Lightning Conductor Web Part Getting Started

The Lightning Conductor Web Part (LCWP) is a rollup web part that is similar to that of the Content By Query Web Part also know as just Content Query Web Part.  The Content Query Web Part (CQWP) allows you to roll up from SharePoint Lists or Libraries within just one Site Collection and is also difficult to configure when wanting to display additional columns other than the Title column. Therefore the LCWP allows you to roll up from SharePoint Lists and Libraries that are across Multiple Site Collections.  This means that if you follow the ‘Best Practice’ for SharePoint, you will have Multiple Site Collections instead of a single Site Collection, and you can still roll up your content! The Lightning Conductor Web Part is also a lot easier to configure than the Content Query Web part.  To display additional columns, all you have to do it select them from the Tool Pane.  We have also catered for those of you who want to use a custom view by providing you with the option of uploading your own XSL files.
To configure the Lightning Conductor Web Part, follow these 3 simple steps!

1. Choose the Source!
2. Apply a Filter
3. Configure Your View

Choose a Source

Once you have added the LCWP to your Web Part Page, follow the instructions within the Web Part to open the Tool Pane.  This is a hyperlink that you simply click.  Then from the Tool Pane, choose where you would like to roll up your data from.  You can choose from Single Site Collection, Multiple Site Collections, or a Specific Site and its subsites.  The image below shows the Site Collection options.

Once you have chosen the Site Collection, you need to choose the List, Library or Content Type that you wish to roll up.  It is possible to use a Content Type across different types of Lists or Libraries.  Therefore, you can either choose a List Type, or you can choose a Content Type. It is also possible to choose both.  This would be necessary if you wanted to display all items from a List or Library type but then further filter it by content type.  For Example, Display all Documents from Document Libraries that are created using the Proposal (Custom) content type.  If you have Child Content Types, these can be included also by ticking the checkbox Include Content Types.

Filter The Content

Once you have specified the source for your content roll up web part, you will probably need to filter the content that has been aggregated.  You can Filter the rolled up items either by using standard columns or custom columns that have been created in the list or library.  There is a new icon in the LCWP (Shown below) which will gather all of the Custom Site Columns, and Custom Columns for that particular list type and cache them ready to be used within your filter. The following screencast and article shows how you can include custom site columns or custom columns within your filter.

To filter the data returned, choose a Site Column, an Operator such as ‘Greater Than’ and then a value.  Note that the LCWP also supports two keywords for filtering [Me] and [Today].  This allows you to filter values out for the currently logged on user and also filter items based on todays date with or without an offset.

Configure Your View

Configuring the view of the data is one of the most powerful features of the LCWP.  We offer three choices: SP Grid View, Default View, or XSL View.  The SP Grid View is the simplest and most useful.  It allows you to specify which columns to include in the view, and then order, group and create links upon them.  Again, we have two options when configuring the view.  Either click the left hand icon to configure the view using only ‘Standard columns’, or the right hand icon to include ‘Custom Column’.  The image below shows how these can be used to build your view of the rolled up data.

It is also possible to build your own custom View using XSL.  This is covered in the following screencast and article.