Tip: how-to easily expose the underlying XML datastructure retrieved in XsltListViewWebPart

If for what ever reason you want to inspect the XML structure or content of underlying data source retrieved from a SharePoint List/Library before it is rendered via Xslt-transformation, you can do that as follows:

• Open SharePoint Designer 2013 (or 2010 version in case you need it in older SharePoint 2010 context)
• Open the page on which the XsltListViewWebPart is included (list View, SitePage)
• Select to edit the page in raw HTML mode, and locate the 'XsltListViewWebPart' node in the HTML
• Inject the below Xslt-snippet as value for 'Xsl' property of the XsltListViewWebPart definition:

  <xsl>
     <xsl:stylesheet xmlns:x="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" 
        xmlns:d="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/dsp" 
        version="1.0" 
        exclude-result-prefixes="xsl msxsl ddwrt" 
        xmlns:ddwrt="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WebParts/v2/DataView/runtime" 
        xmlns:asp="http://schemas.microsoft.com/ASPNET/20" 
        xmlns:__designer="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WebParts/v2/DataView/designer" 
        xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" 
        xmlns:msxsl="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:xslt" 
        xmlns:SharePoint="Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls" 
        xmlns:ddwrt2="urn:frontpage:internal" 
        xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office">
           <xsl:output method="xml" indent="yes" />
           <xsl:template match="/">
              <xmp>
                <xsl:copy-of select="*"/>
              </xmp>
           </xsl:template>
     </xsl:stylesheet>
  </xsl>
  

  • Make sure the 'Xsl' property is injected on level of the XsltListViewWebPart, and not as property of the 'View' node;
    
    See also Guidance for XslLink property with the XsltListViewWebPart
• Save the page in SharePoint Designer
• Open or refresh the page in browser; if the underlying XML not immediate displayed (XsltListViewWebPart applies caching in it's Xslt pipeline), reload once more
• And you are able to inspect in browser the underlying XML data island structure retrieved by the query applied in the XsltListViewWebPart instance: