How to use “lookup (information already on this site)” column to use data from another sub-site?

Question

I have data collected in a list in a sub-site. I would like to use to this data in a different sub-site's list.

For example, we have Sales sub-site with "Customer Information" list, inputted when a potential sale is created. We then have a Production sub-site where we would like to refer to the "Customer Information" collect the sales list.

I imagine I would need to link the sub-sites to each other... can't find any solutions online yet.

Answer 1

If you are deploying the field declaratively, then you can modify the "WebId" attribute of the field definition to point to the specific Sub-site you need.

You can also do this programmatically by modifying the field after it has has been deployed, as explained here (or even manually modifying the SchemaXml property of the field, changing the WebId attribute value): http://bharatreddybasani.blogspot.com.ar/2010/03/correcting-sharepoint-lookup-columns.html

Happy coding!

Answer 2

With the out of the box, look-up columns do not work cross-sites (sub-sites or site collections). There are a few free solutions in the comunity that could help you achieve that such as

1. Dual-lookup (that means with ability to reverse link) across sites http://duallookup.codeplex.com/
2. i love SharePoint columns - really useful particularly because it actually replaces the out-of-the-box drop-down or multi-select list which are pretty hard to use. http://ilovesharepoint.codeplex.com/

Other solutions could involve using BCS to make column globally available, but that is a little far-fetched.

Answer 3

You can do this with out of the box components by using site lookup columns. You have to migrate the data to the top level site, then create a site lookup column to pull the information you want to display on the second subsite. You are also best off relinking the data from the first subsite so you do not have to manage the same information in 2 lists.