MOSS 2007: Adding Filter to ListView web part - sharepoint

Question

I have been dropped into a sharepoint 2007 project, and i have relatively little experience with altering existing webparts.
My first task is to add a filter to two out of three columns in a list view. My Lead Dev suggests trying to add a jquery combo-box filter, and another dev suggests extending the web part and overriding some of the functionality.
What i think is a good option is to change the context menu for the list view headers, so that instead of "Show Filter Choices" bringing up a standard dropdownlist that only responds to the first letter, it would have a jquery combobox. And maybe if the business requests it, change the wording of that option.
My question to you is, what would be a good path to take on this? Also, what resources are there besides traipsing around books and blogs are there to guide an sp newbie to do this?
Thanks.

Answer 1

How about something like this:
<script src="http://www.google.com/jsapi"></script>
<script>
google.load("jquery", "1.2.6");
google.setOnLoadCallback(function() {
$(document).ready(function()
{
jQuery.extend(jQuery.expr[':'], {
containsIgnoreCase: "(a.textContent||a.innerText||jQuery(a).text()||'').toLowerCase().indexOf((m[3]||'').toLowerCase())>=0"
});
$("table.ms-listviewtable tr.ms-viewheadertr").each(function()
{
if($("td.ms-vh-group", this).size() > 0)
{
return;
}
var tdset = "";
var colIndex = 0;
$(this).children("th,td").each(function()
{
if($(this).hasClass("ms-vh-icon"))
{
// attachment
tdset += "<td></td>";
}
else
{
// filterable
tdset += "<td><input type='text' class='vossers-filterfield' filtercolindex='" + colIndex + "' /></td>";
}
colIndex++;
});
var tr = "<tr class='vossers-filterrow'>" + tdset + "</tr>";
$(tr).insertAfter(this);
});
$("input.vossers-filterfield")
.css("border", "1px solid #7f9db9")
.css("width", "100%")
.css("margin", "2px")
.css("padding", "2px")
.keyup(function()
{
var inputClosure = this;
if(window.VossersFilterTimeoutHandle)
{
clearTimeout(window.VossersFilterTimeoutHandle);
}
window.VossersFilterTimeoutHandle = setTimeout(function()
{
var filterValues = new Array();
$("input.vossers-filterfield", $(inputClosure).parents("tr:first")).each(function()
{
if($(this).val() != "")
{
filterValues[$(this).attr("filtercolindex")] = $(this).val();
}
});
$(inputClosure).parents("tr.vossers-filterrow").nextAll("tr").each(function()
{
var mismatch = false;
$(this).children("td").each(function(colIndex)
{
if(mismatch) return;
if(filterValues[colIndex])
{
var val = filterValues[colIndex];
// replace double quote character with 2 instances of itself
val = val.replace(/"/g, String.fromCharCode(34) + String.fromCharCode(34));
if($(this).is(":not(:containsIgnoreCase('" + val + "'))"))
{
mismatch = true;
}
}
});
if(mismatch)
{
$(this).hide();
}
else
{
$(this).show();
}
});
}, 250);
});
});
});
It will need to be added to the page via a content editor web part.