Symptoms:

After restoring a SharePoint site using site template .STP files, .CMP files, or the stsadm commands import / export all data views / data forms show error messages.

Web browser error: "Unable to display this Web Part. To troubleshoot the problem, open this Web page in a Windows SharePoint Services-compatible HTML editor such as Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer. If the problem persists, contact your Web server administrator."

SharePoint Designer error: "The server returned a non-specific error when trying to get data from the data source. Check the format and content of your query and try again. If the problem persists, contact the server administrator."

Cause:

This is a known issue, actually. We have done some work for O14 which will address this problem. The issue is caused by the incorrect ListName, which is a GUID id for the list's instance on a given site instance. We don't do GUID fix-up, and therefore the broken data views are pointing to the incorrect data source (from the old site).

Workaround:

  1. Start SharePoint Designer, and open page containing broken data view(s).
  2. In SharePoint Designer's menu, click Task Panes -> Data Source Library.
  3. From the Data Source Library task pane, drag in a new instance of the broken data view's data source (example: Announcements list) onto the page. This will create a new and working data view.
  4. Highlight the newly inserted data view, and go into split view (half code, half design). From the code portion highlighted, look for the ListName property. Note: it should be on the first line of the highlighted code, but you may have to scroll to the right in order to see it.
  5. Once you find the ListName property, copy everything in between { ... } (without the braces). Store that value, as we will need it later (example: paste into Notepad).
  6. Remove the newly inserted data view.
  7. Highlight the broken data view, and go into split view (half code, half design). From the code portion highlighted, look for the ListName Property. Note: it should be on the first line of the highlighted code, but you may have to scroll to the right in order to see it.
  8. Once you find the ListName property, copy everything in between { ... } (without the braces).
  9. In SharePoint Designer's menu, click Edit -> Replace. In the "Find What" portion, paste in the broken data views ListName value. In the "Replace With" portion, paste in the previous working data view's ListName value (example: the one stored in Notepad). Click Replace All, and let the process finish. Click close.
  10. Perform steps 3 - 9 for each respective data view.

I've seen several support instances with questions and concerns on this problem. Hopefully, this helps you to understand the cause of the problem, and how to fix it.