Showing posts with label Cannot retrieve the URL specified in the XML Link property. For more assistance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cannot retrieve the URL specified in the XML Link property. For more assistance. Show all posts

27 November, 2011

Cannot retrieve the URL specified in the XML Link property. For more assistance, contact your site administrator

You can use the XML Web Part to display Extensible Markup Language (XML) and apply Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations (XSLT) to the XML before the content is displayed.  The content displayed in the XML Web Part cannot contain an HTML <FORM> element. If you need to use the <FORM> element, consider using the Page Viewer Web Part or the Form Web Part.  This is little bit tricky issue and took lot of time to investigate and research to find out the root cause behind this issue.

Problem Description:
Microsoft out-of-box XML web part returns an error when connecting to any SharePoint Web Service - owssrv.dll, lists.asmx, feed.rss. Works fine with static XML data file.

Error message:
Cannot retrieve the URL specified in the XML Link property. For more assistance, contact your site administrator

What exactly I am doing:
Use of the 'XML Web Part' to display the RSS feed from a List.

When I entered the URL to the feed into the 'XML Link' field I receive the message "Cannot retrieve the URL specified in the XML Link property. For more assistance, contact your site administrator."

Troubleshooting Done:
1)   If I click the 'Test Link' a new window opens and correctly shows the feed. 

2)   When I checked the SharePoint logs and found out that no credentials are being supplied with the GET request to listfeed.aspx

3)   Web parts settings are ok as i checked the XSL as well as XML properties.

4)   As the credentials are not being supplied then i had checked the web application pool account is a part of ISS_WPG and WSS_WPG (Worker process groups) and found out that the app pool account is already added inside the mentioned groups

5)   Along with above mentioned groups, there is one more group exist in Active directory called as "WSS_ADMIN_WPG". Now the questions arises-Does the application pool account is a part of this group or not? I checked and found out it's not a part of that group (i.e. WSS_ADMIN_WPG), added the same web application pool account inside the group and check the results but still no success.

6)   Now the final step which is a vital one is "Anonymous", Allowing anonymous access to that web application (Central Administration > Application Management > Application Security > Authentication Providers section). now let’s go to the site collection and allowed anonymous access to a specific list where the problem resides ( Open the site collection-site actions-site settings-advanced permissions-settings-anonymous access-select list and libraries only)

That’s it-as soon as I applied the above mentioned steps and comes back to the home where the xml web part resides-it works without any issues.

Conclusion/Resolution steps:
1)   Web application pool account should be a part of WSS_WPG, ISS_WPG and WSS_WPG

2)   Anonymous access for the web application and list & libraries section at the site collection

If you have any queries/questions regarding the above mentioned information then please let me know. I would be more than happy to help you as well as resolves your issues, Thank you.