Create Content Types in SharePoint 2010 Programmatically in VS 2010

Introduction

Today, in this article let's play around with one of the interesting and most useful concepts in SharePoint 2010.

Question: What is a content type?

In simple terms "Content types are a reusable set of columns which can be used across multiple lists or libraries. It is called central component to manage metadata".

I think we are now good to go and implement this wonderful concept.

Step 1: Open SharePoint 2010 Central Administration and navigate to the specific site.

Step 2: Open up Visual Studio 2010 and try to select an empty sharepoint project:

Step 3: Select deploy as a farm solution and click on the next - button. Now an empty project will be created:

Step 4: Add a new visual webpart for that project.

Step 5: The complete code of the visualwebpart1usercontrol.ascx looks like this:

<%@ Assembly="" Name="$SharePoint.Project.AssemblyFullName$" %>

<%@ Assembly="" Name="Microsoft.Web.CommandUI, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" %>

<%@ Register="" TagPrefix="SharePoint" Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls"Assembly="Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" %>

<%@ Register="" TagPrefix="Utilities" Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint.Utilities" Assembly="Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" %>

<%@ Register="" TagPrefix="asp" Namespace="System.Web.UI" Assembly="System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35" %>

<%@ Import="" Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint" %>

<%@ Register="" TagPrefix="WebPartPages" Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages"Assembly="Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" %>

<%@ Control="" Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeBehind="VisualWebPart1UserControl.ascx.cs"Inherits="ContentTypesProgramaticallyApp.VisualWebPart1.VisualWebPart1UserControl" %>

<div>

<tr>

<td>

<asp:Label ID="Label5" runat="server" Text="Please Enter Content Type Name"></asp:Label>

</td>

<td>

<asp:TextBox ID="TextBox4" runat="server"></asp:TextBox>

</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>

<asp:Label ID="Label1" runat="server" Text="Please Enter First Column Name"></asp:Label>

</td>

<td>

<asp:TextBox ID="TextBox1" runat="server"></asp:TextBox>

</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>

<asp:Label ID="Label2" runat="server" Text="Please Enter Second Column Name"></asp:Label>

</td>

<td>

<asp:TextBox ID="TextBox2" runat="server"></asp:TextBox>

</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>

<asp:Label ID="Label3" runat="server" Text="Please Enter Third Column Name"></asp:Label>

</td>

<td>

<asp:TextBox ID="TextBox3" runat="server"></asp:TextBox>

</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<asp:Button ID="Button1" runat="server" Text="Create Content Types" BackColor="Orange" onclick="Button1_Click" />

</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<asp:Label ID="Label4" runat="server"></asp:Label>

</td>

</tr>

</table>

</center>

</div>

Step 6: The complete code of the visualwebpart1usercontrol.ascx.cs looks like this:

using System;

using System.Globalization;

using System.Web.UI;

using System.Web.UI.WebControls;

using System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts;

using Microsoft.SharePoint;

namespace ContentTypesProgramaticallyApp.VisualWebPart1

{

public partial class VisualWebPart1UserControl : UserControl

{

protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)

{

TextBox4.Focus();

}

public void Button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

{

if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(TextBox1.Text) || string.IsNullOrEmpty(TextBox2.Text) || string.IsNullOrEmpty(TextBox3.Text) || string.IsNullOrEmpty(TextBox4.Text))

{

Label4.Text = "Please Enter Some Values";

Label4.ForeColor = System.Drawing.Color.Red;

}

else

{

SPSite site = new SPSite("http://win-5d57sl2rvt1:9107/");

SPWeb web = SPContext.Current.Web; SPContentType contentType = web.AvailableContentTypes[SPBuiltInContentTypeId.Item];

SPContentType content = new SPContentType(contentType, web.ContentTypes, TextBox4.Text);

web.Fields.Add(TextBox1.Text, SPFieldType.Text, true);

web.Fields.Add(TextBox2.Text, SPFieldType.Text, true);

web.Fields.Add(TextBox3.Text, SPFieldType.Number, true);

SPFieldLink link = new SPFieldLink(web.Fields[TextBox1.Text]);

SPFieldLink link1 = new SPFieldLink(web.Fields[TextBox2.Text]);

SPFieldLink link2 = new SPFieldLink(web.Fields[TextBox3.Text]);

content.FieldLinks.Add(link);

content.FieldLinks.Add(link1);

content.FieldLinks.Add(link2);

web.ContentTypes.Add(content);

content.Update();

Label4.Text = "Content Type Created Successfully";

Label4.ForeColor = System.Drawing.Color.Green;

TextBox1.Text = "";

TextBox2.Text = "";

TextBox3.Text = "";

TextBox4.Text = "";

}

Step 7: Deploy the solution file and add the created webpart to the sharepoint site:

Step 8: Adding a new item to the list:

Step 9: The item added to the list looks like this:

I hope this article is useful for you.