Using Query String and Data view WebPart.

When you need to pull out information from the top level SharePoint site and use it on a sub site, the answer you often get is “Use Data View”. The actually problem is very less resources point you in the right direction of ‘HOW’. So here in this article I will show you, how to use data view web-part to access the content for top level sites and set filters using query string. There is KB article from Microsoft @ http://support.microsoft.com/kb/831093. This article is for WSS 2.0 and front page 2003. For 2007 version of Share Point read further.

Follow this process.

1. Open your sub site in SharePoint Designer 2007.

   

2. Click on ‘Insert Data View’ from the Data View Menu option.

   

3. This will add a Data View Webpart to your site which looks like;

   Note: Don’t panic looking at DataForm WebPart. There isn’t much of difference here. I will write about this in my later posts.

4. Now it is time for us to connect to the data source. In this case our data source is sitting on a top level site (Site Collection). So to connect to the data source (here, it’s a list), click on ‘Connect to another Library’ as shown in the image below.

   

5. This brings you a pop up asking for the site collection location. Key in our top level site location and give it a name.

   

6. Once added, DataSource Library window will show you the new data sources from the different site.

   

7. Select the required data source. For the sake of this article I am selecting a list called Projects under SharePoint Lists and click on it and select ‘Show Data’. This shows you the data fields in the list.

   

8. Select the fields required. Here I will select two fields Project URL and Practice Group. And Click on the Button ‘Insert Selected Fields as‘ and again click on Multi Item View.

   

9. Now we need to filter this list based on the site name. In my case the site name is equal to client name. So to dynamically populate this list, the best practice is to use query string. Hence we need to create a new parameter, say sitename. Click on Parameters option from Common Data View Tasks. This brings up a ‘Data View Parameters’ window, here click on ‘New Parameter‘ button to add a new parameter. Name the new parameter as sitename and select the Parameter source to be Query String. Give a query string variable as we need to use this in code.

   

10. Before you save the work, we need to make a slight alteration in the aspx page. Select the webpart and go to code view. In there look for the following code

    <ParameterBinding Name=”sitename” Location=”QueryString(siteName)” DefaultValue=”"/> and change it to <ParameterBinding Name=”sitename” Location=”Postback;Connection;QueryString(siteName)” DefaultValue=”"/>. Now we can use this query string to set filters. Example;

    

    Note: 1. You will not see anything on the designer as it unaware of the query string.

              2. Using this query string to pass the required variable through the URL.

    In my next article I will show you how to use this query string in code behind. Untill then bye.

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