SharePoint Web Parts can not be connected using hyperlink fields

Question

Hi!

In short: I'm trying to filter an XSLTListViewWebPart based on what is selected in another XSLTListViewWebPart. Using a String field as connection this is working fine. Using a hyperlink field no data is displayed.

In more detail: I have two lists, say Accounts and Projects. Both have a hyperlink field accountURL. All accounts have different accountURLs. Different projects can have the same value for accountURL. Both are displayed on a page using the XSLTListViewWebPart. The simple goal is to filter the Projects list based on which item is selected in the Accounts list using the accountURL field. So I established a web part connection using the acountURL as a filter. Alas, when an item in the Accounts list is selected no items are showwn in the Projects list although I double checked that there are matching values. When using a string field instead of a hyperlink field for accountURL everything works like a charm. Problem is, I need the hyperlink field.

Is this desired behaviour? Do you have any suggestions for a workaround? (I already tried converting the hyperlink field to a string field via a calculated column which did not work out either.)

All was and is to be done in the web interface or SP-Designer. Coding a WSP is not an option for this problem. As I'm not quite familiar with the correct terminus technicus I use field and column interchangeably.

All help is greatly appreciated.

Ben

Answer 1

Hi Ben,

You may want to use a SharePoint Designer Workflow to copy the "accountURL" value to a custom text type column (Single line of text) in each list Accounts and Projects, then you can use the web part connection to filter the list according to the text type column between Accounts and Projects list web parts.

You can hide the text type field in the NewForm/EditForm via list item content type like this, and can also hide this text type column in list view via modify list view.

Thanks

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Daniel Yang

TechNet Community Support

Answer 2

Hi Daniel,

thank you very much for your idea. The workaround does its job well.

Nonetheless, I still wonder whether it is possible to use hyperlink columns or other special columns for filtering.

I also had the problem that I cannot use a person column as lookup.

Do
you or anyone else know if whether there ist some kind of overview
which column types can be used for filtering/formulas/lookup/...?

Cheers

Ben

Answer 3

Hi Ben,

Sorry for the late reply. I find two articles about this,

column types for calculated/lookup,

http://techtrainingnotes.blogspot.com/2012/01/sharepoint-not-all-column-types-can-be.html

supported column types for the web part conncetion filter,

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc767488.aspx

Thanks

---

Daniel Yang

TechNet Community Support