflow to any list failed with “unknown error” and “Unable to validate data” when the master had a seach box. Sharepoint is a creaking clanking pile of S@#T!!!
Also had the workflow problem. After spending two hours comparing my master with the ootb master, I stumbled across your post and solved my problem in 5 minutes.
THANKS MUCH!