Why are news articles going to a 404 page?

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Issue Symptoms

When clicking on a news article, you are directed to a page displaying a 404 error.

Conditions

  • This only applies to SharePoint Classic sites. (SharePoint modern handles this taxonomy differently.)
  • The Friendly URL is not configured correctly on the list in use by this widget, or the term set has been changed or deleted and it not matching the configured friendly URL.

Resolution

Confirming and correcting the term set configuration

  1. In SharePoint site settings, navigate to "Term store management"
  2. Locate the term set under the site navigation for dynamic page in use (example: "FoundationNews", "BreakingNews", etc.)
  3. After selecting the appropriate term, open the "Term-Driven Pages" tab to confirm the term in use (example: "foundationnews"), the "target page for this term", and "catalog item page for this category".
    • The page selected should be confirm that is still exists and has not been moved, renamed, or deleted.
    • The page selected should also load successfully, and will not typically display any default article or data.
  4. After confirm this is all set and what term is in use, you'll need this information to confirm the friendly URL settings in the next section.

Confirming and correcting the Friendly URL configuration

  1. Confirm the SharePoint list this widget instance is pointing to.
    • You can check this by selecting the "edit widget properties" option from the Akumina tray, and clicking on the widget instance on the page.
  2. Once you've confirmed the SharePoint list in use, navigate to that list in SharePoint's Site Contents.
  3. Open the list's settings and scroll down to the "FriendlyUrl" column from the list of columns. Click on this column to open the column settings.
  4. The "Formula" field should contain a value similar to:  
    • ="/sites/Intranet/FoundationNews/"&Title
    • Replace "Intranet" with your site name (example: "TheHub", etc.)
    • "FoundationNews" should be the term set in use

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