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SharePoint 2010 List View Blog Series: Part 1 – Introduction to the new List View

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Hello. This is Greg Chan, a Program Manager on the SharePoint team. I am excited to kick-off a new blog series that will cover a wide spectrum of topics related to the new List View in SharePoint 2010.

What is a List View again?

Put simply, a List View is a view for displaying SharePoint list data. The concept of List View has been around since SharePoint v2. While there are other technologies being used for visualizing list data in different scenarios (e.g. Content Query Web Part), List View remains the default component for displaying list data in SharePoint 2010.

List Views can be spotted everywhere in SharePoint. They are used to display information such as your announcements, tasks and calendar schedules.

Examples of list views:

Announcements list view

Document library view in SP2010

What’s the big change with List Views in 2010?

In 2010, we are introducing a component called the XSLT List View Web Part (XLV) that serves as the new default technology for displaying list data. This honor used to belong to the List View Web Part (LVWP), which was the default from SharePoint v2 to 2007. (Note: LVWPs are still supported in SharePoint 2010, but just not as widely used as the new XLV. ) 

The new XLV brings a ton of improvements to the SharePoint platform. This blog series aim to cover most of these areas. 

What are the key benefits to the new List Views (XLV)?

Replacing the default technology for List Views required fundamental changes to the SharePoint platform. So why did we do it? Let me call out the high level benefits of the XLV:

  • More Designer Friendly
    • Rich customization support through SharePoint Designer while preserving browser UI experience
    • Extensible and shareable custom styles
    • Popular designer features such as Conditional Formatting.
  • More Developer Friendly
    • Uses standards-based XSLT instead of CAML
    • Better documentation
    • Easily extensible
  • More End-User Friendly
    • Enhanced user experience including Ribbon UI and new multi-selection model.
    • Inline editing support
  • More Robust Ways to Access Data
    • Display enterprise data through Business Connectivity Services (BCS)
    • Cross-web list views displaying data from another web
    • Display list data joined from different lists

What’s coming up in the blog series?

Many people from different teams in the SharePoint family contributed to the new List View in SharePoint 2010.  In this blog series, you’ll get a chance to hear from some of those area experts covering key List View topics.

Here are the topics that will be covered:

  • Introduction to the new List View  (you are reading it! :)
  • List View – New User Experience
  • List View Architecture
  • List View Customization
  • External Lists
  • Conditional Formatting
  • How to Share Your Custom List View Styles
  • How to Create Custom Fields for the new List View
  • Related Item View
  • How to Create Views Displaying Cross-Web and Joined List Data

The order in which these topics will be published may change. We may also add or modify topics on this list. If there is any areas regarding List Views that you’d like to learn about and isn’t on this list, feel free to suggest them here. 

Thanks for reading. I hope everyone is excited about the new List Views. Stayed tuned for more!

Greg Chan

Comments

  • Anonymous
    November 16, 2009
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    November 16, 2009
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    November 16, 2009
    I have a question about performance. From my SP2007 experience, it seems to me that rendering an XSLT view (Data View Web Part) takes longer than for a List View Web Part. Am I correct? How about SharePoint 2010?

  • Anonymous
    November 16, 2009
    Please cover how the new list structure handles large lists (i.e. lists with more than 2,000 items).  Thanks!

  • Anonymous
    November 16, 2009
    Will all of these features be avaiable in SharePoint 2010 Foundation (WSS 4.0)?

  • Anonymous
    November 17, 2009
    Good to hear this, eagerly waiting for other posts..

  • Anonymous
    November 17, 2009
    Thanks Greg , It's really usefull.I hope, Customers like that.! Shake it :)

  • Anonymous
    November 17, 2009
    Thank you Greg, great features!

  • Anonymous
    November 17, 2009
    Waiting to learn more from you.. Please add more practical explanation with images.

  • Anonymous
    November 22, 2009
    Please gives the second article.. could not wait for a long time :)..

  • Anonymous
    November 22, 2009
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    November 24, 2009
    How to add new Layout for PictureLibrarySlideshowWebPart in SharePoint 2010?

  • Anonymous
    November 28, 2009
    Hi, Is the new XLV a merge between the previous Listview and Dataview WP ? are Dataview still available ?

  • Anonymous
    December 01, 2009
    Hi Greg, This is great stuff.  I'm really looking forward to the crosslist queries so that I can do rollups of tasks from sub-sites, for example.  So I vote for this as your next post!  In the meantime, can you point me to some documentation or provide just the key snippet to make this happen?  I'd very much appreciate it!

  • Anonymous
    December 07, 2009
    So it sounds like the XLV is a Data View (DFWP) web part that you can create in SharePoint Designer. So will there ever be a need to create a DFWP for a list or a library again?

  • Anonymous
    February 21, 2010
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    March 03, 2010
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    August 24, 2010
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    January 11, 2011
    What happened to the rest of the promised articles in this series? Where is the 'better documentation', i sure can't find it in the incomplete SPD Help files

  • Anonymous
    January 31, 2011
    Hey Greg, I implemented a solution in MOSS, where i used form view web part and list view web part converted into xslt which allowed me to apply multiple filters using XPATH as well and providing values to parameters using form view, but now with this how will i be able to achieve the same... Please let me know at ankursharepoint@hotmail.com

  • Anonymous
    January 31, 2011
    Hey Greg, I implemented a solution in MOSS, where i used form view web part and list view web part converted into xslt which allowed me to apply multiple filters using XPATH as well and providing values to parameters using form view, but now with this how will i be able to achieve the same... Please let me know at ankursharepoint@hotmail.com

  • Anonymous
    August 28, 2011
    Could you update this post with links to the subsequent articles - looks like exactly the guide I want to read... just not in love with searching for each article.  :)  Thanks!

  • Anonymous
    September 08, 2011
    Hi! What about 'How to Share Your Custom List View Styles' post? Does he exist somewhere?

  • Anonymous
    September 18, 2011
    Hi Greg! Any plans on doing the part of "How to Create Views Displaying Cross-Web and Joined List Data" ? Cheers, Robert

  • Anonymous
    September 28, 2011
    Hi,      How do you add different languages in same list in different rows? for ex. if a row is in english then can next row be in chinese?

  • Anonymous
    December 06, 2011
    Hey Jeff Can you update thos blog post with the links to the other articles and was the article •How to Create Views Displaying Cross-Web and Joined List Data ever published?

  • Anonymous
    December 18, 2011
    check this helpful link too... mindstick.com/.../64d0f6b6-1f1c-408d-84cd-52420c417475 Its also having a wonderful  explanation on Create a list in SharePoint and Read list Data from SharePoint using C#. Thanks

  • Anonymous
    December 20, 2011
    I have requirement. Where i need to create a site in SharePoint 2010 with i lack record or data. Can anyone guide me , for that any tools available or not..