Create a list, columns and view programmatically

Posted on February 9, 2009

Next task on my prep – create a list programmatically. Then I want to add some columns to it, and show these on the default view. Actually, it’s mostly pretty easy (apart from that last part).

Well, creating a list is pretty easy.

SPSite siteCol = new SPSite(@"http://vm-moss2007/test/");
SPWeb site = siteCol.OpenWeb();
site.Lists.Add("New Calendar", "This calendar was created programmatically", site.ListTemplates["Calendar"]);

Here you can see me getting an SPWeb object, and then adding to itsSPListCollection. You have to supply a template for the list, and this depends on the templates available on the site – hence getting the template from theSPListTemplateCollection.

I wanted a custom list, and I wanted it to appear on the left navigation:

site.Lists.Add("My Custom List", "This list was created programmatically", site.ListTemplates["Custom List"]);
SPList newList = site.Lists["My Custom List"];
newList.OnQuickLaunch = true;
newList.Update();

Great! And now I want to add some columns. First I added a text column:

newList.Fields.Add("NewText", SPFieldType.Text, true);
And then a lookup column (as I figured this would be a hard one):

SPList targetList = site.Lists["My Lookup Target"];
SPField targetField = targetList.Fields["My Target Lookup Column"];
newList.Fields.AddLookup("NewLookup", targetList.ID, false);
SPFieldLookup lkp = (SPFieldLookup)newList.Fields["NewLookup"];
lkp.LookupField = targetField.InternalName;
lkp.Update();

First I get the target list and the target field for the lookup. I add a new lookup column, but for some strange reason none of the SPFieldLookup class’s constructors allow me to create one supplying a target list and column. Also, none of the SPFieldCollection’s methods allow me to add a lookup supplying a target column.

Thus, I end up getting the column I’ve just created and assigning the column that I want use as the value of the lookup. Crazy. I’m sure that there must be a better way of doing this (i.e. in one call) but I don’t see how.

Anyway, it works; my columns are added. Now I want to show them in the default view:

//*** Doesn't work for some obscure reason ***
newList.DefaultView.ViewFields.Add("NewText");
newList.DefaultView.ViewFields.Add("NewLookup");
newList.DefaultView.Update();

As the code subtly hints, this code didn’t work – my columns weren’t shown in the default view. However, the code below does work:

SPView view = newList.DefaultView;
view.ViewFields.Add("NewText");
view.ViewFields.Add("NewLookup");
view.Update();

"Column Limit Exceeded"

Just run these power shall commands
By Default  MaxListItemRowStorage =6
$webApp = Get-SPWebApplication servername
$webApp.MaxListItemRowStorage = 8
$webApp.Update()

SharePoint Web Application vs Site Collection vs Site vs Sub site

SharePoint Web Application vs Site Collection vs Site vs Sub site

Lately I'm playing a lot with WSS and MOSS. It wasn't really clear for me what the difference is between a web application, a site collection, a site and a sub site. This is what I found out. On top of the hierarchy is the web application. In technical terms, this is a web site in IIS (with an application pool associated). A web application needs to have at least 1 Site Collection. The Site Collection is the root site of the web site. Below the Site Collection, there can be one or more Sites. And a Site can contains sub sites.

An overview:

1. Web Application

1.1 Site Collection (SPSite)

1.1.1 Site (SPWeb)

1.1.2 Site (SPWeb)

1.2 Site Collection (SPSite)

1.2.1 Site (SPWeb)

1.2.1.1 Sub Site (SPWeb)

1.2.1.2 Sub Site (SPWeb)

The words between ( ) are the objects of the SharePoint API.

Backup

You cannot backup a web application from within SharePoint. But what you can do is save the configuration in IIS.

With stsadm.exe -o backup -url <site URL> -filename <filename> you can create a backup of a site and all sub sites. And you can restore it with stsadm.exe -o restore -url <site URL> -filename <filename>.

As far as I know there is no built-in option to backup or restore a sub site of SharePoint.

Web Applications

In my case I created three web applications. One for my private SharePoint, one for my blog (new blog soon) and another which allows anonymous access, but IP-filtered. Because each web application of SharePoint is a web application in IIS, you can setup all the security properties of IIS, like IP-based security.