Create PeopleGroup Field in SharePoint 2010 Programmatically Using VS 2012

Introduction

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

Question: What is People/Group field?

In simple terms "It will enable searching the users registered in the AD on the server and use them across the application for any specific purpose".

Step 1: Open SharePoint 2010 central administration and navigate to a specific site.

Step 2: Open up Visual Studio 2012 and try to select SharePoint Visual Web Part project, as in:

Step 3: Select "Deploy as a farm solution" as in the following and click the "Finish" button:

Step 4: The complete code of 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="VisualWebPart1.ascx.cs"

Inherits="PeopleFieldApp.VisualWebPart1.VisualWebPart1" %>

<div>

<tr>

<asp:label id="Label1" runat="server" text="People/Group - SharePoint 2010 via Visual Studio"

font-bold="true" forecolor="Maroon" font-size="Large"></asp:label>

</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>

<asp:label id="Label2" runat="server" text="Please Enter Person or Group Field Name:"></asp:label>

</td>

<td>

<asp:textbox id="TextBox1" runat="server"></asp:textbox>

</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<asp:button id="Button1" runat="server" text="Create Person Field" forecolor="Orange"

font-bold="true" backcolor="Black" onclick="Button1_Click" width="217px" />

</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<asp:label id="Label4" runat="server" font-bold="true"></asp:label>

</td>

</tr>

</table>

</div>

</center>

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

using Microsoft.SharePoint;

using System;

using System.ComponentModel;

using System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts;namespace PeopleFieldApp.VisualWebPart1

{

[ToolboxItemAttribute(false)]

public partial class VisualWebPart1 : WebPart

{

// Uncomment the following SecurityPermission attribute only when doing Performance Profiling using

// the Instrumentation method, and then remove the SecurityPermission attribute when the code is ready

// for production. Because the SecurityPermission attribute bypasses the security check for callers of

// your constructor, it's not recommended for production purposes.

// [System.Security.Permissions.SecurityPermission(System.Security.Permissions.SecurityAction.Assert, UnmanagedCode = true)]

public VisualWebPart1()

{

}

protected override void OnInit(EventArgs e)

{

base.OnInit(e);InitializeControl();

}

protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e){TextBox1.Focus();

}

protected void Button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

{

if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(TextBox1.Text))

{

Label4.Text = "Please Enter Some Values";

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

}

else{SPWeb web = SPContext.Current.Web;

SPList list = web.Lists["Company"];

string field = list.Fields.Add(TextBox1.Text, SPFieldType.User, true);

SPFieldUser user = new SPFieldUser(list.Fields, field);

user.AllowMultipleValues = false;

user.Required = true;user.SelectionMode = SPFieldUserSelectionMode.PeopleOnly;

user.LookupField = "Name";

user.Update();

SPView view = list.DefaultView;view.ViewFields.Add(TextBox1.Text);

view.Update();

Label4.Text = TextBox1.Text + " - Field is Created";

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

TextBox1.Text = string.Empty;

}

Step 6: Deploy the solution file and add the new webpart to a SharePoint site.

Step 7: The output of the application looks like this:

Step 8: Data entering output of the application looks like this:

Step 9: Look up field created output of the application looks like this:

I hope this article is useful for you.