Programming SharePoint

Object Model, Web

Services, and Events
Michael Morton
4/15/03
Summary of .NET support
 SharePoint will use ASP.NET instead of
ISAPI for base page execution
 Web Part Framework
 Server Object Model for programmatic
access to SharePoint data
 We offer functionality as XML web
services for access from remote
machines
.NET Object Model
 Managed code object model on the
server
 Accessible via ASP.NET or any other
server process
 Implemented in C#
 Exposes almost of all of the data stored
in WSS
NET Object model
 Examples of what can be done with the Object
Mode:
 Add, edit, delete, and retrieve data from SharePoint
Lists
 Create new lists and set list metadata (e.g. the fields in
a list)
 Set web properties
 Work with documents in document libraries.
 Perform administrative tasks such as creating webs,
adding users, creating roles, etc.
 Pretty much any functionality in the UI can be
automated through the OM!
Example Objects
 List Data  Security
 SPField
 SPGroup
 SPFieldCollection
 SPListCollection
 SPGroupCollection
 SPList  SPSite
 SPListItemCollection  SPUser
 SPListItem  SPUserCollection
 SPView

 Documents
 Administration
 SPDocumentLibrary
 SPGlobalAdmin
 SPQuota
 SPFile
 SPVirtualServer  SPFileCollection
 SPFolder
ASP.Net Security
 For content stored in WSS, only registered
set of web custom controls will run in pages
 Inline script in the page will not execute
 Code behind in pages can be made to work
 All Executable code (e.g. web custom
controls, web parts, and code-behind
classes) needs to be installed on physical
web server
Getting Started with OM
 Build a web part
 This is the best option to write code that
functions are part of a WSS site or
solution
 There will be lots of documentation with
the beta on how to build a web part.
 Web Part is reusable and can be managed
using all of the web part tools and UI.
Getting Started with the OM
 Build an ASPX page
 Code cannot live inline in a page within the site.
 Creating pages underneath the /_layouts
directory is often the best option for custom
ASPX apps on top of SharePoint
 This lets your page be accessible from any web. For
example, if you build mypage.aspx in _Layouts, it is
accessible from the following URLs:
 http://myweb/_layouts/myapp/mypage.aspx
 http://myweb/subweb1/_layouts/myapp/mypage.aspx
 ASPX page will run using the context of the web under
which it is running.
Getting Started with the OM
 Windows Executable or any other
application
 Object model can be called from pretty
much any code context. It is not limited
to just web parts or ASP.Net
 For example, you could build a command-
line utility to perform certain actions
Demo
 Hello World Web Part
Working with the OM
 The object model has three top-level objects:
 SPWeb (represents an individual site)
 SPSite (represents a site collection, which is a
set of web sites)
 SPGlobalAdmin (used for global administration
settings)
 In order to perform actions on data within a
web, you must first get an SPWeb object.
Adding our namespace
 You should add references to the
WSS namespaces to your source
files
using Microsoft.SharePoint;
using Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls;
using Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration;
…
Key Object – SPWeb
 Starting point to get at the Lists, Items,
Documents, Users, Alerts, etc. for a web site.
 Example Properties:
 Web.Lists (returns a collection of lists)
 Web.Title (returns the title of the site)
 Web.Users (returns the users on the site)
 In a web part or ASPX page, you can use the
following line to get a SPWeb:
SPWeb myweb = SPControl.GetContextWeb(Context);
Demo
 Showing Web and List Properties
Accessing data in a WSS
List
 Get a SPList or SPDocumentLibrary object.
SPList mylist = web.Lists[“Events”];
 You can then call the .Items property to get
all of the items:
SPListItemCollection items = mylist.Items;
 If you only want a subset of the items, call
the GetItems method and pass a SPQuery
object
SPListItemCollection items =
mylist.GetItems(query);
Accessing data in a list
 To get data for a field, specify the field
name in the indexer for an SPListItem
foreach(SPListItem item in items)
{
Response.Write(item["Due Date"].ToString());
Response.Write(item["Status"].ToString());
Response.WRite(item["Title"].ToString());
}
Full Example
SPWeb web = SPControl.GetContextWeb(Context);

SPList tasks = web.Lists["Tasks"];

SPListItemCollection items=tasks.Items;
foreach(SPListItem item in items)
{
output.Write(item["Title"].ToString() +
item["Status"].ToString() + "<br>");
}
Updating data
 Most objects in WSS do not immediately
update data when you change a property
 You need to first call the Update() method on
the object
 This helps performance by minimizing SQL queries
underneath the covers
 Example:
SPList mylist = web.Lists[“Tasks”];
mylist.Title=“Tasks!!!”;
mylist.Description=“Description!!”;
Mylist.Update();
Updating List Data
 SPListItem is another example of an
object where you need to call update:
 Example:
SPListItem item = items[0];
item["Status"]="Not Started";
item["Title"]="Task Title";
item.Update();
FormDigest Security
 By default, the object model will not allow data
updates if the form submitting the data does not
contain the ‘FormDigest’ security key.
 FormDigest is based on username and site. It will
time out after 30 minutes.
 Best solution is to include <FormDigest
runat=“Server”/> web folder control in ASPX page.
 If you do not need the security the FormDigest
provides, you can set to
SPWeb.AllowUnsafeUpdates to bypass this check.
Adding Users to a web
 Get the appropriate SPRole object:
SPRole admins = web.Roles["Administrator"];
 Call the AddUser method:
admins.AddUser("redmond\\gfoltz","[email protected]
m","Greg Foltz","");
Demo
 Adding users to the site via the OM
Keep objects around
 If you create and destroy objects frequently, you
may do extra SQL queries and have code that is
incorrect:
 Bad Example:
SPWeb web = SPControl.GetContextWeb(Context);
web.Lists["Tasks"].Title="mytitle";
web.Lists["Tasks"].Description="mydescription";
web.Lists["Tasks"].Update();
 Good Example:
SPWeb web = SPControl.GetContextWeb(Context);
SPList mylist = web.Lists["Tasks"];
mylist.Title="mytitle";
mylist.Description="mydescription";
mylist.Update();
Web Services in WSS
 SharePoint will have web services APIs for
accessing content. The web services layer
will be built on top of the server OM.
 Allows manipulation of Lists, Webs, Views,
List Items, etc.
 Functionality will be similar to server object
model, but with fewer interfaces optimized to
minimize transactions.
 Office11 (e.g. Excel, DataSheet, Work,
Outlook, FrontPage, etc) use web services to
access data from WSS.
Web Service Methods
 GetListCollection
 GetListItems
 GetWebCollection
 UpdateList
 UpdateListItems
 GetWebInfo
 GetWebPart
 GetSmartPageDocument
 And more…
Getting Started With Web Services
 Create a Windows Application
 In Visual Studio, choose ‘Add Web
Reference’
 Enter http://<server>/_vti_bin/lists.asmx to
access the lists web service
 Other services include:
 UserGroups.asmx – users and groups
 Webs.asmx – Web information
 Views.asmx – View information
 Subscription.asmx – Subscriptions
Getting Started with Web Services
 To send the logged on users’
credentials from the client, add the
following line in the web reference
object’s constructor:
public Lists() {
this.Url =
"http://mikmort3/_vti_bin/lists.asmx";

this.Credentials=System.Net.CredentialCache.De
faultCredentials;
}
Demo
 Building a Web Service Client
Events
 We support events on document
libraries.
 Operations such as add, update, delete,
check-in, check-out, etc.
 Events are asynchronous
 Events call IListEventSink managed
interface.
 Documentation and Sample in the SDK
Optimizing Performance of
OM
 The biggest goal is to minimize the number
of SQL queries.
 It may be helpful to use the SQL profiler to
monitor what the OM is doing underneath the
covers
 Minimizing managed/unmanaged transitions
also a goal, though this is mostly taken care
within the OM.
What about CAML?
 Page Execution will no longer be
driven by CAML (XML schema used in
SharePoint)
 CAML is still used in several places
 Field Type Definitions
 Site and List Templates
 View definitions
SDK Available
 Documentation about V2 available at
http://msdn.microsoft.com/sharepoint/
Questions?
Code Example -- Enumerate Lists and
Webs
private void ShowSubWebs(HtmlTextWriter output)
{
SPWeb web = SPControl.GetContextWeb(Context);
SPWebCollection mywebs = web.Webs;
foreach (SPWeb myweb in mywebs)
{
output.Write(myweb.Title + "<br>");
}
}

private void ShowSubWebsWithLists(HtmlTextWriter output)

{
SPWeb web = SPControl.GetContextWeb(Context);
SPWebCollection mywebs = web.Webs;
foreach (SPWeb myweb in mywebs)
{
output.Write("<b>" + myweb.Title + "<br>" + "</b>");
SPListCollection lists = myweb.Lists;
foreach (SPList list in lists)
{
if (list.ItemCount>10)
{
output.Write(list.Title + ": " + list.ItemCount +
"<br>");
}
}

}
}
Code Snippet – Copy Files
private SPWeb web;

private void Page_Load(object sender, System.EventArgs e)

{
web = SPControl.GetContextWeb(Context);
}

private void Button1_Click(object sender, System.EventArgs e)

{
int maxsize = Convert.ToInt32(TextBox1.Text);
SPFolder myfolder=web.GetFolder("Shared Documents");
SPFileCollection myfiles = myfolder.Files;
foreach (SPFile file in myfiles)
{
if (file.Length>(maxsize*1024))
{
Response.Write(file.Name + ": " +
file.Length/1024 + "kb<br>");
file.CopyTo("Archive/"+file.Name,true);
}
}
}
Code Snippet – Add users
private void Button1_Click(object sender,
System.EventArgs e)
{
SPWeb web = SPControl.GetContextWeb(Context);
string username = TextBox1.Text;
string displayname = TextBox2.Text;
string email = TextBox3.Text;

SPRole admins = web.Roles["Administrator"];

try
{
admins.AddUser(username,email,displayname,"");
Label4.Text="Successfully added user";
}
catch(Exception ex)
{
Label4.Text=ex.ToString();
}
}