Corporate Coder

[tags: Sharepoint, Sharepoint 2007, MOSS, lookup fields, Sharepoint Designer, Frontpage]

For the current project I am lead on, we are using Sharepoint 2007 as the "framework" for our application.  Specifically MOSS.  There are a lot of advantages inherent in using Sharepoint in this capacity.  The UI is pretty much handled, since any customizations must look similar to the standard corporate sharepoint site.  Versioning, Document libraries all come standard.  Creating data dictionaries via lists are also easy to do.  Security is handled through the Sharepoint model.

In using Sharepoint, we are utilizing straight sharepoint lists with lookup fields, that lookup from another list.  We had a problem, in that our users want to inactivate some of the options from the lookup list.  And those options should not be available in the drop down that is sourced from the lookup list.  This functionality is not available straight out of sharepoint.  In searching the web, we couldn't find any mention of how to do this.

But our developers, Adam Stoffel, and Guagnlie Zhu found a solution.  By using Sharepoint Designer, and creating a custom Edit page this can be done.  What they did is to create a new Datasource from the lookup list in Sharepoint designer.  In that datasource, they filter it (in this case only items with Active set to yes).  Then on the custom page drop a dropdown control.  Bind that control to the datasource you just created.  Save the file and you have a filtered drop down sourced from another list.  HTH.

Agiley yours

Eric Landes