Use MOSS filter webparts with Data Viewer Web Part

Use MOSS filter webparts with Data Viewer Web Part

One of my existing customers is currently trialling the Data Viewer Web Part in order to display the timetable from Facility CMIS. He was quite happy writing the SQL to retrieve it from the database, but wanted a quick and easy way to display it. He was delighted with how simple it was to retrieve the information for the logged in pupil by using a parameterised query with the pupil’s Student ID was is stored in Active Directory.

For the staff though, he wanted them to be able to display a selected pupil’s timetable and suggested using the MOSS filter webparts. I hadn’t actually come across these before so did some investigation and decided it would be nice if the Data Viewer could be connected to them, and it didn’t look too difficult. In the end it took longer than anticipated due to where in the web part lifecyle the connection was made, and how that interacted with the sorting and paging functionality, but now the Data Viewer Web Part can be connected to the MOSS filter web parts. The value from a filter web part can now be used in the parameterised SQL query, just like Active Directory attributes can.