This post describes how to configure the SharePoint Filter Web Part 3.0.
After you have installed the solution and activated the “Sapiens.at.SharePoint List Filter Web Part 3.0” feature in your site collection’s features you can add the SharePoint Filter Web Part to any web part page.
If you want to add the web part to an existing view page, you have to edit the page, close the existing List View Web Part and add the “Sapiens.at List Filter Web Part 3.0“.
After you have added the web part you have to open the tool panel and configure it.
In the “List and View” Section you can configure the list and the view you want to filter. If you added the web part to an existing view page, the correct view is already configured.
The Sapiens.at List Filter Web Part consists of two areas, the Keyword Search to search the list for keywords, and the Filter Details Section to refine your keyword search.
In the “Keyword Search” section of the tool part you can configure it if you want to use Search or List Queries to search for keywords.
If you use Search (SharePoint Server Search or Search Server) you can search documents and attachments and use complex keyword queries like AND, OR, as well as wildcards. Search must be configured to use this option. If you use Search you have to configure the maximum size for Search Results, the items or documents returned by the search. This value should be between 500 and 10,000. If the number of items returned exceeds the configured limit, a message will be displayed to the user.
Note: The Max. size for Search Results is a very important value. Fetching 10,000 rows from search results takes much longer than fetching 500. If you encounter long durations while searching (more than a few seconds) consider decreasing this value in your performance notifications.
If SharePoint Server Search or Search Server Express doesn’t exist or you don’t want Search to be used you can configure the Web Part to use List Queries. Note: Documents and Attachments will not be searched for keywords in this case. If you use List Queries you have to select the fields you want to query. Note: Choose only the fields you really need, because this has an impact on the search performance!
In the “Filter Details” Section you basically configure the fields to refine your keyword search, the look and feel of this section and the startup mode of the Web Part.
In the Filter Details Section you can use two different controls to filter the list: The date range picker used for date fields, and a choice (dropdown) used for any other field type. The choices are usually populated with values existing in items in the configured view. This means that if you don’t configure it to start with a keyword query, to start with empty filters or to start with filters populated from definition, all items have to be queried on first load. On lists and libraries with hundred thousands or millions of items or documents, you’ll spend a long time waiting for the Filter Web part to show up. If you activate the “Start with keyword, filter choices from definition or date” option, you have to enter a keyword, pick a date or choose a value from a filter, initially populated with values from definition to run the first query and populate the choices with existing values in the list. To populate filter choices with values from definition you have to activate this option on the filter field. The option is only available for Choices, Lookups, Managed Metadata, People and Groups and Content Types. Values from definition are values already defined in other sources, like choices, lookups, managed metadata and people and groups. Be careful if you load definitions from big sources such as loading values for a lookup column from a list with millions of items.
If the “Start with keyword, filter choices from definition or date” option is not active you can still choose to populate the filter choices with values from definition, which only makes sense if this option is set on all selected fields (except date fields). In this case there is no need to query the list at all, which improves the overall performance of the Filter Web Part, especially on large lists.
At the end of the “Filter Details” section you can configure:
In the “Toolbar” Section you can configure
In the “Performance” Section you can configure if performance notifications should be displayed for administrators. We recommend activating this option especially during set-up and performance tests.
The performance notification allows administrators to monitor the search and query execution as well as the total execution time of the web part, which makes it easier to set up a fast and efficient Filter Web Part.
SharePoint Filter Web Part 3.0 – All Posts
Installing the SharePoint Filter Web Part 3.0
Configuring the SharePoint Filter Web Part 3.0
Configuring the SharePoint Filter Web Part 3.0 for Large Lists
The SharePoint Filter Web Part 3.0 – The SharePoint High Speed List Filter
