Using Parameter Binding

Nothing new here​, but Parameter Bindings (see Microsoft's article on them here) have been around for a while and more widely publicised for use with the Data Form and Data View Web Parts. Something not so widely know is that any web part inheriting from the Data Form Web Part also has the same functionality available.

This means useful web parts like Search Results, People Search Results, Content by Query Web Parts, Xslt List View Web Part, RSS Aggregator web part and more all have this available to them.

In SharePoint 2010, apparent new functionality made things like the query string available to the underlying Xslt in a Content by Query Web Part. The truth is that this was available in 2007 by using Parameter Binding and the QueryString Location property (as I blogged previously).

What is more useful, is that the Search Results and People Search Results now include a Parameter Binding property available through the web part toolpane which means that level of configuration can be done through the UI rather than hacking away at the underlying web part file. Entering the Parameter Binding is easy enough using the syntax:

<ParameterBinding Name="[name]" Location="[selected location]" />

for each property you want to use. The [name] is added into the Xslt for the Web Part as an Xsl Param and it's then available.

Useful, simply and quick. Something to bear in mind.