We've developed a SP2010 application whose core is a heavily customized implementation of document sets. Essentially, we create document sets within a library using a form, populating metadata fields like an infopath form might insert items into a standard list. Documents are added, document sets are created, metadata is visible in list views and such... it's all quite magical, especially when you consider how incredibly half-assed the document set feature is implemented in SP2010...but I digress...
I had high hopes that once we completed development on this bad boy, I would be able to create simple reports or even chart web parts on the site that would use the parent document library as a data source (ala a form library where you can export columns from the form to the parent library), but this does not appear to be the case. When the library is specified as a data source for a chart web part, for example, the pre-filtered query returns 0 records even though there are a number of document sets there.
So, short of adding a parallel set of actions that mirror every creation task and subsequent manipulation of the document set into a standard "shadow" list, is there something [much more straightforward] that I can do to achieve desired results?
Appreciate any assistance. Cheers.