Connectability is a standard protocol that is supported within a SharePoint environment. CorasWorks navigation and Active Display components can utilize the connectability interface so CorasWorks web parts can “talk” to one another and one web part can receive information from another web part. This information can be used to alter the data displayed within the current web part.
You can only activate a connection when the page is in Design mode. Once in Design mode, access the web part menu and select Connections. Then specify the type of connection you want and the web part you want to connect to.
Active Displays support Cell Consumer-type connections, as described below.
This type of connection allows you to consume a specific cell from within another web part. After a connection has been established, you will be asked what cell you would like to read from the other web part. After you have chosen a specific field (cell), the title of the column from the other web part will be used to filter against by default. If you want to filter on a different cell within your returned data, you can specify this within the Connectable Properties section of the web part properties.
Cell consumer connections that include calculated values are not supported.
As an example, imagine that you want to provide a salesperson with information about a customer. You may want to create a page that has contact information about the customer, order information, call history, and support calls. Using connectability, you can connect the web parts so that when you select a customer, the other views for orders, call history, and support calls will automatically update to display that customer’s information.
Because CorasWorks Active Displays can show information from any sites or portal sub-areas, the data, such as the call history list or the support calls, can be stored in different sites, such as departmental sites. With connectability, you can simply select a customer and all of the information for that customer is displayed. This type of scenario would also apply, for instance, in situations where you want to see information about projects which are stored in sites for different departments. The key is that each list has to have a field with the exact same name and the same data type, such as Customer ID or Project ID.