List Fields Creation in SharePoint 2010 Programmatically Using 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 list?

In simple terms "When you create a custom list, a new empty list is created with just two columns- Title and Attachments. The list contains a single default view. Once you create the list, you can add more columns, views, and so on".

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

Step 1: Create a custom list and modify the view:

Step 2: Open SharePoint 2010 central administration and navigate to a specific site.

Step 3: Open up Visual Studio 2010 and create an "Empty SharePoint project":

Step 4: Select "Deploy as a farm solution" and click the "Finish" button. Now an empty project will be created.

Output2.1.jpg

Step 5: Add a new visual webpart for that project.

Step 6: 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="ListFieldsWebPartUserControl.ascx.cs"

Inherits="ListFieldsApplication.ListFieldsWebPart.ListFieldsWebPartUserControl" %>

<div>

<table>

<tr>

<asp:label id="Label1" runat="server" text="List Fields via Object Modelling - SharePoint 2010"

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

</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>

<asp:label id="Label2" runat="server" text="Please Enter First Column Name" font-size="Large"

font-names="Verdana" font-italic="true"></asp:label>

</td>

<td>

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

</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>

<asp:label id="Label3" runat="server" text="Please Enter Second Column Name" font-size="Large"

font-names="Verdana" font-italic="true"></asp:label>

</td>

<td>

<asp:textbox id="TextBox2" runat="server"></asp:textbox>

</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>

<asp:label id="Label4" runat="server" text="Please Enter Third Column Name" font-size="Large"

font-names="Verdana" font-italic="true"></asp:label>

</td>

<td>

<asp:textbox id="TextBox3" runat="server"></asp:textbox>

</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<asp:button id="Button1" runat="server" text="Create List Fields" font-names="Verdana"

width="166px" backcolor="Orange" font-bold="True" onclick="Button1_Click" />

</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<asp:label id="Label5" runat="server" font-bold="true" font-names="Verdana" forecolor="Maroon"></asp:label>

</td>

</tr>

</table>

</center>

</div>

Step 7: The complete code of visualwebpart1usercontrol.ascx.cs looks like this:

using System;

using System.Web.UI;

using System.Web.UI.WebControls;

using System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts;

using Microsoft.SharePoint;

namespace ListFieldsApplication.ListFieldsWebPart

{

public partial class ListFieldsWebPartUserControl : UserControl

{

protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)

{

TextBox1.Focus();

}

protected void Button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

{

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

{

Label5.Text = "Please Enter Field Names";

}

else

{

CreateFields();

}

private void CreateFields()

{

SPSite site = SPContext.Current.Site;

SPWeb web = site.OpenWeb();

web.AllowUnsafeUpdates = true;

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

SPListItem item = list.Items.Add();

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

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

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

item.Update();

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

view.ViewFields.Add(TextBox2.Text);

view.ViewFields.Add(TextBox3.Text);

view.Update();

Label5.Text = "The " + TextBox1.Text + ", " + TextBox2.Text + " and " + TextBox3.Text + " fields are created successfully ";

TextBox1.Text = string.Empty;

TextBox2.Text = string.Empty;

TextBox3.Text = string.Empty;

}

Step 8: Deploy the solution file and add the created webpart to SharePoint site.

Step 9: The output of the application looks like this:

Step 10: When nothing has been entered, the output of the application looks like this:

Step 11: After entering column names, the application looks like this:

I hope this article is useful for you.