The link to the Instant List Filter is https://instantlistfilter.codeplex.com/
This edition of the CodePlex Column delves into the SharePoint Instant List Filter, a project that’s both highly rated and has attracted a significant number of votes. It boasts an impressive 20k+ download count (at the time of writing). It was developed by Jaap Vossers and has previously attracted the attention of Marc Anderson and Alexander Bautz (both well-known JavaScript experts). As the product name suggests, the solution provides filter text boxes on a list/library to allow a “filter-as-you-type” functionality. It also needs JQuery to work successfully when it is deployed. Having being around since 2009, it would be fair to say that the list filter is one of the community products that has stood the test of time.
So, if it has been around for a while, the first question that may spring to mind is; what’s the point in taking a look at it now? The simple answer is the changing SharePoint landscape. As with a few other projects that have been discussed in the CodePlex Corner, the environment that the list filter was born into is very different to the one that we, as SharePoint professionals, have now. Some of the noticeable differences include more powerful versions of SharePoint, newer HTML / CSS standards for each one and of course, very different browser habits to contend with. It’s in this light that an in-depth look at the utility in context of its altered environment might be useful.
A good place to start is to look at how the list filter code responds to the various versions of SharePoint still in use today. Whilst investigating, the opportunity to test the code against the popular browsers of the day also presents itself. The timeline below looks at the release dates of all these products.
Building such a timeline provides two distinct advantages: –
- Identifiable points in time at which we can check browsing habits
- A linear route to allow us to see which browsers that SharePoint and the list filter would be expected to work with
Cross referencing the most recent three dates from the timeline above with the W3Schools Browser statistics provides the following insights into browser trends at the time of release for each product. The most noticeable thing is the huge increase in Chrome usage and the sharp drop in how many users are sticking with Internet Explorer. Mozilla’s Firefox, despite losing almost a third of its user base between May 2010 and November 2012 does still remain the intermediate browser of choice.
Date |
IE |
Firefox |
Chrome |
Mar-09 |
43.30% |
46.50% |
4.20% |
May-10 |
32.20% |
46.90% |
14.50% |
Nov-12 |
15.10% |
31.20% |
46.30% |
Aug-14 |
8.30% |
24.70% |
60.10% |
Whilst these statistics are for overall browser usage and not specific to SharePoint utilisation, keeping these trends in mind is important as SharePoint doesn’t necessarily play nicely with non-Microsoft browsers. Some of the more unique SharePoint features (like these) are built in Active-X, a proprietary technology that only works in Internet Explorer. Knowing these limits when planning browser support around a SharePoint deployment is invaluable. Extending this line of thinking to third party products both commercial and open source should be seen as a wise investment.
Armed with an idea of the likely browser habits of your audience, a SharePoint professional will know where to begin assessing the list filter. Should the project not work in any of the browsers above, they can now work what the potential damage will be. Having deployed the list filter against several versions of SharePoint in the browsers listed above, the following behaviours were noted.
SP Version |
IE |
Firefox |
Chrome |
SharePoint 2007 |
Rendered |
Didn’t render |
Rendered |
SharePoint 2010 |
Rendered |
Didn’t render |
Rendered |
SharePoint 2013 |
Rendered |
Didn’t render |
Rendered |
What these notes (as seen in the project forums here) show are that any FireFox user is not likely to see the list filter render to any SharePoint deployment that they may be visiting. As of August 2014 at 24.7% usability, that’s almost 1 in 4 of any user base, which is a significant number. (How to get the script working with Firefox is the companion tutorial for this article).
Moving on from this, knowing what versions of SharePoint the list filter works on is only one part of our journey. As Microsoft ships the product with several different list and library templates it would be easy to assume that if the List Filter works on one, it would work on all of them. To explore this assumption in greater detail, these templates were all tested. Please see the table below for the results. Please note that only a custom list was tested, not each specific list template packaged.
Template |
Rendered |
Worked |
Custom List |
Rendered |
Yes |
Asset Library |
Didn’t render |
No |
Data Connection Library |
Rendered |
Yes |
Document Library |
Rendered |
Yes |
Form Library |
Rendered |
Yes |
Record Library |
Rendered |
Yes |
Wiki Page Library |
Rendered |
Yes |
The last level that we can assess the list filter on is the column level. It provides a great freebie in that you can use it to filter on field types that normally aren’t filterable. This includes calculated columns and notes (multiple lines of text) fields.
Link to SharePointReviews.com product review
Currently there is no entry on http://www.sharepointreviews.com for the Instant List Filter.
“End User – Developer” scale
This tool fits squarely in in the End User part of the “End User – Developer” scale. The list filter is easily deployed to the client with little effort, from which point it pretty much becomes a “fire and forget” solution. There are several other ways to install the solution but the ability to copy and paste the code into a Content Editor Web Part makes this very accessible.
Potential pitfalls / problems
The instant list filter was originally developed for SharePoint 2007. This is the single biggest problem that IT professionals are likely to have with it. It can work with SharePoint 2010 / 2013 though. The issues that you are likely to experience with it are:-
- It only filters on returned item count and doesn’t go past pagination. For instance, if you have a list with 3000 items but have set pagination to 100 per page, the list filter only works on those 100 items.
- It also doesn’t work on external lists unless modified to do so.
- It doesn’t work very well with FireFox unless modified to do so.
Tutorials
Because the list filter is easy enough to get started with, an installation tutorial would be pointless. Instead, what we’ll look at is how to get the script working with FireFox, which appears to be problematic for some users.
Conclusion
When installed and operational the instant list filter looks and feels like it should have been part of the SharePoint product itself. It’s a classy and easy-to-use extension that complements the OOB search tools very well. The ability to filter on traditionally non-filterable field types is a big bonus. It does have its limitations however, with the most potent of these being that it only filters on the rendered page items NOT the entire list.
The links below are my reference list: –
- Original CodePlex Project Link: – https://instantlistfilter.codeplex.com/
- Jaap Vossers Blog – http://blog.vossers.com/
- Business Data List Web Part usage – https://instantlistfilter.codeplex.com/discussions/228167
- Visual Upgrade changes – https://instantlistfilter.codeplex.com/discussions/262132
- Filtering on just a single column – https://instantlistfilter.codeplex.com/discussions/257825
- 2010 Code – https://instantlistfilter.codeplex.com/discussions/49123
- W3C Browser Statistics & trends – http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp