Use of QuickParts in Word Templates in combination with Site Content Types

Question

Situation:

• A Site ContentType (CT): Report (Parent = Document)
• A Word Template is attached to the report CT
• 1 root site with several subsites (A, B, C)
• Every subsite contains a library with the 'Report' CT
• I created a new document 'template' on library of subsite B. Added the quickpart (metadata of type text and choice). I followed the steps explained in the following post: http://epiciw.wordpress.com/2011/09/08/using-quick-parts-to-automatically-update-fields-in-a-microsoft-office-document-from-the-metadata-in-a-sharepoint-document-library/
• I attached the new document template to the report Site CT

Problem:

• When I create a new document in subsite B - my quickparts are working.

• When I create a new document in the library in subsite C - my quickparts don't work. My Document Information Panel is not in sync with the quickparts. And thus it's not possible to set my metadata with those quickparts.

  It seems like he's pointing to the wrong URL. Is this a bug?

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

This problem is caused by differences in the SourceID property of the metadata fields. If you compare the value of SourceID on a field of a content type in one library with the same field of a content type in another library you will see that they differ, and they are used inside the Word document when referencing the metadata field.

The solution is to set SourceID to a fixed guid. Since it is a readonly property it has to be changed by altering the xml schema of that field, for example like this:

private static void SetSourceID(SPWeb web, string fieldName, string guid)
{
    SPField webField = (SPField) web.Fields[fieldName];

    XElement schema = XElement.Parse(webField.SchemaXml);
    XAttribute sourceID = schema.Attribute("SourceID");
    if (sourceID == null)
    {
        sourceID = new XAttribute("SourceID", guid);
        schema.Add(sourceID);
    }

    webField.SchemaXml = schema.ToString();
    webField.Update(true);
}