Introduction

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

Question: What is retrieving list data using CAML?

In simple terms "It enables retrieve list data using SPQuery with CAML based notation".

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

Step 2: Open up visual studio 2012 and try to create a "SharePoint Visual Web Part" project, as in:

open-sharepoint2010-project.jpg

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

sharepoint-customization-wizard.jpg

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="OrderByUsingCAMLApp.VisualWebPart1.VisualWebPart1" %>

<div>

<table style="font-family: Verdana; text-align: center;">

<tr>

<td colspan="2">

<asp:label id="Label1" runat="server" text="OrderBy Using CAML - SharePoint 2010 via Visual Studio 2012"

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

</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>

<asp:label id="Label2" runat="server" text="Please Enter Age:"></asp:label>

</td>

<td>

<asp:textbox id="TextBox1" runat="server" width="117px"></asp:textbox>

</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>

<asp:label id="Label5" runat="server" text="Ascending Order Sorting:"></asp:label>

</td>

<td>

<asp:dropdownlist id="DropDownList1" runat="server" width="117px"><asp:ListItem Text="True"></asp:ListItem><asp:ListItem Text="False"></asp:ListItem></asp:dropdownlist>

</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td colspan="2">

<br />

<br />

<asp:button id="Button1" runat="server" text="OrderBy Retrieve App- CAML" forecolor="Orange"

font-bold="true" backcolor="Black" onclick="Button1_Click" width="294px" />

</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td colspan="2">

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

</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td align="center" colspan="2">

<br />

<br />

<asp:gridview id="GridView1" runat="server" backcolor="LightGoldenrodYellow" bordercolor="Tan"

borderwidth="1px" cellpadding="2" enablemodelvalidation="True" forecolor="Black"

gridlines="None" autogeneratecolumns="False"><AlternatingRowStyle BackColor="PaleGoldenrod" /><FooterStyle BackColor="Tan" /><HeaderStyle BackColor="Tan" Font-Bold="True" /><PagerStyle BackColor="PaleGoldenrod" ForeColor="DarkSlateBlue" HorizontalAlign="Center" /><SelectedRowStyle BackColor="DarkSlateBlue" ForeColor="GhostWhite" /><Columns><asp:BoundField DataField="ID" HeaderText="Student Id" ReadOnly="true" SortExpression="ID" /><asp:BoundField DataField="Title" HeaderText="First Name" ReadOnly="true" /><asp:BoundField DataField="LastName" HeaderText="Last Name" ReadOnly="true" /><asp:BoundField DataField="Age" HeaderText="Age" ReadOnly="true" /></Columns><EmptyDataTemplate><asp:Label ID="Label3" runat="server" Text="No Records Exsist" ForeColor="Red" Font-Bold="true"></asp:Label></EmptyDataTemplate></asp:gridview>

</td>

</tr>

</table>

</div>

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 OrderByUsingCAMLApp.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["Student"];

SPQuery query = new SPQuery();

query.Query = "<Where><Gt><FieldRef Name='Age'/><Value Type='Number'>"+TextBox1.Text+"</Value></Gt></Where><OrderBy><FieldRef Name='Age' Ascending='"+DropDownList1.SelectedItem.Text+"'/></OrderBy>";

SPListItemCollection item = list.GetItems(query);

GridView1.DataSource = item.GetDataTable();

GridView1.DataBind();

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:

orderby-using-caml.jpg

Step 8: OrderBy using caml list data output of the application looks like this:

app-orderby-using-caml.jpg

I hope this article is useful for you.