What we needed to do was wrap the column header so that it fit more to the data in the grid.

The solution is relatively simple to implement; all you need is a Content Editor Webpart at the bottom of the page somewhere with the following JavaScript in it:

<script type="text/javascript">
function WrapColumnHeaderText(columnName) {
    try {
        var tables = document.getElementsByTagName("table");
        for (i = 0; i < tables.length; i++) {
            // find the table that is for the column we're looking for
            var attrItem = tables[i].attributes.getNamedItem("displayname")
            if (null != attrItem && attrItem.nodeValue === columnName) {
                var cells = tables[i].getElementsByTagName("td");
                for (c = 0; c < cells.length; c++) {
                    if (null != cells[c].attributes.getNamedItem("nowrap")) {
                        cells[c].attributes.removeNamedItem("nowrap");
                        // after removing nowrap, IE won't actually wrap the content
                        // until it "changes".. so we touch it to force it to wrap
                        cells[c].innerHTML = cells[c].innerHTML;
                        break;
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    } catch (ex) {
        alert(ex.toString());
    }
}

function WrapColumnHeaders() {
    // TODO: repeat the line below to wrap more columns
    WrapColumnHeaderText("Company Product Code");
}

_spBodyOnLoadFunctionNames.push("WrapColumnHeaders");
</script>

Assuming you have the following site structure…

• SiteCollection
  • Subsite1
  • Subsite2
  • …

Can you find the bug?

// !!! only use this code in a web part
// to get the SPWeb the web part is currently in !!!
string server = "http://myserver";
string siteUrl = "/sites/SiteCollection/This Subsite Does Not Exist";
using (SPSite site = new SPSite(server + siteUrl))
{
    using (SPWeb web = site.OpenWeb())
    {
        Console.WriteLine(site.Url);
        Console.WriteLine(web.Url);
    }
}

The problem is on line #9. The URL for the SPWeb that was just opened is the same as the SPSite’s URL: http://myserver/sites/SiteCollection. There is no exception thrown.

The behavior I expected, would be some sort of exception when opening a web that does not exist. Even worse is the fact that no error is thrown; it simply defaults to the top level site collection that exists. This means, you get the wrong SPWeb object.

A better way to get an SPWeb object is (updated 7/13/09 per Rikard’s comment):

// better code to open a web
string server = "http://myserver";
string siteUrl = "/sites/SiteCollection";
string subSite = "This Subsite Does Not Exist";
using (SPSite site = new SPSite(server + siteUrl))
{
    using (SPWeb web = site.OpenWeb(subSite))
    {
        if (web.Exists)
        {
            // do work with the web...
            Console.WriteLine(site.Url);
            Console.WriteLine(web.Url);
        }
    }
}

This code should be able to safely open a web at any location.  Keep in mind, trying to access any of the properties of a web that does not exist will result in:

System.IO.FileNotFoundException: There is no Web named “/sites/SiteCollection”.

Again, the exception is not thrown in the constructor, but when attempting to access the SPWeb’s properties… such as web.Url.

Failed to extract the cab file in the solution.

Luckily Robert Bogue had already found the answer: we had duplicated an entry for a web part in our solution’s .ddf file. Apparently, makecab allows you to have the same file in the same location multiple times. I’m not really sure why it doesn’t just overwrite it, but in any case, the solution doesn’t know what to do with it either.

What this assumes:

• You know how to get to Central Admin and the Search Admin screens
• Any URLs below you will have to replace “centraladmin” with your own server ip
• The place where you can run incremental or full crawls is:

  http://centraladmin/ssp/admin/_layouts/listcontentsources.aspx

Metadata properties:

• In order to have more columns to search, you must add them to the “Metadata” in the ssp

  http://centraladmin/ssp/admin/_layouts/schema.aspx

• Any metadata property has a 64 character limit when querying using Enterprise Search SQL (ESSQL)
• In order for a column to show up in the Add Mapping dialog an INCREMENTAL crawl is required (column existed and just didn’t have data in… added some data to the list making sure to populate the new fields and then ran an incremental)
• Adding a Managed Property requires a FULL crawl in order to populate the data in that field

Search visibility:

• If a site has Search Visibility disabled, it will show up as a warning in the crawl log. LISTS DO NOT
• Changing a list’s Search Visibility (in advanced settings) will require a INCREMENTAL (full is not required) crawl in order to start showing up in search results

Search scopes:

• Changing an existing search scope requires you to update the scope again
  Go back to Central Admin -> ssp -> Search Settings -> Start Updating
  After clicking Update… it almost always goes from 0% to 100% after a while… no in between
• Changing scopes does not require an incremental or full crawl (you simply need to update the scope again) see above
• For a search scope, to have it include list items your scope should have a “folder” with a value like (encoded url with trailing slash):

  http://moss/sitecollection/subsite/Lists/My%20List%20Name/

Also, here is some very unhelpful microsoft documentation:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms493660.aspx

Leave a comment if you have questions!