The SharingPoint: Extreme SharePoint Design: Modifying The 'Grouped By' Headers

Tuesday, September 06, 2005

Extreme SharePoint Design: Modifying The 'Grouped By' Headers

When applying grouping to a list view, the default style sheet prepends the field label and a colon to the group header. While this may be helpful in determing what category the data is grouped by it is certainly not the most visually appealing method. Fortunately, the style can be modified in the stdview.xml file located in the XML folder of your custom site definition (you are using a custom defintion, aren't you?). Locate the following code on or about line 278:

<GroupByHeader> <HTML><![CDATA[ <TBODY id="titl]]></HTML> <GetVar Name="GroupByLevelString"/> <HTML><![CDATA["><TR]]></HTML> <Switch> <Expr><GetVar Name="GroupByIndent"/></Expr> <Case Value="0"> <HTML> <![CDATA[ class="ms-gb" ]]> </HTML> </Case> <Default> <HTML> <![CDATA[ class="ms-gb2" ]]> </HTML> </Default> </Switch> <HTML><![CDATA[><TD colspan="100" nowrap><img src="/_layouts/images/blank.gif" alt="" height=1 width=]]></HTML> <GetVar Name="GroupByIndent"/> <HTML><![CDATA[><a href="javascript:" onclick="javascript:ExpCollGroup(']]></HTML> <GetVar Name="GroupByLevelString"/> <HTML><![CDATA[','img_]]></HTML> <GetVar Name="GroupByLevelString"/> <HTML><![CDATA[');return false;"><img id="img_]]></HTML> <GetVar Name="GroupByLevelString"/> <HTML><![CDATA[" src="/_layouts/images/minus.gif" alt="]]></HTML> <HTML>Expand/Collapse</HTML> <HTML><![CDATA[" border="0"></a> ]]></HTML> <GetVar Name="GroupByField" HTMLEncode="TRUE" /> <HTML><![CDATA[ : ]]></HTML> <GetVar Name="GroupByValue"/> <HTML><![CDATA[</TD></TR></TBODY>]]></HTML> </GroupByHeader>

Remove the field label and colon by deleting or commenting out the following code from this section:

<GetVar Name="GroupByField" HTMLEncode="TRUE" /> <HTML><![CDATA[ : ]]></HTML>

You may also wish to change the drab gray style by modifying ms-gb and ms-gb2 or assigning a class in a custom style sheet.

Once you're finished editing the file, save it and reset IIS. Note that this is a global change that will affect all lists in the definition. For localized changes, create a Data View Web Part and modify the XSL accordingly.