Sharepoint. Advanced filtering of SharePoint list view by URL

This post is about advanced filtering of SharePoint list view (or XsltListViewWebPart) by setting parameters in URL, such as:

• filter list view by part of the word (contains) in URL
• filter list view by date range in URL
• and so on.

The key is to use CAML GetVar Element.

For example, View with this <Query> will show list items whose titles contains specified in URL parameter “ProjectTitle” substring (Lists/Projects/AllItems.aspx?ProjectTitle=crm):

<Query>
  <Where>
    <Contains>
      <FieldRef Name="Title"/>
      <Value Type="Text">
        <GetVar Scope="Request" Name="ProjectTitle"/>
      </Value>
    </Contains>
  </Where>
</Query>

This View has two problems:

1. It is possibly to set such View <Query> via SharePoint Designer, List Definition, custom code, but not using standard SharePoint web UI.
2. If URL doesn’t contain “ProjectTitle” parameter, the View will show nothing.

We can do nothing with first problem. To fix the second use this:

<Query>
  <Where>
    <Or>
      
      <Contains>
        <FieldRef Name="Title"/>
        <Value Type="Text">
          <GetVar Scope="Request" Name="ProjectTitle"/>
        </Value>
      </Contains>
      
      <!-- Added to fix bug if URL doesn't contain ProjectTitle parameter -->
      <Gt>
        <FieldRef Name="ID"/>
        <Value Type="Counter">
          <IfEqual>
            <Expr1>
              <GetVar Scope="Request" Name="ProjectTitle"/>
            </Expr1>
            <Expr2/>
            <Then>0</Then>
            <Else>2147483647</Else>
          </IfEqual>
        </Value>
      </Gt>
      
    </Or>
  </Where>
</Query>