SharePoint (and Project Server) Shenanigans

My client asked me today the limitation of Sharepoint 2010 in terms of number of words per column types, lines and attachments.

I found the answers in Microsoft website and also this blog http://sharepointgadget.blogspot.co.uk/2010/05/limits-in-sharepoint-2010.html that has a good summary.

But then I wanted to prove myself what “Multiple Lines of Text : 192 Maximum Value” really meant for my end user language, so now is the reference to my title “how to break Sharepoint”:

- In a Sharepoint list, I create a Multi-lines column

- Add the value “0123456789” to have 10 characters, then copy and paste this value a few times to have a few hundreds.

- Now be crazy and copy and paste is a lot, I used Word to count my characters and I arrive to 1Mo.

- From here Internet Explorer (I was pasting in a Datasheet mode) crashed, I could have let it think for 30 minutes but decided to crash it after 5.

- Now re-open IE and this list….

- It cannot open ! to be precise: the page opens but doesn’t load anything (blank page).

- And worse: if the list is also showing in a webpart on a page that page won’t open either. Quite an issue if that page is a homepage right ?

Now I had a problem: the list default view cannot be opened because it contains my very large value in a column, and you can only point to the list settings if you know the unique ID of the list (url http://sharepointsite/_layouts/listedit.aspx?List=%7B3C68CBBE%2D3F51%2D402A%2DA584%GD61A0F8C5AFA1%7D)

To fix it: open the site in SharePoint Designer, then open the list gives the option to

The column are now editable and I can change my “Multiple lines of text” to be “Single line of text”

By doing this the long text value in the column will be truncated (and rich text lost if any).

Don’t forget to close the Column edit tab in Sharepoint designer and save the changes.

Now any page containing the view and the list itself can be opened again.