Tag: How to configure Data-Viewer

Click the SharePoint List and Library button under Data Source Settings in the navigation tool pane.

NOTE:You will only be able to select this button if SharePoint Lists and Libraries is selected as the Data Source Type

Enter the URL to the site that contains the list or library to be displayed in Data-Viewer, then click the View lists and Libraries button.

Both absolute paths (http:// server name/site ) or relative paths(./Site/) can be used for the site URL. Bamboo recommends using relative paths if:

• Multiple Alternative Access Mappings are being used
• The Web part will be included in a site template

The available lists and libraries on that site will be listed in SharePoint List or Library drop-down selector.

IMPORTANT: Although you can enter a URL for another Site Collection, be careful about going across Web Applications. You may have issues if the other web app has a significantly different security setup.

Click the Columns Display Settings button to specify:

• Which columns to display (required)
• Column Alias, or alternate header text
• Column position
• Column Width
• Text Justification

NOTES:
1. You must select at least one column to display in the Web Part.
2. For information on how to add new columns to an existing Data View click here

You have now configured the web part to use a SharePoint list or library as the data source.

Continue to scroll down the screen to optionally configure how displayed data will be organized including specifying:

• Sorting

• Grouping

• Filtering

Click the SQL Server Table or View button under Data Source Settings > Data Source Type in the navigation tool pane.

NOTE: You will only be able to select this button if SQL Server Table or View is selected as the Data Source Type. Otherwise, this button will be disabled/grayed.

Enter the Server Name for the SQL Server. Then choose an Authentication Method. Options are:

• Current Login Account This is an appropriate selection if the current login account will have access always.

NOTE: The current login is the user visiting the page where the Data-Viewer resides. That is why no username and password is entered when you choose this option.

• Custom Login Account. This is the appropriate selection if the SQL Server is remote, which is generally the case if you are running SharePoint 2010 or SharePoint 2013. If you choose this option, specify either a SQL Server Account or a Windows Account. Enter the Domain, Account Name, and Password. When ready, click Load Databases. If the connection is successful, the available databases will be listed in the Select a SQL Server database drop down.
  

IMPORTANT: In order to use Windows Authentication, you must have enabled Windows Authentication as the Authentication Mode in SQL Server.

NOTE: You can sort by any column in the data source, not just by the columns displayed.

NOTE: No image to show since this selection should look like the site where you put the web part.

Select the Nested Data source from the drop-down menu.

IMPORTANT:The nested content must be of the same Data type, and reside on the same site as the parent data source.

• The values in the nested data source column should have one match in the parent data source column you select.

• The two columns must be the same data type.

Click the Columns Display Settings button to specify:

• Which columns to display (required)
• Column Alias, or alternate header text
• Column position
• Column Width
• Text Justification

You have now configured the web part to display Nested Data

Continue to scroll down the screen to optionally configure additional data display settings including:

• Sorting

• Grouping

• Filtering

Click the Business Connectivity Services button under Data Source Settings in the navigation tool pane.

NOTE:You will only be able to select this button if Business Connectivity Services is selected as the Data Source Type

Click the Check if External Content Type Exists icon () to verify the data source.

To search for available applications, click the Select External Content Type icon ().

Hover over the icon to see which is which. A tooltip will popup describing the purpose of the icon.

Click the Columns Display Settings button to specify:

• Which columns to display (required)
• Column Alias, or alternate header text
• Column position
• Column Width
• Text Justification

NOTES:
1. You must select at least one column to display in the Web Part.
2. For information on how to add new columns to an existing Data View click here

You have now configured the web part to use Business Connectivity Services as the data source.

Continue to scroll down the screen to optionally configure how displayed data will be organized including specifying:

• Sorting

• Grouping

• Filtering

• Select Skin: Select from several preconfigured skins, each with different color and style themes. The default choice is to Inherit Site Theme, so the Data-Viewer uses the same colors and fonts as the rest of the site.
  The Inherit Site theme feature became available in Data-Viewer 3.6

• Define Custom CSS: If you don’t want to inherit the theme from the site and you don’t like any of the available skins, you can customize the Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) for the Web Part directly.
  • Click the Edit CSS button to display a window where you can edit the CSS. See CSS for Data Viewer for more information.

By default, the Data-Viewer will fill the available space in the web part zone or the wiki page where you put it.

Using a custom height and width for the web part lets you control the space that the web part will consume on the page.

• Important: This option is only available when the Set Column Width check box in the Column Display pop up screen is selected.
  
  
  
• Click Specify Custom Height and Width in the Define Custom Height and Width section of the configuration page. If you enter fewer pixels than are needed to display a whole page, vertical and/or horizontal scroll bars will be displayed.

  If you specify a height (in pixels) that is less than needed to display a whole Data-Viewer page, a vertical scroll bar will be displayed. As end users scroll, the header bar remains stationary.
  

  

Determine whether the column headers will be visible in the display, or define special formatting for the column headers.

• Check Allow Hide Header to remove column headers from the display

• To modify the column headers, select the Header Format checkbox and click the box below it to open the formatting dialog.
  • In the formatting dialog, select a desired Font (use the arrows for selection), Style, and/or Size.
  • Select the following format, click Apply and then ok.
    
    

Allow Columns to be resized

• Allows users to adjust the column width at runtime by hovering over the column divider, clicking, and dragging the mouse until the column is the desired width.

NOTE: This option is only available if the Set Custom Column Width box is checked in the parent list’s Columns Display Settings window.

Allow users to add or remove columns

• Allows users to customize the column view using a drop-down menu located in the Data-Viewer Web Part.

• Added columns will be displayed on the right side of the grid in alphabetical order.

• See How to Dynamically Add or Remove Columns to Display for usage information.

Edit Default Fields

• This option is only available if Allow users to add or remove columns has been selected.

• When checked, all columns configured for default display in the web part will be available in Inline Edit or Datasheet modes for editing, even if the column was removed from the users run-time display.

  Edit Default Fields feature added in Data-Viewer 3.7

Allow filtering

• Allows users to filter items displayed in the Data-Viewer Web Part by entering values in the filter text boxes.

Allow grouping

• Lets users to group items displayed in the Data-Viewer Web Part by dragging and dropping a column heading to the bar just above the column heading bar.

  NOTE: The Allow Group By feature only applies to the parent list column headings. You cannot group nested data.

Allow sorting

• When checked users can click a column heading to dynamically sort displayed items

• Clicking the column heading cycles sort order between ascending, descending, and no sort.

Allow inline editing

• When checked an Inline Edit icon () is added to each row of data.
  The Inline Edit icon changed in Data-Viewer 3.7

• By default, the following columns will be available for edit in the inline edit form-

  • Editable columns that are included in the display
  • Columns that are required in the form.

• See How to Use Inline Editing for additional information.

NOTES:
1. If using a SQL data-source the referenced database must be defined with a primary key
2. This option is not supported for BCS data-sources.

Add required fields to edit form

• When inline editing is enabled, this option is turned on by default, and adds any required data source fields to the inline edit form, even if they are not normally displayed in the Data-Viewer grid.

Enable Edit in Datasheet

• When selected the Edit in Datasheet link will be displayed in the upper left corner of the Web Part.

• When users click this button, the default Data-Viewer Web Part view is replaced with a grid view similar to SharePoint Datasheet mode. This allows users to make multiple edits quickly. For information about using this feature see How to Edit in Datasheet View.

Enable Add New Item

• Click to display the Add New Item link in the upper left corner of the Web Part.

Enable Print Current Page

• Checking this box displays a Print Current Page link in the bottom left corner of the Data-Viewer Web Part.

• Only the data displayed on the current page will be printed

Select a column and choose whether to group column in ascending or descending order.

Select whether to show groups collapsed or expanded by default.

NOTE: Unlike sort options, you can only group by columns displayed in the Web Part.

Configure Item Filtering
* For SharePoint list or library data, you can select an existing list view.
* For all other data source types, you must Create a custom filter.

Show the item when column: Select the column or field to filter by, select the comparison operator (i.e. Equal To, Contains, etc.), and then enter the value to filter on.

Show More Columns…: Click this link to filter by more than one value using AND/OR logic.

NOTE: The filter value can include the SharePoint variable to match the currently logged on user or to match the current date.

• When checked the Export to Excel link will be visible in the bottom right corner of the Data-Viewer Web part.
• If the Data-Viewer Web Part is configured to display both parent and nested data, only the parent data will be exported.

• The Export to Excel with data formatting (slower performance) button will only be available after the Enable Export to Excel option has been selected.

• When selected, data exported to Excel is formatted based on a combination of Regional Settings and column configuration.

• Export performance may be slower when exporting with data formatting.

  When this option is not selected:

  • Date and Time columns will be displayed in UTC time.
  • Choice columns that allow multiple selections will include the separator characters #; between values.
  • Lookup column values will include the item ID and the characters #;.
  • Multiline Rich Text will display tags
  • Percent columns won’t show the % sign

See examples here.

• When checked the Export Nested Data to Excel link will be visible in the bottom right of the web part.

• What nested data is exported is determined by the following options:

  • Export expanded nested items only: Only nested items from an expanded parent item will be exported. Nested items that are collapsed (not currently visible) will not be exported.
  • Export all nested items: All nested data is exported, even if the associated parent items are not expanded.

If you export all nested items, be sure the nested data is configured with a column that displays the name of the parent item or you won’t know which nested items goes with which parent item.

Configuration:


Result:

If you are going to format the cell, use a background color as shown above and pick a corresponding foreground color (text color) and style for the text so it is easy to read. Only the cells for the selected column will be formatted.

Configuration:


Result:

If you are going to format the row, use a background color and not necessarily a text color or style. Text formatting (i.e., foreground color, style, font) will affect only the column identified in the rule (Task Status in the example above), while the background color will impact all columns displayed in the row. Be sure the background color selected works with the text of the other columns.

If a SharePoint library containing folders was selected for display, use the Folders or Flat radio buttons to determine whether to include the folders in the display.

NOTES:
1. The Show Items inside folders is selected by default.
2. This option is not displayed for other types of data sources.
3. Showing items without folders will take longer to display due to the additional processing required.

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Data displayed in the Data-Viewer Web Part can be sorted by up to two columns, by default. This is similar to SharePoint list views will be the initial sort for the display.

Select a column from each drop down and choose whether to sort in ascending or descending order.

NOTE:
You can sort by any column in the data source, not just by the columns that were selected for display.

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Apply a default filter to the displayed data by selecting from one of the following options:

1. Create Custom Filters:
Select the column(s) that you want to filter on, the comparison type and the value that you are comparing. If needed, add more conditions by clicking the Show more columns… link.

The custom filter in the Data-Viewer supports the SharePoint variables [Me], representing the currently logged in user, and [Today], representing today’s date. Use either or both in your filter conditions for SharePoint Lists or Libraries or List Rollups. They are not available for SQL and BCS data sources.

2. Use list or library view:
When selected the you will be able to select an existing view associated with the configured list to filter the displayed data.

NOTE: The Use List or Library view filter is only available when using a SharePoint List or Library as the data source.

** New ** in Data-Viewer 3.7: This filter option is selected by default when using a SharePoint list or library as a data source and users are able to change list views in run-time from the Web Part display.
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To configure default grouping for your display:

1. Select the column for the first level grouping
2. If needed, select a column for the second level of grouping
3. Select whether the groupings will be collapsed or expanded by default.

NOTES:
1. Collapsed is selected by default.
2. Unlike sort options, you can only group by columns displayed in the Web Part.

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Use the Limit Number of Items to Display setting to set a limit for the number of items displayed per page and the total number of items the Data-Viewer Web Part can display.

NOTES:
1. The Limit Items box is selected by default.
2. Limiting the number of items can help to improve performance.

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Click the Look and Feel Settings button under Preferences.

NOTE: This step requires you to have accessed the Data-Viewer Settings screens by clicking the Data Viewer Web Part Settings button in the web parts configuration tool pane.

Click Edit CSS.

• The default Data-Viewer CSS file is displayed in a new window.

• Edit the file in this window or copy the contents to your favorite text editor.

Download the default CSS here.

NOTE: The default CSS is not related to the skin/site theme you had enabled when you chose to edit the CSS. The default CSS is a standard file that doesn’t change unless you change it. A Data-Viewer Web Part displayed with the default CSS looks like this:

Edit the CSS file as needed.

1. Always save the original content of the file in Notepad (or something similar) in case you need to go back to it. You can also download the default CSS here.
2. You may choose to remove some of the formatting included in the default file.

Sample modifications:

The Data-Viewer Web Part uses the following class selectors to define each element of the Web Part:

Click the Add a Rule button for the list you want to analyze (parent or nested).

NOTES:
1. Multiple formatting rules can be defined by re-clicking Add A Rule
2. Nested formattingrules can only be defined if a Nested data source was configured

Use the following parameters to build the conditional formatting rule:

• Column Name: Select the column that contains the values you want to format. The column list will include any columns you display for the data source. Columns that aren’t displayed won’t appear in the list.
• Condition: Select a Condition to use when comparing the value in the selected column to the condition’s value.

NOTE: If you choose an inappropriate condition for the column type, you will see a message when you save your web part configuration.

• Value: Enter the Value you want to compare with the selected column’s actual value. The condition value can include the SharePoint variable to match the current user or to match the current date.

  NOTE: If the value you are comparing is a percent, enter its value as a whole number, such as 10 for 10%.

1. 
   Click the edit icon () in the Format column to access the Text formatting pop-up.

2. Define the display format for list items that match the rule by specifying, font, style, size, color (foreground), shading (background), etc.

Choose the desired Color Scope for the rule:

• Text: The formatting will apply to just the text of the selected column.
• Cell: The formatting will apply to the cell and the text of the selected column.
• • Typically, when specifying the formatting for a cell, you will select a background color.
• Row: The formatting will apply to the whole row, but any text-specific format (i.e., foreground, style) will apply to only the text of the selected column.
• • Typically, when specifying the formatting for a row, you will select a background color.

Click here to see examples of formatting by each of the color scope options.

Example:
This configuration rule applies to the nested view…

…and it will look like this in the Data-Viewer display.

Display Check Box : (required)

• In the Column Display Settings window, locate the Column Name you would like to display and click the corresponding checkbox to the left.

• Columns with a check in the box will be displayed in the web part.

• To select all columns, click the box in the header of that column.

Column Alias:

• In the Column Alias field, type the name you would like displayed in the header row of the grid view for each column.

• The specified will be visible in the web part display as the column header in Standard and Datasheet modes, Grouping, and Inline Edit .
  Column Alias use on Grouping is new with Data-Viewer 3.7

NOTES:
1. If the user clicks on the title link (if it is included in the display) to open the display form or selects Edit Item in the item context menu, the original column display name is shown.
2.In the screen shot above, Task Name(linked to item) will be displayed in the web part unless the text in brackets is removed from the Column alias

Position From Left:

• In the Position from Left column, choose the order of the column from the respective drop-down menu.

• Clicking Save & Close and reopening the Column Display Settings window will show the updated Position from left order.

  NOTE: The default position of columns is determined by the number order, then by alphabetic order.

To adjust the default Column Width:

1. Check the Set Custom Column Width box in the bottom-left corner of the window (4A).
   • When checked, the values in the Column Width column are enabled and default to 150 pixels each.

2. Enter the desired default width in pixels in the Column Width column (4B)

Important:
The Set Custom Column Width check box must be checked if you want to allow users to adjust column width in run-time, or if you want to define a custom height and width for the web part

• Click Save & Close to save any changes made to the web part configuration.

• Click Cancel to close the dialog without saving any changes.

  IMPORTANT: If you are using Data Viewer 3.6 or earlier and you access the Columns to Display pop up screen after configuring Conditional Formatting or Calculations, you will need to update the Column Name on the appropriate screen – regardless of whether you check Save & Close or Cancel.

Click the Add a Rule button for the list you want to analyze (parent or nested).

NOTES:
1. Multiple calculations can be defined by re-clicking Add A Rule
2. Nested calculations can only be defined if a Nested data source was configured

Use the following parameters to build the calculation rule:

• Column Name: Select the column that contains the values you want to calculate. The column list will include any columns you display for the data source. Columns that aren’t displayed won’t appear in the list.
• Operator: Select an operator to use on values in the selected column (Count, Sum, Average, Maximum, or Minimum). The operators are the same for all column types.
• Operator Label: When the calculation results are displayed in the Data-Viewer Web Part, you can accept the default label for the results (the name of the operator) or you can enter your own label.

1. Click the edit icon () in the Format column to access the Text formatting pop-up.

2. Define the format for the Operator Label and the calculation result by specifying,font, style, size, color (foreground), shading (background), etc.

Select Yes in the On Grouping? drop down if you want the calculation result and the Operator Label to appear in the group headers.

NOTE:
1. The default value for this field is NO.
2. For more information about grouping click here

Select where you would like to position the calculation results in the data view. You can display results above the data set, below it, or both.

NOTE: The results will appear in the column that is associated with the rule, either at the top of the list or at the bottom. If On Grouping? is set to Yes, the result will appear on the right side of the group headers.

Result:
This configuration…

NOTE: This configuration uses the alias Project Name for the Title column and the Operator Label is set to Number of Projects:.

Click the Bamboo List Rollup button under Data Source Settings in the navigation tool pane.

NOTE:You will only be able to select this button if Bamboo List Rollup is selected as the Data Source Type

Select the type of List Rollup that will be used as a data source:

• A List Rollup Schema created with List Rollup Schema

• A List Rollup Data View (Classic Edition) created with
  List Rollup Classic

  Information on the differences between the Bamboo List Rollup tools is available
  here

The List Rollup Schema is the preferred List Rollup aggregation method. List Rollup Data View (Classic Edition) is available to support legacy aggregations.

Enter the location of the schema or Data View then click the Load List Rollup… button.

• If you selected List Rollup Schema in the previous step, enter the SharePoint Site URL where the schema you want to display was defined. The Schema definition may be in a different site collection. Schemas definitions are stored in a known list and therefore, only the site URL is needed.

• If you selected List Rollup Data View (Classic Edition), enter the URL of the page that contains the Data View you want to display. Data Views are web parts themselves and exist on a particular page of a site. The page may be in a different site collection.

  IMPORTANT: Although you can enter a URL for another Site Collection, be careful about going across Web Applications. You may have issues if the other web app has a significantly different security setup.

The predefined rollups associated with the List Rollup source selected will be listed in List Rollup… drop-down selector.

• Both absolute paths (http :// server name/site ) or relative paths(./Site/) can be used for the site URL. Bamboo recommends using relative paths if:
  1. Multiple Alternative Access Mappings are being used
  2. The Web part will be included in a site template

Click the Columns Display Settings button to specify:

• Which columns to display (required)
• Column Alias, or alternate header text
• Column position
• Column Width
• Text Justification

NOTES:
1. You must select at least one column to display in the Web Part.
2. For information on how to add new columns to an existing Data View click here

You have now configured the web part to use a Bamboo List Rollup as the data source.

Continue to scroll down the screen to optionally configure how displayed data will be organized including specifying:

• Sorting

• Grouping

• Filtering