Question

I’m using ajax to call a webservice which updates a sharepoint list.

It works when I call the code from unit tests, but running the code in a browser causes an exception:

System.InvalidOperationException: Operation is not valid due to the current state of the object.
at Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls.SPControl.SPWebEnsureSPControl(HttpContext context)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls.SPControl.GetContextWeb(HttpContext context)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPContext.get_Current()
at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPListItem.AddOrUpdateItem(Boolean bAdd, Boolean bSystem, Boolean bPreserveItemVersion, Boolean bNoVersion, Boolean bMigration, Boolean bPublish, Boolean bCheckOut, Boolean bCheckin, Guid newGuidOnAdd, Int32& ulID, Object& objAttachmentNames, Object& objAttachmentContents, Boolean suppressAfterEvents)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPListItem.UpdateInternal(Boolean bSystem, Boolean bPreserveItemVersion, Guid newGuidOnAdd, Boolean bMigration, Boolean bPublish, Boolean bNoVersion, Boolean bCheckOut, Boolean bCheckin, Boolean suppressAfterEvents)
at Microsoft.SharePoint.SPListItem.Update()

My code to update the list item is:

SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges(delegate()
        {
            using (SPSite site = new SPSite(siteURL))
            {
                using (SPWeb web = site.OpenWeb(path))
                {
                    SPList userProfile = web.Lists[userList];
                    SPQuery qry = new SPQuery
                    {
                        Query =
                            "<Where><Eq><FieldRef Name='Title' /><Value Type='Text'>" +
                            accountName +
                            "</Value></Eq></Where><ViewFields><FieldRef Name='ID' /><FieldRef Name='Title' /><FieldRef Name='LastUpdated' /><FieldRef Name='Reason' /></ViewFields>"
                    };

                    SPListItemCollection spListItemCollection = userProfile.GetItems(qry);

                    if (spListItemCollection.Count == 1)
                    {
                        //edit user
                        SPListItem item = spListItemCollection[0];
                        item["Updated"] = DateTime.Now;
                        item["Reason"] = updateReason;
                        item.Update();
                    }
                }
            }
        });

It errors on item.Update();

Answer 1

The problem was with security. The following line needs to be added (although not ideal)

web.AllowUnsafeUpdates = true;

I also removed the line

SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges(delegate()

and changed the SPSite and SPWeb to not use “using”.