Displaying SharePoint Lists or Libraries in other sites displays a list of other sites

Child objects within SharePoint, like a list on a Site, share an inherent connection with that Parent object. Today's blog is regarding the usage of one of the SharePoint objects like a list and how we can project this list into other Locat Ions.

Now on the example here, the Engineering department wanted to create an interactive and collaborative list based around ID EAS for their weekly Monday night meeting and they want it to is easily accessible from the Engineering home landing page. The Discussion Board list template was a ideal match for this request and the list can is displayed on the landing page By editing it and adding the List View Web part.

You can see it have been created underneath the Engineering site which itself is in a political site hierarchy design along With HR, IT, Projects, etc. underneath the parent Site Collection called Synergy alternative Power. Traditionally, this list could is viewed here and/or displayed in a list View Web part on the landing page of the Engineer ing site as shown here:

The issue with the list View Web part is so it can only display List or Library content from the current Site Parent and Below, Ie-where is we right now? We ' re in the Engineering Landing Home page Therefore we are only having access to the lists and libraries (or objects) that Resi De underneath the Engineering site or parent object.

Now management has decided that, the other departments would join the Engineering meeting and form a weekly company meeting . The managers would like the meeting Discussion Board displayed in a Web part on the IT site landing page as well why that T He IT department can view and add their own ideas.

Here a decision needs to is made from management and/or key stakeholders:

· Do we maintain one list or multiple lists? A very common question as SharePoint administrators/designers we need to ask our clients and one that I ' m faced with very Often. Either is acceptable and one may are easier to secure, maintain or implement. If you choose to maintain one list then the following procedure would assist you. If you decide each department should maintain there own meeting ideas then I'll attempt to cover this in my next blog. In so solution we need to aggregate data from multiple lists into one WEB part should the need ever arise to collate all Data.

While there is many different ways and Web Parts to achieve this in SharePoint all I ' m going to share the best I ' ve Found to accomplish this and that's to save the list View Web Part of the a list into the SharePoint Web Part Gallery for R Euse. Here's how:

· Go to the page in which your Web part resides, the the Engineering landing page.

· Edit in SharePoint Designer (SPD) from the Site Action menu. If SPD is not installed the option would still be on the Site Action menu and you'll be prompted to download and install It.

Now there are both options here in SPD. You can either:

· Click Lists and Libraries on the left Hand Navigation Pane

· Select your List or Library and then click to the default view from the right Hand Side

Or

As my list already appears in my Engineering homepage in a Web part I can simply

· Click ' Edit Site home page '

· Now-wait for the page-to-load in editing mode and highlight-the Web part, would like to distribute

· You'll notice the List View Tools in green highlighted the the Ribbon. Underneath this was four tabbed sections

· Select The Web part tab

· The far right hand side of the Ribbon for you has the options. ' To-Site Gallery ' and ' to File '.

· Click on ' to Site Gallery '

Note:it ' s a good idea to Name the Web part without spaces otherwise%20 would appear instead of the space wherever you use It. It ' s good practice to avoid spaces as much as possible in SP.

· Before saving to the Site Collection Web part Gallery you have the option of editing the Web Part before doing so by click ing Set Properties.

· If you ' re happy with them Click Ok

· After you click Ok a very important message appears in relation to what I am discussing in my introduction.

It asks do want the Web Part to always show List Data from the current Web Site (ie-the Engineering site where the L ist resides)?

Or

Do you want the Web Part to show data from the list at the Site at which-place this Web Part?

In this case we'll almost always Click Yes to our purposes but to course you have the option of utilizing separate List S and List templates, etc.

· After clicking Yes you can now close SPD. We did not edit anything in SPD with its functionalities to has access to the edit View and Web part exporting option S.

· Now go the your Site Collection Home Page, in this case Synergy alternative Power

· Click on site Actions then site Settings

· Underneath the Galleries section click Web Parts

· Your Web part should now is available to the rest of Your Sites in Your Site Collection as it now resides in the site Coll Ection Web Part Gallery

Let's test it out by complying with the IT department's request to having the meeting Ideas Web part added to their Home LAN Ding page as well

· Navigate to another site in your site Collection

· Click Site Actions then edit page or edit page icon above the Ribbon

· Click in the editable web Zone where you would like to place the Web Part

· Click The Insert tab under the Editing Tools in the Ribbon

· Click Web Part

· Under Web part Categories There should now is a new Category called ' Miscellaneous ' that'll contain any newly submitted Items into the Web part Gallery

· Click ADD

· Click the Disk Icon above the Ribbon to save the page

Now if you get a error with any type of List or Library at this stage which I did (purposely of course:p) you'll get t He following error:

When this occurs your need to Click on the Link in the page ' Web Parts Maintenance page ' to resolve the error. In this case there is the XSLT List View Web Parts and one of them has a conflict. Our newly created one needs to being deleted so highlight it and click the Delete option. To return to the page, click Go to the Web part Page.

TIP: If you ever need to go to the ' Web Parts maintenance Page ' Simply add '? Contents=1 ' (without the single quot ation marks) at the end of the URL in the address bar.

So what did this occur? You see there are a very important caveat to this whole process and one I discovered the hard one.

Caveat:do not enable Management of Content Types on any List or Library you wish to Export or display on an external Site From the one in which it is created.

Now this does happen to me with this particular List as Management of Content Types are enabled by default. Most lists won't but very often if you want to alter the content types this needs to being switched on so that's you can. If the the case and your still want to display the List elsewhere, don ' t alter the content type, instead attempt to cre Ate a new one, eg. Column content type.

· To resolve this we need to go, our Site Collection Web Part Gallery, and delete the custom Web Part we created.

· Then we need to make sure Management of Content Types are not enabled. There is a few ways to does this.

-The easiest is in SPD. In SPD go to your List and under settings-> advanced Settings Un-tick allow Management of Content Types as shown below:

-the other method was to navigate to the List Settings, click Advanced Settings and click No. next to allow management of C Ontent types? then click OK.

· The Final Step is to proceed with the solution above all over again. Yes It's frustrating when you find out that Content types are on so it's a good idea to check beforehand and also inform th E site\list Administrator of this issue as well.

The It Site landing page'll then has the list Web Part and both be updated as changes is made as IT's pointing to th E same original list.

Displaying SharePoint Lists or Libraries in other sites displays a list of other sites