Add the icon (DocIcon) of the file-type to a custom xsl-template when using the ContentByQueryWebPart (CQWP)

In one of my current projects it was required to show the recent documents inside the site collection along with its associated icon. Of course our friend theContentByQueryWebPart (CQWP) comes in.
But how do I get the icon of the document?

The result

Don’t do it again

One could start to use a long list inside an xsl:choose to fetch each extension… But why do a file-extension mapping again when this is already specified inDOCICON.XML?

Give me my icon

1. Create your ContentByQueryWebPart (CQWP) and export it.
2. Export the webpart
3. Locate the CommonViewFields-property and change it from

   <property name="CommonViewFields" type="string" />

   to

   <property name="CommonViewFields" type="string">HTML_x0020_File_x0020_Type,Text;File_x0020_Type,Text</property>

4. Edit the ItemStyle.xsl or even better create your own My_ItemsStyle.xsl and create a custom template which uses these new ViewFields.

   <xsl:template name="TitleOnlyWithIcon" match="Row[@Style='TitleOnlyWithIcon']" mode="itemstyle">      <xsl:variable name="SafeLinkUrl">          <xsl:call-template name="OuterTemplate.GetSafeLink">              <xsl:with-param name="UrlColumnName" select="'LinkUrl'"/>          </xsl:call-template>      </xsl:variable>      <xsl:variable name="DisplayTitle">          <xsl:call-template name="OuterTemplate.GetTitle">              <xsl:with-param name="Title" select="@Title"/>              <xsl:with-param name="UrlColumnName" select="'LinkUrl'"/>          </xsl:call-template>      </xsl:variable>      <xsl:variable name="LinkTarget">          <xsl:if test="@OpenInNewWindow = 'True'" >_blank</xsl:if>      </xsl:variable>      <div class="item link-item">          <!-- Here comes the icon -->          <span class="icon">              <img src="/_layouts/images/{ddwrt:MapToIcon(string(@HTML_x005F_x0020_File_x005F_x0020_Type),string(@File_x005F_x0020_Type))}" alt="{@DocIcon}" style="vertical-align: middle;margin-right:4px" />          </span>          <a href="{$SafeLinkUrl}" target="{$LinkTarget}" title="{@LinkToolTip}">              <xsl:value-of select="$DisplayTitle"/>          </a>      </div>  </xsl:template>

5. Change the ItemStyle-property inside the webpart-definition to match your custom template. (TitleOnlyWithIcon in this case).
6. Import the webpart

Again there is some magic

If you refresh your page I’m sure you get an error. The magic here is to tell the xsl-stylesheet where to find the MapToIcon-function which resides inside the ddwrt-namespace.

  xmlns:ddwrt="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WebParts/v2/DataView/runtime"

The MapToIcon-function does the mapping of the icon by taking the mapping-information from the DOCICON.xml. So even if your icon is not named like the SharePoint ones the icon will be found. My icon here was named icon-pdf.gif for the pdf-file.

Conclusion

The use of the MapToIcon-function is the best method to get the icons. No need for custom “xsl:choose-statements” or “/_layouts/images/ic{@DocIcon}.gif-hacks”.