CAML Query Where Items are Approved is Ignored

Question

I am working with some custom web parts recently. Those web parts will only display items which have been already approved. To get the items, I use CAML Query and filter the modstat value like:

<View ... >
    <Query>
    ...
        <Where>
            <Eq>
                <FieldRef Name='_ModerationStatus' />
                <Value Type='ModStat'>0</Value>
            </Eq>
        </Where>
    ...
    </Query>
</View>

I passed the query to a XsltListViewWebPart programmatically. I also wrapped the code to populate the XsltListViewWebPart in SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges (I have also tried to remove the elevated privileges, but still no luck).

The strange thing is when I logged in as any user, the query worked fine and returned correct results (only approved items are displayed on the site). But when I access the site as an anonymous user, I could also see pending items (It feels like the where clause didn't work). Here is the web part on my .ascx page.

<WebPartPages:XsltListViewWebPart
    ID="articleWebPart"
    runat="server"
    IsIncluded="true"
    PageType="PAGE_NORMALVIEW"
    ShowToolbarWithRibbon="false"
    >
</WebPartPages:XsltListViewWebPart>

Any workaround for this case?

*Updated: It seems that the case only happens on all kind of list views. When I tried to view the query results in a custom web part (such as using a repeater to show items), it works fine. And when I tried to display the Approval Status on the list view and view them as the anonymous user, all of the approval statuses of the items are Approved (including pending ones).

Answer 1

Try with adding below code on ascx page.

<WebPartPages:XsltListViewWebPart 
    ID="articleWebPart" runat="server"
    IsIncluded="true" PageType="PAGE_NORMALVIEW"
    ShowToolbarWithRibbon="false">
    <XmlDefinition>
        <View Name="Some View" 
            Type="HTML" 
            Hidden="TRUE" 
            TabularView="FALSE" 
            DisplayName="" 
            Url="View.aspx" 
            Level="255" 
            BaseViewID="1" 
            ContentTypeID="0x" 
            ImageUrl="/_layouts/images/generic.png">
            <Query>
                <Where>
                    <Eq>
                        <FieldRef Name='_ModerationStatus' />
                        <Value Type='ModStat'>0</Value>
                    </Eq>
                </Where>
            </Query>
            <ViewFields>
                <FieldRef Name="ID"/>
            </ViewFields>
            <RowLimit Paged="TRUE">30</RowLimit>
            <Aggregations Value="Off"/>
            <Toolbar Type="Standard"/>
        </View>
    </XmlDefinition>
    <DataFields></DataFields>
</WebPartPages:XsltListViewWebPart>

Update view properties as per your requirement.