Comments on Chris O'Brien: Deploying content types as a feature

@Ben N,

Yes, this is a fairly common requir...

2009-02-24T13:22:00.000Z

@Ben N,

Yes, this is a fairly common requirement. Using the method/code I outline in Sample code - creating lookup columns as a Feature, you can specify the web and list you want to look up.

The cross-site lookup field from SharePoint Solutions addresses this in the same way.

Unfortunately you're out of luck if you need to lookup a list in a different site collection - you'd need to do something custom to deal with this.

HTH,

Chris.

This is a great article. One thing I am wondering ...

2009-02-23T18:37:00.000Z

This is a great article. One thing I am wondering about, though....

I have a column that I want to use across multiple site collections, The column would be a choice column, and I want to have consistency in the set of choices across columns. This is why I am looking at deploying this through features.

I want the choice options to be easy to manage, so that a non-IT person can update the list of options as things change.

So your notion of a lookup list makes sense. But could I have it lookup in one central list that may or may not exist in the same site collection where the site column will be used?

Chris,

I noticed your comments about not b...

2008-11-11T16:45:00.000Z

Chris,

I noticed your comments about not being able to update a Content Type via a Feature. I found the attached commentary on that interesting, and hopefully so will you. Here's the link;
http://blog.sharepoint.ch/2008_06_01_archive.html

Bentini,

To do this you must write code - y...

2008-10-15T23:26:00.000+01:00

Bentini,

To do this you must write code - you can then retrieve the list ID and set the lookup. I have some code on Codeplex which does this, take a look at http://www.codeplex.com/SP2007LookupFields

HTH,

Chris.

Hi Chris,
I'm using your approach on a colabora...

2008-10-10T16:47:00.000+01:00

Hi Chris,
I'm using your approach on a colaboration site. I want to use the content type that has the lookup field in a list definition.
The problem is that in the schema.xml one has to describe the content type fields and, in case of a lookup, we have to put the list ID...how can I set it if I don't now which is the list ID the site column is referring?
Any ideia?

Thanks!

@Raj,

Sorry for the delay in replying, I wa...

2008-09-15T07:39:00.000+01:00

@Raj,

Sorry for the delay in replying, I was on holiday when you posted.

I suspect the error you are seeing is caused by something other than the content type ID you are using. Is everything correct in terms of filepaths/filenames in your Feature files/solution manifest (if deploying via solution)?

Suggest testing with the original content type ID - you can always delete this content type before anything uses it.

Cheers,

Chris.

The XmlDocuments schema can be seen in the databas...

2008-09-14T17:41:00.000+01:00

The XmlDocuments schema can be seen in the database in your content database in ContentTypes::Definition. If you have an existing content type with a IM policy you can see it here. You'll need to decode the base64 strings to use.

I have tried manually inserting this into an elements.xml file and deploying a content type with expiration policy as a feature but have been unsuccessful so far. If anyone finds the trick, please post.

@Madhawa,

Sorry for the delay in replying, ...

2008-09-14T11:21:00.000+01:00

@Madhawa,

Sorry for the delay in replying, I was on holiday when you posted.

Yes, is it possible apply some extended settings - I know IM policy can be done, not sure about workflow. This area is not yet well-documented AFAIK. They key is using the XmlDocuments element in the content type schema - see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/ms549876.aspx for some info. You'll probably also need to do some extra searching to find examples using the full schema.

HTH,

Chris.

@Anonymous,

Yes, you're correct in that the...

2008-09-12T17:50:00.000+01:00

@Anonymous,

Yes, you're correct in that the UI and code are the only options for updating existing content types. Creating a new Feature to attempt to update artifacts initially deployed from another Feature is something to avoid.

In terms of where to put the code, it doesn't matter so much. Some options could be:

- create a new Feature which has a Feature receiver containing the code to update the content type
- some other place such as a console application which you will run on the server

HTH,

Chris.

Dear Chris,

I saw your response to Andris c...

2008-09-12T14:24:00.000+01:00

Dear Chris,

I saw your response to Andris concerning the update of content types. I am trying to update a page layout, which requires the addition of new fields to the content type. A completely new one, which needs to be added to the site columns xml and another field that already exists as a site column.

I was trying to do this by updating the original xml files and upgrading the solution and deactivating/activating the feature, which I now know to be completely wrong having read this article from Microsoft.

If I understand correctly my only options are Site Settings and the API. Am I right to assume I can't create a new feature with a new xml containing just the updates to the content type with the ID referencing the parent?

I don't really understand where to put any code as this cannot be done via the UI.

Any assistance greatfully received.

Hi Chris,Iam just trying to deploy a Site Collecti...

2008-09-05T14:55:00.000+01:00

Hi Chris,Iam just trying to deploy a Site Collection Feature.(its a content type which was inheriting from another framework). I broke down the inheritance by changing the first few characters in the GUID to look like 0x0101 ie. for Document content type. When i try to deploy it says File Not Found error. Can you pls. throw some light?
Raj

Hi Chris, thx for the great article.
I have a s...

2008-09-02T02:07:00.000+01:00

Hi Chris, thx for the great article.
I have a small question.

Can we deploy a Content Type as a feature with some extended settings like "Workflow settings" and "Information management policy settings"?

Please explain me how to that. Thx

Hi,

Unfortunately you'll need the IDs of th...

2008-04-12T15:45:00.000+01:00

Hi,

Unfortunately you'll need the IDs of the columns in order for the content type to reference them properly - no way around this AFAIK.

In terms of how content type IDs work, the basic steps are covered above in the article (see 'The basics are' above), but the MSDN documentation on content type IDs has more details.

HTH,

Chris.

Can we deloy a content type with a feature where w...

2008-04-11T10:42:00.000+01:00

Can we deloy a content type with a feature where we only have the site column names but not the guids of the site columns.

and another question is the id for a content type how do we generate that, is it a guid with no '-' 's in the middle?

Ah OK - then in that case, get a reference to the ...

2008-03-24T19:56:00.000Z

Ah OK - then in that case, get a reference to the list using code like:

SPList list = site.AllWebs[sWebName].Lists[sListName];

You'll need a reference to the SPSite object ("site" in the code above) and also the web and list names. Once you have the SPList object, just call SPList.ID to get the ID - no unencoding is required when getting the ID in code.

HTH,

Chris.

Thanks Chris but I need to do this programmaticall...

2008-03-24T16:12:00.000Z

Thanks Chris but I need to do this programmatically. Is there a way?

Hi Adam,

To get the GUID of a list, go the...

2008-03-24T15:38:00.000Z

Hi Adam,

To get the GUID of a list, go the list's settings page. The GUID will then be shown in the URL, you'll see something like:

/_layouts/listedit.aspx?List=%7B72201421%2D14DC%2D4E71%2DA553%2D65BA1AA22881%7D

You can then perform the following replacements:

%7B with left brace ({)
%7D with right brace (})
%2D with dash (-)

You'll then have the unencoded form of the list's GUID.

HTH,

Chris.

Chris,

I need to get the GUID of a list giv...

2008-03-23T16:46:00.000Z

Chris,

I need to get the GUID of a list given a URL such as http://server/site/list/Lists/AllItems.aspx

Is there a way to do this? When I try to get the ID of a URL I get an error : "Value does not fall within the expected range"

Please help :)

-Adam

Obieg,

Have a look at Creating lookup columns as a Feature.

Thanks,

Chris.

Hi, thanks for a very nice article. Could you post...

2008-03-12T23:09:00.000Z

Hi, thanks for a very nice article. Could you post an example of deploying lookup fields in a CAML feature?

Hi Andris,

Sorry for the late reply. Conten...

2008-01-28T22:28:00.000Z

Hi Andris,

Sorry for the late reply. Content types aren't explicitly versioned as such, and managing content type updates can be complex. In actual fact this shouldn't be done by changing the Feature XML, but by using the standard screens or the API instead. Suggest the latter is a good approach (e.g. in a Feature receiver) if you want your changes to be easily replicated across different environments.

The MSDN documentation has some good reading on this - see:

- Updating content types
- Updating child content types
- Content type change control

If something's still unclear and you think I can help, drop me another comment.

HTH,

Chris.

Hi, Chris,

How does content type versioning...

2008-01-23T19:00:00.000Z

Hi, Chris,

How does content type versioning work? I've created content type for news pages, added some news - so far everything is fine. Now when I change some column type in content type feature and deploy it - old news throw exception ...

Hi Amit,

Interesting scenario. Yes, if your...

2008-01-06T21:11:00.000Z

Hi Amit,

Interesting scenario. Yes, if your content type IDs do not have the same stem (beginning part) because they were creating using the UI, it won't be easy to create child content types with a Feature.

There is one way though. What you could do is create the content types using the API, but write the code as part of a Feature receiver (as opposed to just running it against your SharePoint instance with a console app for example). This would allow you to use Feature activation/deactivation etc. but use code to have full control over the content type creation. Using this technique, you could use the API to 'ask' what the content type ID is for that content type/site collection, then add the suffix onto the end to generate the ID for the child content type.

HTH,

Chris.

Hi,

I have a problem related to Content Typ...

2008-01-02T12:22:00.000Z

Hi,

I have a problem related to Content Type Id generation. Consider the following scenario:
1) My farm contains 3 Site Collections.
2) On each site Collection i have a content type names 'xyz' created using Sharepoint UI. As per my knowledge (i am new to Sharepoint), content type Id will be unique throughput Site Collection. So the 3 instances of 'xyz' (from each Site Collection) will have 3 different Ids (and they are).
3) Now I want to create a new Content Type 'abc' under the 'xyz' using a Feature.
4) I am confused with the Content Type Id attribute in my ContentType.xml. Since the 'xyz' on each Site Collection will have 3 different Ids, through which Id should I create the new Id? And what will happen with other Site Collection's 'xyz'?

Please help me.

Thanks in advance.

Hi Arun,

Yes, you can use the API to remove...

2007-12-14T10:51:00.000Z

Hi Arun,

Yes, you can use the API to remove a content type from a list, but it will only work if the content type is not in use. The call to make would be SPList.ContentTypes.Delete().

Note also that you don't need to use code to associate a content type with a list - it can be done in Feature XML using the ContentTypeBinding element as described in earlier comments - see http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-US/library/aa543152.aspx for more information.

HTH,

Chris.

Comments on Chris O'Brien: Deploying content types as a feature

@Ben N,Yes, this is a fairly common requir...

This is a great article. One thing I am wondering ...

Chris, I noticed your comments about not b...

Bentini,To do this you must write code - y...

Hi Chris,I'm using your approach on a colabora...

@Raj,Sorry for the delay in replying, I wa...

The XmlDocuments schema can be seen in the databas...

@Madhawa,Sorry for the delay in replying, ...

@Anonymous,Yes, you're correct in that the...

Dear Chris,I saw your response to Andris c...

Hi Chris,Iam just trying to deploy a Site Collecti...

Hi Chris, thx for the great article.I have a s...

Hi,Unfortunately you'll need the IDs of th...