SharePoint 2007: Query Parameter Filtered Data Views

Using the standard SharePoint OOTB functionality (i.e. using connections from web part to web part) you can filter items in connected web parts but you cannot have only the selected item in the current web part.

Original Web Part (no filtering on selected item)

Data views and SharePoint Designer come to the rescue to filter on the selected item only. You can change the List View Web Part to a Data View Web Part, and then use filters on it to show only the items you need. Using an "old" article "How to use a URL parameter to filter a Data View Web part in FrontPage 2003" and the following article regarding customization of XSLT Data Views you can create this solution.

In SharePoint Designer: Create a new web part page or save the AllItems.aspx (or any other page you want to start from) page as AllItemsEdit.aspx.

Right click on the List Web Part you want to filter and click "Convert to XSLT Data View". This create a Data View web part. To show only the currently selected item you need to change the filterParam ParameterBinding of the DataView from:

ParameterBinding Name="filterParam" Location="Postback;Connection;"

to

ParameterBinding Name="filterParam" Location="Postback;Connection;QueryString(ID)"

You can put any query parameter instead of ID. I chose to use ID because I will be using the original DispForm link (which already contains the ID param) and thus I won't have to create my own custom URL.

You then need to apply a filter on the Data View. Click on Data View > Filter in SharePoint Designer. Create a new Filter on the column you require, in my case it will be on the ID. In the Value field on the filter you need to use the Drop Down and choose the [Input Paramater].

Save the page, access it with the correct URL, and you should have the filtered item(s) only. You can then add additional web parts and connect them to the filtered data view, or do any other modifications you require.

Connected Web Part showing only selected item:

Beware: This creates Data Sources and other items linked to the current installation which will break if you export to a different installation. (unless you use this solution: Solving the List Guid problem

SharePoint 2007: Print List Feature

http://www.codeplex.com/features

If you go to the URL above and click on Releasease you will find a Print List Feature which once installed and deployed will give a Print List feature. The nice thing about this feature is that you can choose the view you want to print, whilst the ugly thing is that the drop down used to choose the view is not hidden (and has to be printed).

The feature is based on the http://www.sharepoint-tips.com/2007/01/how-to-add-print-list-option-to-list.html by Ishai.

SharePoint 2007: Filtered Lookups

I've come across a requirement which is quite basic, creating a filter on a Lookup field in a List. Basically I have a list of Vacancies, and another list which looks up at the Vacancies list. I want the lookup field to only show those vacancies marked as Open.

SharePoint does not support this OOTB, however with a little playing around and using SharePoint Designer you can manage to get this to work.

• Create a new Custom Form
• Open SharePoint Designer, open the NewForm.aspx page, and create a new aspx page from the NewForm.aspx and save it as NewFormFiltered.aspx
• Delete the list Web part which exists and Click Insert > SharePoint Controls > Custom List Form, and choose based on a New Item (since you are editing the New Item form).

• Create a new DataSource to the List you need to filter upon
• In the custom page you are creating find the DataSource tag in the source code sharepoint:spdatasource and create another datasource similar to the one which exists, however with a new different datasource ID e.g. FilteredDS, and a different SelectCommand.
• The SelectCommand is used to create a query which filters your data e.g. if you filter on the Open Status it should contain something similar to the following:
  

• This filter can be written in the Tag Properties of the DataSource.


• Any parameters contained within the datasource and which contain List GUIDs based on the list you are editing should be edited to point to the GUID of the list you are filtering on.

• Add a SharePoint DropDown List
• Find the lookup field which you want to filter in the page, and comment out the SharePoint:FormField. Insert a SharePoint:DVDropDownList and customize the properties similar to the following:

Where ff9 should be the position in the FormField you have commented out, the datasourceid should be the id of the datasource you created, and the @Vacancy should be the name of your colum.

Save and test by clicking on New Item in the customised list, and in the address change the address of the page which comes up to the name of the page you have customised. If you’ve done everything correctly, you should have a drop down list bound to the filtered data source you created.

• Edit the List such that New button refers to the new page you have created
• Once you’ve ensured that the List is ok, you need to edit the List Properties such that your edited page is displayed when you press the New Item button.
• Go to the List Properties, Click on the Support Files tab and choose your page as the NewItemForm. Make sure the Content Item is set to Item or Task or your content Item not Folder. If it is set to Folder your changes are silently ignored, simply not saved.

The most toublesome parts are getting your data source(s) to filter correctly, and getting the DV drop down list to actually post the data to the list, but with a little playing around you should be able to do it.

Errors you may encounter: Strangely SharePoint sometimes changes the ID of the datasource to the name plus 0 e.g. FilteredDS0. Since your datasource is still bound to the original name, when you access the page you get an error: "An unexpected error has occurred".

Data Source Creations hints: to create your data source, go to the Data Source Library, click on Copy and Modify, create a new data source with the filter you require, same it as XML. Open the XML file and copy the SharePoint datasource from the xml file and paste it into your designer code. Strangely, the Guids in the data source from the XML file do not contain the curly brackets {}, and will result in the drop downs not getting populated until you surround each Guid with curly brackets.

Update:

BEWARE: Using this method you will be tying yourself down to a list Guid. Thus if you try to export and import onto a different server, you will get an error when you try to load the page since the list (Guid) will not be found. You would have to use designer (again) to update your Guids on the live server! Keep this in mind when using this hack.

Update 2:

This may solve the Guids problem: http://www.sharepoint-tips.com/2007/04/fixing-lookup-fields-in-list-definition.html

Update 3:

This definetely solves the problem: Solving the List Guid Export Problem

Update 4: Programmatic solution to filtered lookups - Cascading dropdowns

http://datacogs.com/datablogs/archive/2007/08/26/641.aspx