SharePoint Data View web part Linked Data Source

SharePoint designer is very powerful tool for SharePoint branding as well as accomplishing tasks with minimal efforts. I always liked the Data view web part I have created number of DW web parts wherever required.

In this post I will explain Linked Data Source Data view and some challenges while filtering this view.

I had 10 lists with similar structure and I was looking for merging these in single data source and display filtered data for current login user. So let’s start with implementation.

1.      Create Linked Data Source : -

·        Open your SP site in SharePoint Designer. Data Sources option will be available in left section in Site Objects.

·        Click on Data Sources. Linked Data Source, Database connection etc. option will be displayed in ribbon.

·        Click on Linked Data Source -> In General Tab give name for your Data source. In Source tab click Configure Linked Source; wizard will open to select lists you want to be in your data source. Select lists and click next to select Merge/Join to finish Linked Data Source Creation.

2.      Create Data View web part:-

·         Create a new page and empty Data view web part on page. (Insert -> Data View -> Empty Data View)

·        Click on Select Data Source, all data sources will be shown to you .Our data source will be shown in category “Linked Sources”. Select source in step 1.

·        Select fields you want to display from right section and display them as multiple item view.

·        This is it; your data view web part is ready with linked Data Source.

3.      Filtering Data View :-

                Now I was trying to filter above Data view with Current login user .I was comparing this with AssignedTo  user field in above Data Sources. My Filter criteria was below

AsignedTo equals [Current User]

It works with list Data view web part, however somehow it was not working here. After some analysis I found filter section in XSLT of this web part as below:

I checked fields added, and modified above code to below and my current user filter Worked …!

select="/dsQueryResponse/Rows/Row[normalize-space(@AssignedTo.title) = $UserID]"

4.      Change Created Date

Use below function to modify Date formatting in Data View :   

ddwrt:FormatDateTime(string(@Created), 1033, ‘MM/dd/yyyy’)"