Unable to display this Web Part - using data form web part with grouping and large list

Question

I have created a linked data source which merges contents of 2 lists. I now want to display the items using grouping. I created a custom aspx page and inserted a data form web part, then I enabled the grouping by 1 column. In SPD everything seems OK, but in the browser I get error

"Unable to display this Web Part. To troubleshoot the problem, open this Web page in a Microsoft SharePoint Foundation-compatible HTML editor such as Microsoft SharePoint Designer. If the problem persists, contact your Web server administrator."

When I remove the grouping everything displays OK both in SPD and the browser.

I know this is a known issue because the timeout for XSLT transformation is only 1 second - I have already increased it to 5 seconds and I still get the same error.

The 2 lists combined do have a lot of items (about 300 until now) and there will be even more (I plan to add more lists to the linked data source).

Is there a way to overcome the error? Perhaps there is a different solution for grouping, aside from the OOTB one? Or is there another way to simplify the xslt but retain grouping? What is the reasonable maximum timeout period I can put and is this a good solution?

Forgot to mention - I am using sharepoint foundation 2010.

Thank you in advance!

Answer 1

could be a couple of things!

as your using xslt it could be somthing simple ;)

Simply change the &nbsp to &#160 for the XSLT code will solve this problem.

Unable to display this Web Part. To troubleshoot the problem, open this Web page ... & Error: Reference to undefined entity 'nbsp'

It is indeed a little weird.

Generally, this error happens when restoring content in SharePoint.

Please check the ListID value following steps below:

1. Go to site actions > site settings > modify all site settings > site administration > site libraries and lists

2. Right-click your list and select copy shortcut and paste it into notepad N1. Then you can get the ListID from the URL like:

http://sevenma:2009/sites/Intranet/_layouts/ListEdit.aspx?List={4C101CF3-FD7E-4BBB-8F28-B0770AFD6534}

3. Then go to your page in the SharePoint designer in split mode. And select the DFWP in the Design mode part and copy the code in the Code mode part into notepad N2. Then search ListID in N2 and you can get the list id value from DefaultValue property.

4. Then compare them. If they are different, replace all the ListID value with the current one in the code part in N2. Then copy it back your page. If they are same, please provide information about your keyword filed and other tests. Also, you can try to save it and open it in your site and then check the event logs and uls logs to get more information.

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/sharepoint/en-US/f859069d-3b10-4eec-b633-dcf0dc90513e/grouping-in-dfwp-causes-unable-to-display-this-web-part-in-browser

you can also get this message when there is too much data to return resulting in that error message! you would need to set some filtering on the result when querying!

Groupby programmatically

SPList plList=oWeb.Lists["MyList"];

  // create new default view that is grouped
    string viewQuery = @"
        <GroupBy Collapse=""FALSE"" GroupLimit=""100"">
          <FieldRef Name=""Year"" Ascending=""FALSE"" />
        </GroupBy>
        <OrderBy>
          <FieldRef Name=""Year"" Ascending=""FALSE"" />
          <FieldRef Name=""Period"" Ascending=""FALSE"" />
        </OrderBy>";

    StringCollection viewFields = new StringCollection();
    viewFields.Add("DocIcon");
    viewFields.Add("LinkFilename");
    viewFields.Add("Period");
    viewFields.Add("Created");

    plList.Views.Add("Grouped By Year", viewFields, viewQuery, 100, true, true, SPViewCollection.SPViewType.Html, false);

http://moonistahir.wordpress.com/2009/07/27/create-spview-programmatically-with-group-by-option/

another method inline with your way using sharepoint designer!

Creating an XSLT DataView for a sharepoint list

http://www.sharepoint-tips.com/2007/05/sharepoint-designer-article-2-creating.html

EDIT

if your talking about "Groupby programmatically" means you will have to do a custom webpart that will have that code within! its not hard atall! if that is too much than you can do this way!

http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/sharepoint-server-help/connect-a-filter-web-part-to-a-list-view-web-part-HA101785233.aspx

all else fails than it sounds like a bug! for me i would cutom code it as it would work but for you it should work! I did find this tho and its seems like the same issue and that you would need to contact microsoft for the fix, its an exe file and needs to come from them only!

http://englando.wordpress.com/2012/01/05/unable-to-display-this-web-part-xsltlistview-and-xsltdataview-web-part-issues-in-ie/

hope it solves your buggy issue!