No post back Web Part connection using the DataSheet View

Maybe you haven’t seen this trick before so I figured I would serve it up to you for a weekend thing to try. Create a DataSheet view of two lists and with some field to connect them together, drop them onto a page and add connection information to link the fields together. You’ll have a dynamic view that doesn’t post back to the page and filters information from one list to the other like this:

Normally when you connect two Web Parts together (say through an ID field of some kind) you’ll have a radio button on one that, when clicked, will cause a post back to the page and filter the second list. Here we’re doing the same thing but instead of using the Standard SharePoint view, we’re using a DataSheet View.

I created two lists (by exporting the Northwind from Microsoft Access to a SharePoint site, another trick that you can do if you want some quick data), one for Suppliers and one for Products. The Products list has a column called SupplierID which matches the ones found in the Supplier list. Then I created two DataSheet Views for the lists and put them on a Web Part Page (in this case, the home page). Note that your clients will need Office 2003 installed in order to view this.

Connect the two lists as you would normally, having Products provide a row to Suppliers via the SupplierID column. That’s all there is to it. Now when you select a Supplier from the list, it filters the available Products. No post backs, no fuss. Give it a try with your lists.

Enjoy!