Improving Data Viewer’s page load time

Improving Data Viewer’s page load time

Configuration Infographic Overview of Configuration Screens

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To improve the performance of your Data-Viewer, consider some of these options:

Option Comment
Turn on Asynchronous Page Load See Overview of the Data Viewer Configuration Parameters for more information.
Minimize the number of items displayed per page See Data Display Options for more information.
Only show the columns you really need to show

Getting data and formatting it takes processing time on the server and also the client PC. It’s easy to add all columns to the Data-Viewer display when configuring it. Not only will this typically add a horizontal scroll bar to the display, it also adds to page load time.

It’s best to include just the columns that end users absolutely need to see. You can always also:

  • include the Title column with a link to the item or the Action Menu so users can open the form to see everything for a particular item
  • include the interactive option to allow end users to add more columns to the display as they need
Minimize the display of columns that require formatting

The Data-Viewer load time process that takes the longest is formatting the data. Not all data types require formatting; for example, Single Line Text columns do not require formatting.

If you can minimize the data that requires formatting, your page will load faster. Columns that require formatting and take the longest to process are:

  • Date Time
  • People and Group

If you need to display a Date Time column and want to improve performance, you could add a calculated column to your list and display it instead of the Date Time column. The formula below is an example that stores a date value in a text column:

  =TEXT([Due Date],"mm/dd/yyyy")

If this calculated column is stored as TEXT, it requires no formatting when displayed. Including it in the Data-Viewer display rather than the Date Time column will improve performance.

NOTE: Date values stored as text are sorted as TEXT, so create your formula appropriately if you plan to enable interactive sorting for your end users.

Minimize the other things on the page If you have several web parts on the page, they will all need to be loaded before any are ready to be used. Use navigation links to help users get to separate pages rather than putting everything on one page.

Configuration Infographic Overview of Configuration Screens

OnLoad: String was not recognized as a valid DateTime

OnLoad: String was not recognized as a valid DateTime

Issue

error message.pngYou configured the Data-Viewer to filter the items in a SharePoint list and see this error when you save the web part settings.

Resolution

configure filtering on today plus some.pngThe issue is that the current version of the Data-Viewer Web Part doesn’t support using a filter with [Today] and plus/minus values (i.e., [Today]+5) as shown here. The Web Part doesn’t currently recognize the string as a valid DateTime.

Filters using [Today] by itself should be OK.

As a workaround, create a list view that filters the items in the list using [Today]+5 and then configure the Data-Viewer Web Part to filter with Use list or library view instead of Create custom filter.

Data-Viewer’s conditional formatting is no longer being applied

Data-Viewer’s conditional formatting is no longer being applied

Configuration Infographic Overview of Configuration Screens

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Issue:

You configured conditional formatting rules to be applied to content displayed in Data-Viewer and not only did they worked perfectly, they looked great!
Then one day, even though you didn’t make any changes to the conditional formatting rules, you realize they are no longer being applied to the Data-Viewer display. When you check the Conditional Formatting page, the rules appear to be there. So, what happened?

Example 1: Conditional formatting rules applied to the Task Status column

format by cell2.png

Cause:

Column Display Settings button2.png This issue is seen in Data-Viewer 3.6 and earlier and was caused when:

You opened the Column Display Settings dialog screen after you had configured the formatting rules

AND

You clicked the Save & Close button to close that screen.

This would reset the Column Name associated with your formatting rules to the Title or default column of your list. Although the rest of the rule would be intact, since your rules didn’t apply to the newly identified column, no formatting would be displayed.

Example 2: The Column Names for the three rules have changed to Task Name. Since Task Name is never equal to Completed, In Progress, or Not Started, the conditions are never met so no formatting appears.

format by cell with spotlight.png

Resolution

To fix the issue, just change the Column Name back to what it should be. All of the other rule settings should be intact and not require any changes.

Example 3: Change the column name back to Task Status for all three rules.

NOTE: Resetting the conditional formatting column(s) is not required if you are using Data-Viewer 3.7. To find out what version you are using, click here

Configuration Infographic Overview of Configuration Screens

Interactive Filters don’t appear after configuration

Interactive Filters don’t appear after configuration

Issue:

allow filtering.png
On the General Settings page, you enabled interactive filtering by checking the Allow Filtering box. You saved your configuration changes, applied them, and clicked OK to close the web part toolpane. The filter boxes don’t appear on the interface of the Data-Viewer Web Part. You refreshed the page and still no filter boxes appear. What’s wrong?

Resolution:

filter boxes.pngAfter implementing interactive filtering, sometimes you need to view a different portal page and then come back and view the page where your Data-Viewer Web Part is. When the page is re-loaded this way, the filter boxes should appear.

How to Turn off Page Navigation in the Web Part

How to Turn off Page Navigation in the Web Part

Issue:

data viewer paging.pngYou are displaying a small number of items in the Data-Viewer, but the paging links still appear. You have the Item Limit parameter configured and set to show 20 items per page (the default). Based on your business use case, you never expect to see more than 20 items in this view.

Resolution:

dvwp item limit.pngWhen you know that your display will not include a large number of items, unchecking the Item Limit box, will hide the Back and Next page navigation links (see screen shot below).

dvwp without paging.png

Error when configuring Data-Viewer SharePoint site URL

Error when configuring Data-Viewer SharePoint site URL

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Issue:

When configuring the Data-Viewer for displaying a SharePoint List or Library, you see the error message below when specifying an incorrect SharePoint Site URL and clicking View Lists and Libraries.

dv error message.png

Resolution:

Be sure there is a / at the end of the URL. The screen shot below shows the correct syntax.

correct url syntax.png