SpsDev.Com’s Filter Field is a custom field type that does filtering.  You can add one to many filter fields to your list or library, and each one can be filtered based on another filtered field in the list.  Pick a state in one field, and the list of cities in the next field is filtered to only show items from that state, for example.  In this release we support SQL Server 2000 and 2005, and Xml as sources for the field data.  As you change a selection in any of the drop downs, all of the drop downs below it are each filtered to show only the appropriate choices based on the selection that's been made.

Data Sources

When you choose your data source you'll have several options.  If you want to connect to a SQL Server data source you can use a custom SQL statement or a stored procedure.  We also support stored procedure parameters and values when retrieving your data.  When you make the connection to the SQL data source you also have a number of different security options:

• Connect as the process user - connect using the identity of the application pool for the SharePoint web application
• Connect as the current user - connect using the credentials of the current user if you have Kerberos enabled and configured in your environment
• Connect as a specific Sql account - connect using the credentials of an account in Sql server

If you are using Xml as your data source we also have a number of options there:

• Xml File - just give us the name of an Xml file and we will download and use it as the data source
• Elements or attributes - choose whether the data is kept as Xml elements or attributes
• XPath - tell us the custom XPath we should use to extract the data from your Xml file
• Xml Namespaces - tell us about all of the namespaces used in your Xml so that we can extract the data

In addition, you can configure fields to cache the data they use - just tell us how long to keep it and it will save a roundtrip to the database or Xml file as your users are working in SharePoint.

Filtering Fields

You have several choices when configuring fields and how they relate to other filter fields.  For example, you can make one field the parent of another.  When you change the value in the parent, the value in the child changes as well.  You can make a field a child of another filter field as described above.  In addition to that though, it can also be the parent of a different field.  With this architecture you can have any number of fields in a hierarchical parent-child relationship.  All of the data synchronization is handled by the Filter Field.

Finally, you can also use Filter Field as just a really easy to use field for your custom data source.  You can configure a field so that it's neither a parent or a child.  In that case it doesn't have a relationship to any other field, but it still retrieves the data from your SQL or Xml data source.  It's significantly easier to configure than the Business Data Catalog feature that comes with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS).  Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) doesn't even offer that option at all, so Filter Field is a much cheaper alternative for this kind of functionality than upgrading your WSS installations to the full-blown MOSS product.

Compatibility

Filter Field works with both WSS and MOSS.  It supports SQL Server 2000 and SQL Server 2005.