How do I add Paging to a sharepoint DataFormWebPart?

Question

I'm creating an archive of news articles in a sharepoint publishing site. users can browse or search the archive. browsing is a simple list of article dates titles. I'm using the DataFormWebPart to display the contents of the Pages (articles). as there are thousands of articles, i'l like to show maybe 50 on a page. I see no built in paging on the DataFormWebPart. I'm seeking guidance on the proper way to add paging. I'm feeling like the XSL template is the proper place to start.

Answer 1

If you look at the page using the sharepoint designer in 'design' mode, you can click the common task arrow ( > ) and customize the data view properties.

One of the tabs will be about 'paging' and you can set how many items per page.

Hope this helps!

Answer 2

The XSL template is where you need to start. Unless you are dealing with multiple data sources setting a list as the datasource on a new DataFormWebPart in SharePoint Designer (SPD) will create an XSL template with paging (10 items default). You can then review and edit the XSL if you want to modify the appearance or operation. After the initial XSL template take a look at the webpart properties in either the browser or SPD. There are some other settings (e.g. async) that you may want to alter. The paging technically works with mutiple data sources but it is only on the parent data source. If the child count is large it often times is too large to see the paging control in SPD.