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How to use Content Query WebPart

In this post I will walk you through the process of creating a content query web part and configuring it to show custom field types. I will also give details on how to use XSLT to stylize and format the data being pulled.

I will be using the following scenario as an example. Say that you had a site collection with a top level publishing site. This publishing site would display a the most recent blog posts from all blog sites within its own site collection.

To solve this problem we will use a Content Query Web Part and a customized ItemStyle.xsl using XSLT.

Please note that the “SharePoint Server Publishing Infrastructure” needs to be enabled at the site collection to display the content query web part.

Step 1: Add a Content Query Web Part to Page

Navigate to the site that you want the blog posts to show up and click on edit page.
Under Editing Tools in the Ribbon, Click on insert > Web Part
Under the Content Rollup Category Click on Content Query
Then Click on the Add Button
Now that you have a CQWP on the page edit the web part

Expand open the “Query” properties
Since we will be just showing blog post in this query choose the following

List Type: Posts
Content Type Group: List Content Types
Content Type: Post

You should get a result like the following.

Next we will configure the web part to pull in additional values from the blog posts.

Title – linked to post
Date – with standard formatting
Body – Rich text
Author
Number of Comments
Categories

Step 2: Configure Web Part

Click on web part arrow and choose “Export”
Save the .webpart file to your desktop
Edit the “Content_Query.webpart” file in Notepad
Search for "CommonViewFields”
Replace the default “<property name="CommonViewFields" type="string" />” with the following:

<property name="CommonViewFields" type="string">Title, Text;PublishedDate, DateTime;Body, RichHTML;Author, Text;NumComments, Lookup;PostCategory, Lookup;</property>

Here are the available Field Types that can be used

Text
Note
Number
Currency
Integer
Boolean
DateTime
Threading
Lookup
Choice
URL
Counter
RichHTML
Image

When creating your own there are a few rules.

First off you need to separate each custom field type by a semi colon (Ex: Title, Text;Editor, Text)
There cannot be a space after the semi colon

Save the .webpart file
Edit the page again and choose Inster Web Part
It’s a little hard to find but click on the Upload a Web Part and browse for the custom .webpart file.

Click on Upload
Now when you click on Insert webpart you will see a category of imported webparts.
Click on Add button.
Now you will not see a difference but now the webpart has been configured to display these custom columns.

Step 3: Configure ItemStyle.xsl

Click on View All Site Content > Style Library > XSL Style Sheets
Download the itemstyle.xsl file
Add the following to the top of the file

xmlns:ddwrt="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WebParts/v2/DataView/runtime"

At the very bottom of the xsl file add the following template

<xsl:template name="BlogPost" match="Row[@Style='BlogPost']" mode="itemstyle">
        <xsl:variable name="SafeLinkUrl">
            <xsl:call-template name="OuterTemplate.GetSafeLink">
                <xsl:with-param name="UrlColumnName" select="'LinkUrl'"/>
            </xsl:call-template>
        </xsl:variable>
        <xsl:variable name="DisplayTitle">
            <xsl:call-template name="OuterTemplate.GetTitle">
                <xsl:with-param name="Title" select="@Title"/>
                <xsl:with-param name="UrlColumnName" select="'LinkUrl'"/>
            </xsl:call-template>
        </xsl:variable>
        <div class="custom_posttitle">
            <xsl:call-template name="OuterTemplate.CallPresenceStatusIconTemplate"/>
            <a href="{$SafeLinkUrl}" title="{@LinkToolTip}">
              <xsl:if test="$ItemsHaveStreams = 'True'">
                <xsl:attribute name="onclick">
                  <xsl:value-of select="@OnClickForWebRendering"/>
                </xsl:attribute>
              </xsl:if>
              <xsl:if test="$ItemsHaveStreams != 'True' and @OpenInNewWindow = 'True'">
                <xsl:attribute name="onclick">
                  <xsl:value-of disable-output-escaping="yes" select="$OnClickTargetAttribute"/>
                </xsl:attribute>
              </xsl:if>
              <xsl:value-of select="$DisplayTitle"/>
            </a>
        </div>
    <xsl:variable name="StartDate">
        <xsl:value-of select="ddwrt:FormatDateTime(string(@PublishedDate), 1033, 'g')" />
    </xsl:variable>
    <div class="custom_date">
            <xsl:value-of select="$StartDate" />
    </div>
    <div class="custom_description">
            <xsl:value-of select="@Body" disable-output-escaping="yes" />
    </div>
    <div>
        <table class="custom_postdetails" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
            <tr>
                <td class="custom_author">
                        By: <xsl:value-of select="@Author" /> |
                </td>
                <td class="custom_comments">
                        Comments: <xsl:value-of select="@NumComments" /> |
                </td>
                <td class="custom_category">
                        Category: <xsl:value-of select="@PostCategory" />
                </td>
            </tr>
        </table>
    </div>
</xsl:template>

Save the file and upload it to back up to the style library

Step 4: Apply Custom XSL style to content query

Modify the Content Query Web Part again
Expand open The Presentation Category
Choose the custom “BlogPost” style
Save the page and you should now see the blog post with the following data and format.

Here are the files so that you don’t have to go through the whole process. Happy SharePointing!

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How to use Content Query WebPart

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