I came across this little annoying issue while creating some linked PPS dashboards where one scorecard item would filter another report by the selected row (in this case a ‘Program Name’ custom field). I was stumped to get the following message when selecting my program:

Error running data source query

After much head scratching I found the problem deep in the logs which for Google’s benefit I will include some server log snippets here:

Log Name: Application

Source: Microsoft-SharePoint Products-PerformancePoint Service

…

Description:

An exception occurred while running a report. The following details may help you to diagnose the problem:

Error Message: Error running data source query.

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Contact the administrator for more details.

Dashboard Name:

Dashboard Item name:

…

Parameters: Programme A

Exception Message: Error running data source query.

And

PerformancePoint Services error code 10116.

…

<Data Name="string1">Error running data source query.

Microsoft.AnalysisServices.AdomdClient.AdomdErrorResponseException: Query (10, 19) Parser: The syntax for ‘A’ is incorrect.

The problem turned out to be a space in my custom field value name!

Basically the hint was in the Parameter and the syntax, it seems that PerformancePoint fails to send my parameter correctly and as a result it sends ‘Programme A’ as two separate invalid parameters ‘Programme’ and ‘A’, hence the error on “The syntax for ‘A’ is incorrect”.

This was quickly proved by updated the custom field lookup table values to remove any spaces, which after a cube rebuild resolved the error!

Definitely chalk that one down to a little defect hidden in the code somewhere!