Sharepoint Display Templates How to use Group Display Template

Question

the code in the control display template uses _#= ctx.RenderGroups(ctx) =#_ and there is another JS file named group_content.js that is being called, how do i split my data into groups in order to render some HTML per group?

Answer 1

After intensive research, you need to do some manually to use it.

1. Create Group Display Template file, just take the default "group_xxx.html" from the "Search" or "Content Search" Folders, whatever you are using.

2. MUST download a copy or you Search WebPart (export) and change the value in "GroupTemplateId" to your group JS file.

3. CODING objects to mimic ResultTables object

final code

ctx.ClientControl.set_groupTemplateId('~sitecollection/_catalogs/masterpage/display templates/content web parts/Group_Content_QA.js');
ctx.ListDataJSONGroupsKey = "ResultGrouped"
ctx.ListData.ResultGrouped = [];

//function to create the ResultTables fake array
function createResultGroup(items){
 return {
  ResultRows: items, 
  RowCount: items.length,
  TableType: "RelevantResults",
 }
};

//just a ref
var _items = ctx.ListData.ResultTables[0].ResultRows;

//categories dictionary
var _groupDictionary = {};

//populating dictionary categories
_items.forEach(function(e) {
    if ( !_groupDictionary[e.QACategoryOWSCHCS] ){
   _groupDictionary[e.QACategoryOWSCHCS] = [];
    }
});

//populating dictionary categories with items
_items.forEach(function(e) {
 _groupDictionary[e.QACategoryOWSCHCS].push(e);
});

//adding to ctx categories as a named array
ctx.groupsNames = Object.keys(_groupDictionary);

//populating fake ResultTables array (ResultGrouped)
ctx.groupsNames.forEach(function(g) {
 ctx.ListData.ResultGrouped.push(
  createResultGroup(_groupDictionary[g])
 );
});

read more here