Hey blog readers… It has been almost 2 years since I posted my most read blog on creating a Parent/Child list relationship in SharePoint 2007: Creating a SharePoint List Parent / Child Relationship - Out of
the Box And then a year ago I improved on my method and redid
the blog post… still for SharePoint 2007: Creating a SharePoint List Parent/Child Relationship – VIDEO REMIX Since then many of you have been asking me how to get this to work in SharePoint 2010, and frankly I have just not had time to look into it. I wish I could have jumped into this sooner, but have just recently began to look at it. Well.. after all this time I have actually come up with two solutions that work, neither of them are as clean as I’d like them to be, but I wanted to get something in your hands that you can start using today. Hopefully in
the coming weeks and months I’ll be able to improve upon this further and give you guys some better options. For
the most part,
the process is identical to
the 2007 process, but you have probably found out that
the list view web parts in 2010 behave differently, and getting
the Parent ID to your new child form can be a pain in
the rear (at least that’s what I’ve discovered). Anyway, like I said, I have found a couple of solutions that work. If you know of a better one, please let us know as it bugs me that this not as eloquent as my 2007 implementation. Getting on
the same page First thing I’d recommend is recreating this blog: Creating a SharePoint List Parent/Child Relationship – VIDEO REMIX in SharePoint 2010… There are some vague differences, but it’s basically
the same… Here’s a quick video of me doing this in SP 2010: Creating Lists necessary for this blog post Now that you have
the lists created, lets set up
the New Time form to use a QueryString variable to populate
the Parent ID field: Creating parameters in Child’s new item form to set parent ID Did I talk fast enough through both of those videos? Hopefully by now that stuff is old hat to you, but I wanted to make sure everyone could get on
the same page. Okay… let’s get started. Solution 1 – XSLTListView with Javascript This solution is
the more elegant of
the two, however it does require
the use of a little javascript.
The other solution does not use javascript, but it also doesn’t use
the pretty new SP 2010 pop-ups. I’ll let you decide which you like better.
The basic steps of this solution are: Inserted a Related Item View Insert a ContentEditorWebPart Insert script in ContentEditorWebPart that pulls
the ID from
the Query string and calls
the method to insert a new item on
the child entry form Hide
the toolbar from data view to remove “add new item” link. Again, you don’t HAVE to use a CEWP, you could just put
the javascript directly in
the page using SPD. Anyway, here is how I did it: Using Related Item View / JavaScript Here’s
the JavaScript I used in my Content Editor Web Part: <script type="text/javascript">
function NewTime() {
// Get
the Query String values and split them out into
the vals array
var vals = new Object();
var
qs = location.search.substring(1, location.search.length);
var args =
qs.split("&");
for (var i=0; i < args.length; i++) {
var nameVal = args[i].split("=");
var temp = unescape(nameVal[1]).split('+');
nameVal[1] = temp.join(' ');
vals[nameVal[0]] = nameVal[1];
}
var issueID = vals["ID"];
//use this to bring up
the pretty pop up
NewItem2(event,"http://sp2010dev:1234/Lists/Time/NewForm.aspx?IssueID=" + issueID);
//use this to open a new window
//window.location="http://sp2010dev:1234/Lists/Time/NewForm.aspx?IssueID=" + issueID;
}
</script>
Solution 2 – DataFormWebPart and exact same 2007 Process
This solution is a little more of a hack, but it also MUCH more close to
the process we did in SP 2007. So, if you don’t mind not having
the pretty pop-up and prefer
the comforts of what you are used to, you can give this one a try.
The basics steps are:
Insert a DataFormWebPart instead of
the List Data View
Create a Parameter on DataFormWebPart to store “ID” Query String Variable
Filter DataFormWebPart using Parameter
Insert a link at bottom of DataForm Web part that points to
the Child’s new item form and passes in
the Parent Id using
the Parameter.
See.. like I told you, exact same process as in 2007 (except using
the DataFormWeb Part).
The DataFormWebPart also requires a lot more work to make it look “pretty” but it’s just table rows and cells, and can be configured pretty painlessly. Here is that video:
Using DataForm Web Part
One quick update… if you change
the link in this solution from:
<tr>
<td><a href="http://sp2010dev:1234/Lists/Time/NewForm.aspx?IssueID={$IssueIDParam}">Click here to create new item...</a>
</td>
</tr>
to:
<tr>
<td>
<a href="javascript:NewItem2(event,'http://sp2010dev:1234/Lists/Time/NewForm.aspx?IssueID={$IssueIDParam}');">Click here to create new item...</a>
</td>
</tr>
It will open up in
the pretty pop up and act
the same as solution one… So… both Solutions will now behave
the same to
the end user. Just depends on which you want to implement.
That’s all for now…
Remember in both solutions when you have them working, you can make
the “IssueID” invisible to users by using
the “ms-hidden” class (it’s my previous blog post on
the subject up there).
That’s basically all there is to it! No pithy or witty closing this time… I am sorry it took me so long to dive into this and I hope your questions are answered. As I become more polished myself I will try to come up with a cleaner solution that will make everyone happy…
As always, thanks for taking
the time to stop by.
