Issue:

While editing an existing attribute in Web center portal, I faced the below errors. Then I tried to make some other changes and pretty much every administrative change to Portal attributes or navigation failed with the same error.

Screenshot of the error:

WC_Spaces diagnostic logs had the below errors:

[WC_Spaces2] [ERROR] [] [oracle.webcenter.webcenterapp.internal.view.error.WCErrorHandlerImpl] [tid: [ACTIVE].ExecuteThread: ‘4’ for queue: ‘weblogic.kernel.Default (self-tuning)’] [userId: areddy] [ecid: 005EitPtJMb6eLWFLz3V8A0007P8001GiV,0:3] [APP: webcenter#11.1.1.4.0] [DSID: 0000LR4BaZx2rI3Lzmg8yW1NjGDJ00001v] WCS#2016.08.25.20.11.08: Error occurred while editing the custom attribute name=bpmWorkspace and value=http://soahost/bpm/workspace. ..

..

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Caused by: oracle.mds.core.ValidationException: MDS-01611: not saving changes in MDS session because some changes are not valid MDS-02202: Content of the metadata object “/oracle/webcenter/webcenterapp/metadata/webcenter-config.xml” is not valid. MDS-02201: type validation failure for the metadata object “/oracle/webcenter/webcenterapp/metadata/webcenter-config.xml” MDS-02203: type validation error for the metadata object “/oracle/webcenter/webcenterapp/metadata/webcenter-config.xml” at the node “webcenter(xmlns(mds_ns1=http://xmlns.oracle.com/webcenter/webcenterapp))/mds_ns1:defaultSiteTemplateId[2]” Element defaultSiteTemplateId not expected MDS-02203: type validation error for the metadata object “/oracle/webcenter/webcenterapp/metadata/webcenter-config.xml” at the node “webcenter(xmlns(webcenter=http://xmlns.oracle.com/webcenter/webcenterapp))/webcenter:skin[2]” Element webcenter:skin not expected

Resolution:

There is no good explanation on what causes the MDS corruption but the below described work around will resolve the issue

• Connect to the webcenter domain using WLST and run the below command to export the webcenter-config.xml file

exportMetadata(application=’webcenter’, server=’WC_Spaces1′,toLocation=’/tmp/ar’,docs=’/oracle/webcenter/webcenterapp/metadata/webcenter-config.xml’)

*** /tmp/ar is the temporary directory where the exported files will be saved. Adjust the directory name to your needs

• Go to the temporary directory where the exported files are saved. Browse through the directory path until you find the file named webcenter-config.xml.xml

[oracle@wcphost webcenter]$ /tmp/ar/oracle/webcenter/webcenterapp/metadata/mdssys/cust/site/webcenter/webcenter-config.xml.xml

• Edit the file webcenter-config.xml.xml and deleted the elements that the error above is complaining. In my example, I had to delete the lines containing defaultSiteTemplateId and skin. Make sure to delete the complete insert statement fro the elements. Once you delete the entries, save the file
• Import the file back in to the MDS using the below WLST command

importMetadata(application=’webcenter’, server=’WC_Spaces1′,fromLocation=’/tmp/ar’,docs=’/oracle/webcenter/webcenterapp/metadata/webcenter-config.xml’)

• Restart your spaces servers and go back to the portal. You should be able to perform any portal administration tasks.