Query SPList’s view, create HTML schema and render on page.

Normally we come across a requirement where we need to provide SharePoint List like UI and facilities to user in our solutions. I came across a good solution where in we query a view of SharePoint List, generate a new custom view and instead of updating default view we just copy the schema HTML and render it to page.

It provided me many advantages compared to using SPGrid and writing down code to handle sorting, filtering, paging and many more. The best part I found is Multi column filter and sorting is handled by SharePoint itself. No issues related to paging or UI.

Even though I have not tested below solution to extremes, but found it great so decided to document it.

Below are solution steps.

• Create an empty SharePoint Project.
•  Add a blank webpart to the project.
•  Create few global properties in the webpart code file.

private string listName = "TestList1"; private string viewFields = "ID,test1,test2,test3"; private string emptyViewString = "No liked documents. Select and like new documents..:"; private int noItemsToDisplay = 20; private string webparttitle = "My liked documents";

•     Below is the code that will get schemaHTML from custom method and will render that on page.

protected override void CreateChildControls()         {             base.CreateChildControls();             try             {                 //Create XML definition for mylikeddocuments view                 string viewXML = this.CreatePersonalView();                 using (SPSite site = new SPSite(SPContext.Current.Web.Url))                 {                     using (SPWeb web = site.OpenWeb())                     {                         SPList list = web.Lists[this.listName];                         // Create xsltlistviewwebpart control                         this.listView = new Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages.XsltListViewWebPart();                         this.listView.Visible = true;                         this.listView.EnableViewState = true;                         // Bind listviewwebpart to the list.                         this.listView.ListName = list.ID.ToString("B").ToUpperInvariant();                         // When clicking the title, navigate to the View "My Liked Documents" in the list.                         this.listView.TitleUrl = list.Views["All Items"].Url;                         this.listView.WebId = web.ID;                         this.listView.Title = this.webparttitle;                         this.listView.ListId = (System.Guid)list.ID;                         this.listView.UseSQLDataSourcePaging = true;                         // Set XML definition of view to "My liked documents" XML                         this.listView.XmlDefinition = viewXML;                         this.listView.HelpMode = WebPartHelpMode.Modeless;                         this.Controls.Add(this.listView);                     }                 }             }             catch (Exception ex)             {                 System.Web.UI.WebControls.Label lbl = new System.Web.UI.WebControls.Label();                 lbl.Text = ex.Message;                 Controls.Add(lbl);             }         }

•             Below custom method will query DefaultView of SharePoint List and returns SchemaHTML.

private string CreatePersonalView()         {             SPList list = SPContext.Current.Web.Lists[this.listName];             // Create CAML Query to get documents             string querystring = string.Empty;             querystring = string.Concat("<OrderBy><FieldRef Name='ID'/></OrderBy>");             // Based on the defaultview of the list, create a new view where the query is replaced with the custom query to extract liked documents.             // Return the schemaxml of the view.             string schemaxml = string.Empty;             SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges(delegate             {                 using (SPSite site = new SPSite(SPContext.Current.Web.Url))                 {                     using (SPWeb web = site.OpenWeb())                     {                         SPList elevatedList = web.Lists[list.ID];                         SPView view = elevatedList.DefaultView;                         view.Query = querystring;                         if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(this.viewFields))                         {                             view.ViewFields.DeleteAll();                             foreach (string fieldname in this.viewFields.Split(new char[] { ',' }))                             {                                 view.ViewFields.Add(fieldname);                             }                         }                         view.TabularView = false;                         view.RowLimit = (uint)this.noItemsToDisplay;                         view.Paged = true;                         schemaxml = view.HtmlSchemaXml;                     }                 }             });             return schemaxml;         }

Below is the output of above code.

Thanks & Regards,

Keyur Pandya