SharePoint 2007: The Definitive Guide

Using List View Web Parts

As stated earlier in this chapter, there really is no such thing as a "List View Web Part." List View Web Parts are what result when a new list or library is created in SharePoint. The Web Part is a full or filtered display of the list you created.

For instance, let's say you create a list of hyperlinks to the corporate web sites of all the companies you purchase from. You may buy only three basic products but use dozens of vendors. A full, unfiltered list shows every link, but you can create filters for the list and then filter those links by product type. From there, it's just a matter of placing the Web Parts where you want them in your site and filtering them for the relevant view. Keep in mind that you can also connect your lists to other Web Parts and further customize how information is displayed.

List View data is always displayed in a tabular format. There are two basic views for this tabular data: Standard and Datasheet. To use Datasheet View, you will need a SharePoint-compatible Office program such as Excel 2007 or Access 2007, as well as support for ActiveX Controls.

Connecting a List View Web Part to Another Web Part

If you connect a List View Web Part to a non-List View Web Part, you can run into some issues. Most tabular data types don't display in a nontabular format when you connect these two Web Parts together. You can only use list and list column data types that are supported for connections to nonlist Web Parts (Table 8-2).

Table 8-2. Supported ...