DataView Web Parts and Page Layouts

The DataView Web Part is a nice tool to customize the way information is presented on a page. Unfortunately, this web part is not available through the browser's "Add Web Part" interface, and must be added through SharePoint Designer. The problem I ran into was that pages attached to a page layout cannot be directly modified within SharePoint Designer.

I decided to detach the page from its layout and add the DataView Web Part. Everything seemed to work, except I started to receive errors stating "This Web Part Page has been modified since you opened it." I figured this was related to detaching from the Page Layout (I may have hosed something up unknowingly). I then reattached the page to its layout and everything ended up working fine.

Therefore, if you need to add a DataView Web Part to a page attached to a layout, I suggest doing the following(all done within SharePoint Designer):

1. Detach the Page from the Page Layout
2. Go through the necessary steps to add a DataView Web Part to an existing zone on the page
3. Reattach the Page to it's Page Layout

This was fantastic since detaching/reattaching to layouts does not change any web parts or customizations made to those web parts. Also, once the DataView Web Part is on a page, you can simply modify it's display through the browser using the XSL editor.

Note: I have not attempted to reattach a page to a layout after new zones have been added and do not know exactly what will happen.

Enjoy!
--andrew