SharePoint List Query fails with error “Request failed, cannot complete this action”

Question

I'm trying to query a SharePoint list on my root site collection but keep getting the error "Request failed, cannot complete this action". I messed around with the CAML query below and have figured out that the CAML is the issue, but I'm not sure what the problem is. I know it's the issue because when I remove the clause it queries successfully.

function retrieveListItems() {
                    var clientContext = new SP.ClientContext(siteUrl);
                    var oList = clientContext.get_web().get_lists().getByTitle('ICE Divisions');
                    console.log(oList);

                    var camlQuery = new SP.CamlQuery();
                    camlQuery.set_viewXml("<View><Query><Where><Eq><FieldRef Name='internalFieldName'><Value Type='Lookup'>value</Value></FieldRef></Eq></Where><OrderBy><FieldRef Name='internalFieldName'/></OrderBy></Query></View>");


                    var collListItem = oList.getItems(camlQuery);


                    clientContext.load(collListItem);
                    console.log(collListItem);


                    clientContext.executeQueryAsync(Function.createDelegate(this, onQuerySucceeded), Function.createDelegate(this, onQueryFailed));


                    function onQuerySucceeded(sender, args) {

                        var listItemInfo = '';

                        var listItemEnumerator = collListItem.getEnumerator();

                        while (listItemEnumerator.moveNext()) {
                            var oListItem = listItemEnumerator.get_current();
                            console.log(oListItem);
                        }
                    }

                    function onQueryFailed(sender, args) {

                        alert('Request failed. ' + args.get_message() + '\n' + args.get_stackTrace());
                    }
                }
            }
        },

Any ideas?

Answer 1

Try your query like this:

<Query>
    <Where>
        <Eq>
            <FieldRef Name="internalFieldName"/>
            <Value Type="Lookup">value</Value>
        </Eq>
    </Where>
    <OrderBy>
        <FieldRef Name="internalFieldName" />
    </OrderBy>  
</Query>  

Default lookup query uses the value instead of lookup Id

The typical query looks like

<Query>
    <Where>
        <Eq>
            <FieldRef Name='internalFieldName'  />
            <Value Type='Lookup'>value</Value>
        </Eq>
    </Where>
</Query>

To query by ID you have to setup LookupId='TRUE' attribute of FieldRef element

<FieldRef Name='internalFieldName' LookupId='TRUE' />

Reference:

FieldRef Element

Answer 2

Here is the demo to filter lookup field in CAML:

<View>  
    <Query> 
       <Where><Eq><FieldRef Name='testlookup' /><Value Type='Lookup'>AdminTitle</Value></Eq></Where><OrderBy><FieldRef Name='testlookup' /></OrderBy> 
    </Query> 
 </View>

Make sure your internal field name is valid and you'd better build CAML with CAML Designer:

Caml Designer