28 June 2012

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


Step 2: Open up Visual Studio 2010 and create an "Empty Sharepoint Project".

Output1.jpg
 
 Step 3: Select "Deploy as a farm solution" and click on the "Finish" button. Now an empty project will be created:

Output2.jpg
 

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

Output3.jpg
 
Step 5: 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="VisualWebPart1UserControl.ascx.cs"
    Inherits="ListCreationApplication.VisualWebPart1.VisualWebPart1UserControl" %>
<div align="center">
    <table>
        <tr>
            <td colspan="2">
                <asp:label id="Label1" runat="server" text="List Creation 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 ListName" 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 List Description" 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 colspan="2">
                <asp:button id="Button1" runat="server" text="Create New List" font-names="Verdana"
                    width="166px" backcolor="Orange" font-bold="True" onclick="Button1_Click" />
            </td>
        </tr>
        <tr>
            <td colspan="2">
                <asp:label id="Label5" runat="server" font-bold="true" font-names="Verdana"forecolor="Maroon"></asp:label>
            </td>
        </tr>
    </table>
</div>

Step 6: 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 ListCreationApplication.VisualWebPart1
{
    public partial class VisualWebPart1UserControl : UserControl
    {
        protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            TextBox1.Focus();
        }
        protected void Button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            Label5.Text = string.Empty;
            if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(TextBox1.Text) || string.IsNullOrEmpty(TextBox2.Text))
            {
                Label5.Text = "Please Enter Some Data";
            }
            else
            {
                SPSite site = new SPSite(SPContext.Current.Site.ID);
                SPWeb web = site.OpenWeb();
                SPListTemplate template = web.ListTemplates["Custom List"];
                web.AllowUnsafeUpdates = true;
                Guid listId = web.Lists.Add(TextBox1.Text, TextBox2.Text, template);
                SPList mylist = web.Lists[listId];
                mylist.OnQuickLaunch = true;
                mylist.Update();
                web.AllowUnsafeUpdates = false;
                Label5.Text = TextBox1.Text + " List is created successfully";
                TextBox1.Text = string.Empty;
                TextBox2.Text = string.Empty;
            }
        }
    }
}

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

Output4.png
 


Step 8: Creating a new list:

Output5.png
 

Step 9: The created list looks like this:

Output6.png
 

Output7.png
I hope this article is useful for you.