How to live without the CQWP (Content Query Web Part) in Windows SharePoint Services (hosted or not)

As someone who often helps small businesses get rolling with SharePoint solutions based on Windows SharePoint Services (WSS 3.0), hosted or not, there are some limitations that customers don’t always realize at first. First off, I try to provide a reasonably balanced overview of the differences between in house and hosted, here.

But, and as recently as today, I get asked regularly about displaying content from one sub site, on another. Doing so in MOSS is easy peasy – and is typically accomplished with the Content Query Web Part (CQWP). Or, if you have WSS on your own systems, you can purchase and download custom webparts that will help with this as well. In a hosted environment, where everything is locked down to ensure the system stays stable, we won’t have either as an option. So, here is my stock response so far and I figured, worthy of a quick share on the ole blog:

There is hope. Options include:

1. Use an XML Web Part, which does exist in WSS and hosted solutions – here’s a quick overview how: http://vspug.com/erickraus/2007/09/19/content-query-web-part-alternative-for-wss-3-0/
2. Use SharePoint Designer (www.microsoft.com/SPD) as ‘dataviews’ will very quickly become your friend here