Displaying a SharePoint List in a ListView Control with Grouping by Date

Question

Dear All
I have created a ListView to display items from a SharePoint list:
<asp:ListView ID="UpAndComingEventsLV" runat="server">
<LayoutTemplate>
<ul>
<li id="itemPlaceholder" runat="server" />
</ul>
</LayoutTemplate>
<ItemTemplate>
<li id="Li1" runat="server">
<asp:Literal ID="CurrentDate" runat="server" />
<%#Eval("Title")%> <%#Eval("Event_x0020_Category")%> <%#Eval("EventDate", "{0:HH:mm}")%>
</li>
</ItemTemplate>
</asp:ListView>
To perform the binding and then display the date I'm doing the following:
Using oSiteCollection As New SPSite(_ListPath)
Using web As SPWeb = oSiteCollection.OpenWeb()
List = web.GetList(_ListPath)
End Using
End Using
Dim Query As New SPQuery
Query.Query = "<Where><And><Eq><FieldRef Name='Status' /><Value Type='Choice'>Approved</Value></Eq><Geq><FieldRef Name='EventDate' /><Value Type='DateTime'><Today Offset='4' /></Value></Geq></And></Where><OrderBy><FieldRef Name='EventDate' /></OrderBy>"
'Query.RowLimit = 1
Query.ViewFields = "<FieldRef Name='Event_x0020_Category' /><FieldRef Name='Title' /><FieldRef Name='EventDate' /></ViewFields>"
Dim ItemColl As SPListItemCollection = List.GetItems(Query)
UpAndComingEventsLV.DataSource = ItemColl.GetDataTable
UpAndComingEventsLV.DataBind()
dfgdfgfg
I would like to group my events by date though, rather than display the date against each row. To make things even more complicated, I would like to use friendly names like Today, Tomorrow, Monday, Tuesday instead of dates:
TODAY
Event number one
Event number two
Event number three
TOMORROW
Event number 4
Event number 5
MONDAY
Event number 6
Event number 7
At the moment, I've created a ItemDataBound event on the ListView control and I have been able to display the Today, Tomorrow, Monday etc bit but I can't figure out the best way to perform the grouping. Incidentally, I only want to group on the date not
on time:
Private Sub UpAndComingEventsLV_ItemDataBound(sender As Object, e As Web.UI.WebControls.ListViewItemEventArgs) Handles UpAndComingEventsLV.ItemDataBound
If e.Item.ItemType = Web.UI.WebControls.ListViewItemType.DataItem Then
'Retrieve data item
Dim DataItem As ListViewDataItem = DirectCast(e.Item, ListViewDataItem)
Dim RowView As DataRowView = DirectCast(DataItem.DataItem, DataRowView)
Dim EventDate As DateTime = RowView("EventDate")
'Get literal control
Dim CurrentDate As Literal = e.Item.FindControl("CurrentDate")
'Display friendly date
If Not IsNothing(CurrentDate) Then
Select Case EventDate.Date
Case Is = Now.Date
CurrentDate.Text = "Today"
Case Is = Now.Date.AddDays(1)
CurrentDate.Text = "Tomorrow"
Case Is = Now.Date.AddDays(2)
CurrentDate.Text = Now.Date.AddDays(2).DayOfWeek.ToString
Case Is = Now.Date.AddDays(3)
CurrentDate.Text = Now.Date.AddDays(3).DayOfWeek.ToString
Case Is = Now.Date.AddDays(4)
CurrentDate.Text = Now.Date.AddDays(4).DayOfWeek.ToString
Case Is = Now.Date.AddDays(5)
CurrentDate.Text = Now.Date.AddDays(5).DayOfWeek.ToString
Case Is = Now.Date.AddDays(6)
CurrentDate.Text = Now.Date.AddDays(6).DayOfWeek.ToString
End Select
Else
CurrentDate.Text = "-"
End If
End If
End Sub
Please could you help me understand the best way to perform the grouping by date?
Any help or advice is greatly appreciated!
Many thanks
Daniel

Answer 1

When I've done this in the past I've always used a calculated field that translated the days into the groupings I wanted.  You couldn't do quite the groupings that you list above, but it would give you categories to group on.  You could then
apply the groupings in the base view.  Then you could use the Row Databound event to change the labels on the Groupings at runtime to the ones you want to use.
Paul Stork SharePoint Server MVP
Principal Architect: Blue Chip Consulting Group
Blog: http://dontpapanic.com/blog
Twitter: Follow @pstork
Please remember to mark your question as "answered" if this solves your problem.