Tridion End-user Issues and Fixes

Here's a list of the most frequent issues and solutions I've seen working with Tridion (R5.3), from an end-user perspective. I think we have a great overall setup; we have hundreds of publishing requests that succeed quietly every week for a system that holds a few thousand components and dozens templates.
However, I see these issues typically with newer users or with changes to the system (new template, new publication, new presentation server, etc). I know a team hasn't started working with content after a training session until I hear at least one of these. :-)
  1. Permission Denied. Tridion opens with a default settings pop-up. Typically closing Google Toolbar or turning off the Pop-up blocker fixes this.
  2. Can't see publication, can't edit content, or can't publish. Permission issues involve both rights and permissions. Rights are general capabilities and end-user may have for a given publication whereas permissions involve access to specific folders, categories, or structure groups. As a metaphor consider how the "right" to go where one pleases can be framed by specific "permission" to enter certain buildings. An email to the owner, analyst, or admin for the website fixes most of these.
  3. Publishing Failed. Possible for a variety of reasons, possibly an issue with content or a template, but typically because of a configuration issue with the servers. Tell your server administrator. Log a support ticket with Tridion if needed.
  4. Fields are missing! Component opened in a folder not set with a default schema. Select a schema from the drop-down menu in the new component, or if you have the correct folder rights and permissions, update the folder to default to a specific schema.
  5. Content not visible in a (typically higher-level) "shared" publication such as "020 - Content." Content possibly created in the wrong publication. Check child publications for missing content. Content needs to be re-created in the shared publication--not bad for multimedia components (because of Webdav feature), harder for basic components. We've occasionally fixed this by using content porter to bulk move items. We've also resorted to "locking" down the child publications to prevent users from making components in certain folders. There's a power tool (custom page) that may help as well.
  6. Name conflict; can't create content with a specific name. Sometimes caused by a misunderstanding about the blueprinting feature. Tridion intentionally prevents same-named items to be created in publications that share content. This is usually seen when creating items higher in the publication.
  7. Published an item and nothing happened. With new content, and I've seen this with developers as well, the page or template needs to be published first.
    1. For "static" (non-dynamic) content on a page, the page needs to be published at least once in order to have the page automatically published when a component on it is published.
    2. For dynamic content, a template set to publish dynamically (and associated with the component's type or schema) must first be published at least once.
      After this, re-publishing the template will also publish all previously published dynamic component presentations.
  8. Formatting, symbol, or character issue. Typically not caused by the end-user, but by templates failing to handle certain characters, tags, intentionally ignoring formatting or the website being set to the wrong encoding. This can be addressed by the development team manager or appropriate contact.
  9. Double clicking a component in the selection opens the component. This is by design in 5.3, but since "fixed" in later versions (2009? and for sure in 2011). Don't double-click, click once and press OK when adding a component to a page.
When in doubt turn off pop-up blocker, double check your publication, and don't double click components to select them for pages. :-)
These are specific to our setup, though I suspect other Tridion-using teams have experienced similar issues. Let me know if there are any I should add to the list.

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