Creating Site Columns Programmatically via XML

12/16/2010 1:42:30 AM #

Hi Marcel,

I am trying to write some code to update "unghosted" site columns from a Field defintion file (in a Feature), I have been trying to duplicate your approach for content types ("Load(xrdr...") but it does quite work for Fields, does it?, I wonder this technique above, if a site column already exists and in use, an exception is thrown prompting for removing "all instances", is there an easier way to update (potentially unghosted) fields from a given Xml defintion?

Thx, Vincent

Vincent | Reply

1/14/2011 7:29:01 PM #

Marcel, I'm scripting the creation of fields and content types to avoid using a feature in my hub.  

I'm running into an issue in that every content type I publish fails if it includes a site column created using this approach.  The columns and content types all get created fine and are usable until I try and publish.  Any ideas?  The error is:

The element 'FieldTemplate' in namespace 'urn:deployment-manifest-schema' has invalid child element 'Field' in namespace 'http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/'. List of possible elements expected: 'Field' in namespace 'urn:deployment-manifest-schema'.

Not that I think it matters, but I'm using PowerShell to do this, not a console app.

Thanks in advance

Pat | Reply

9/16/2011 12:29:22 PM #

Hello Brother,

You have created a file named SiteColumns.xml,Why I write this code to deploy the content types to the site. Could It not be possible to do the same using the feature.
I will deploy only this feature to a site level or web level and whenever i activate this feature the fields will be deployed on the site. same i can do with contenttype.xml?
for further accuracy, i can create a feature dependency for contenttype.xml as sitecolumn.xml should be activated before activating the contenttype.xml??

will it not be a feasible solution. rather than writing this much of code?

what are your suggestion? please provide feedback on my blog/site...

Thanks and Regards,
bharat

Bharat Pandey | Reply

11/9/2011 9:03:13 PM #

This is probably something you might want to do when localizing CAML in sandboxed solutions

Timo Pitkäranta | Reply

1/11/2012 5:56:15 AM #

Thanks for the solution above, however there is a slight problem i'm facing. Using this i am able to add new site columns and they appear in the site settings > site columns page.

The problem is with the site columns of type 'Choice'. If i click on any column of type choice to open up its edit page, it does not show me the usual edit page for a Choice column. It takes me to a normal column edit page as if it was a 'Single line of text' field and not a choice field. I am not able to see/edit the choices in the edit page.

any hints here?

Thanks

Jatin | Reply

1/13/2012 8:47:39 PM #

I appreciate this article.I'm half way there

I have a question...

I created this and tossed it in a feature...

Now when I activate and deactive the feature it creates the columns if the list doesn't exist or deletes it if I deactive the feature.

The problem I have is...If we have admins that go in and create fields from the front end how would I go about looking at the list columns programatically on my feature(activation into another farm(Test/Stage/DEV/PROD) to see if something new has been added and if it's new add it to my default template so that every time the feature was Deactivated/Activated it would not lose the columns that weren't in my default XML template? I consider the default template much like the one you have above- a starting place...if you will. Since that XML document is static, how would I go about updating it with new values so that I don't erase everything that's new that is generated from the fron end.

Thanks in advance

cbankx | Reply