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Kevin Peto Bostick's avatar
Kevin Peto Bostick
Copper Contributor
Nov 24, 2016
Solved

Joined Lists and Data View Web Parts

Apologies if this has been addressed, but I haven't been able to find any answers.

I'm not a developer, just a (at one time) fairly sophisticated user -- of SharePoint 2010. I'm now in a SharePoint Online environment.

My question: I used to to be able to define 'joined lists' in SP Designer and then place a Data View Web Part onto a page (using SP Designer Visual Editor) in order to display the joined data. What is the 'modern' equivalent of that (rather simple, IMHO) process? I can still join the lists in SP Designer to create a Linked Data Source, but:

  1. With no Visual Editor in SP Designer I'm struggling to get the lsits displayed;
  2. When I do manage to display (something quite ugly) it does not appear that the Data Source is actually of the joined lists data -- only one list's data is showing.

So, question 1: what should a simple user use as a Visual Editor for SharePoint Online? Do I need to get Visual Studio (which I have zero experience with) or is there another tool recommended?

Next I have stumbled through the plethora of 'new' tools which have appeared, and found:

  1. Trying to use Access WebApp on the site, I can set it up and connect to the data sources... but Access does not load all the fields/columns from the target lists. I know Currency and Lookups don't come across, there may be others -- so this looks to be a dead end;
  2. Trying to use PowerBI, I can set up a report/dashboard on the tools, but cannot then seem to find a method to embed the resultant view on a SharePoint page on the site. Also because the report/dashboard exists outside the domain, it doesn't like to pull across images stored on the site for use in the report.
  3. I haven't tried to create a PowerApp as I haven't managed to understand the interface, let alone how to approach what I need to do!

To reiterate:

The objective is a joined view of select data from three SharePoint Online lists, embedded in a SharePoint page, suitable for C-Suite consumption -- ideally refreshed and updated without regular intervention.

Tools I have:

SharePoint Online (Enterprise license); SharePoint Designer; PowerBI Desktop; Excel; Access; PowerApps. Visual Studio (though with no experience or confidence).

I have Site Collection Admin access, but no higher. I cannot deply scripts (Powershell or otherwise), at least not without some clear and detailed (... for Dummies) instruction.

Data:

Three tables: Division, Project and Status

Division: ID, Name, Short Name;

Project: ID, Title, (Division ID) {as lookup to Division}

Status: ID, Title, (Project Title) {as lookup to Project}

 

Any suggestions on how I can dispay: Project|Title, Division|Name, Status|Title is a single table view?

  • Your best friend here, without any coding, is PowerApps but you will need to invest some time on figure out how PowerApps work

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  • Your best friend here, without any coding, is PowerApps but you will need to invest some time on figure out how PowerApps work

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