The Lightning Conductor v4 has just been released for SharePoint 2013, SharePoint 2016 and SharePoint Online and now includes a SharePoint Timeline Rollup View for Task Lists! The SharePoint Timeline View makes it possible to use more than one single Task list as the source of a Timeline view which is the current capability of the SharePoint Timeline Web Part that comes out-of-the-box.
The Lightning Conductor ships with several built in views included that can be displayed within the Lightning Conductor meaning that you don’t need to purchase more than one web part to build your desired solution. Built in views include a threaded view for posts rollup, an announcements rollup, documents rollup, calendar view and of course the timeline view.
Here are the steps to display your tasks in a timeline view:
1. Insert the Lightning Conductor Web Part onto your SharePoint page.
2. Click Create View from the web parts drop down menu.
3. Provide a name for your view on the web part tab such as “Timeline”.
4. Select the JSON View option from the Configure Display Provider Drop Down List.
5. Select the scope of your rollup which can be multiple list, multiple site, multiple site collection or multiple web application.
6. Select “Tasks” as the type of list you wish to aggregate.
7. Select the Lightning Tools Timeline View from the drop down list
8. Click Save and your SharePoint Timeline View will be displayed
Using the Lightning Conductor you could go on to display your tasks in other formats too such as a Calendar View and a Grid View. The Lightning Conductor Calendar View is built into the Lightning Conductor and therefore does not require an additional purchase. The Calendar view provides a great way of viewing the tasks that you or your SharePoint Team need to complete by day, week, or month view.
To display your tasks in a calendar view, follow these steps:
1. Create another new view within the same web part instance.
2. Name your view “Tasks Calendar”
3. Select the XSLT Display Provider View type.
3. Select the scope of your Tasks Rollup e.g. Multiple Site Collections.
4. Select “Tasks” as the List Type.
5. Select the Display Tab, and choose the Lightning Tools Calendar as the view type.
6. Click Save. You will now have Tasks within a Calendar plus the Timeline view.
There is now a calendar view as well as a timeline view that your users can alternate between to view their aggregated tasks.
Display Tasks in a Grid View
Of course, you could always use the Lightning Conductor to build your very own view. The SPGridView option for the display provider allows you to select the columns that you wish to display. Using the multiple grouping option, you could group by Task Priority and also Task Status. To build a Tasks view using the SPGridView option:
1. Click Create View to create your third view.
2. Name your view “Tasks by Priority”
3. Accept the default SPGridView
4. Set your scope e.g. multiple site collections and choose the Tasks List.
5. Select the columns that you wish to display.
6. Set the Group By Check Box next to the Priority column.
7. Optionally Group your tasks by hierarchy, and set the column name that you wish to hyperlink from to open the item.
8. Click Save.
You now have three configured views to display your tasks in that can be easily selected by the end user including Grid View, Calendar and SharePoint Timeline.
Display Your Tasks in a Chart
If the above three views don’t provide what you are looking for, you could also consider displaying your tasks in a drill down SharePoint Chart using the Lightning Conductor Chart Web Part. The Lightning Conductor and the SharePoint Chart web part come as a bundle and can be connected to each other to display really powerful Task views.
Once connected, choose from multiple chart types, and click Save.
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