(This is part 1 of 2. See link below.)

Today I want to show you how to create a custom list form for deployment within a custom list template developed in Visual Studio 2010.

Download or update or modify my demo code on Codeplex.com:
http://spcustomlistformdemo.codeplex.com/

For me I was difficult to figure out this way. I could not find a good documentation about this topic so I’ll write ist – If you found another description please post a link in the comments below. Thanks!

1. Create a Site Collection in your SharePoint 2010. Mine is called “http://sharepoint.local/sites/listform”

2. In Visual Studio 2010 create an empty SharePoint 2010 project.

Choose “Deploy as farm solution!”

3. Add new item to you project: “List Definition” with type “Custom list” and with “Add a list instance”

4. Deploy this project “as is”.

5. Have a look in your browser:

6. Open SharePoint Designer 2010 (SPD) and open the site “http://sharepoint.local/sites/listform”. Open the deployed list “SPCustomListFormDemo – ListInstance1”

7. In the SPD in the List Settings of “SPCustomListFormDemo – ListInstance1” click the Ribbon tab “List Settings”. Then click “List Form”. You get this dialog:

Enter the name of the new list form, e.g. “new2.aspx”.

8. In SPD in the List Settings in the “Forms” view you can see your newly created list form.

Select it and open it for edit.

Click “Advanced Mode” in the Ribbon !!!

Select all the content of the new2.aspx file.

Copy the HTML code.

Open NOTEPAD and paste the HTML code.

9. Go into your project in Visual Studio 2010. There add a new project item of type “Application Page”.  Name it “new2.aspx”.

The page will be created in folder “LayoutsSPCustomListFormDemo”

With “drag & drop” Move the new2.aspx note to your List Definition:

Remove the “Layouts” folder. You get:

Select “new2.aspx” in the Solution Explorer and change its property “DeploymentType” to “ElementFile”

10. In VS2010 open “new2.aspx” for edit. Delete all content of the file except this two lines:

Replace the “DynamicMasterPageFile” attribute name through “MasterPageFile”. You get:

11. Got to NOTEPAD. Remove the “Page” tag as marked in the screenshow:

Select the rest of the file and copy it to the clipboard.

Now remove the complete content of the “ZoneTemplate” node. – Do not remove the “ZoneTemplate” node itself. Now the specific part of “new2.aspx” looks like this:

(There is a “DataFormWebPart” included in the “ZoneTemplate” node. This you remove by following the last step from above. But at runtime SharePoint will create a new DataFormWebPart in the Web Part Zone with ID “Main”. That’s the reason why we need to remove the copied and pasted Web Parts: It’s one of such a DataFormWebPart too much on the site after SharePoint creates the new one on runtime…)

12. In VS2010 paste the code into “new2.aspx”

13. Open “new2.aspx.cs” from the Solution Explorer:

Insert this “using”:

Replace the base type of your class definition from “LayoutsPageBase” to “WebPartPage”.

14. In the Solution Explorer open “schema.xml” of your list definition:

Scroll to the bottom of the file and find this part of XML code:

Replace the “SetupPath” attribute of the Form node with type “NewForm” with this value:

features$SharePoint.Feature.DeploymentPath$ListDefinition1new2.aspx

You get:

15. Deploy your solution.

16. Go into the browser, reload the list and “add new item”.

Now your custom list form will be used!

The URL in the Browser is identically to the first try! Why is it “NewForm.aspx” and not “new2.aspx”?

-> SharePoint uses “NewForm.aspx” as page for “Add new item” but internally redirects to the defined “New Form” of the list.

You can add some code for demo purpose to help you identifying your custom list form. For that reason I inserted

<h1>Hello World</h1>

into the the ASP Content PlaceHolder “PlaceHolderMain”:

The final result:

  Now you can do your own staff on your custom list form.

In Part Two I want to show you how to use you own form input fields instead using the at runtime inserted DataFormWebPart Web Part. …

It’s done: Part 2: https://blog.kenaro.com/2011/01/24/walkthrough-create-custom-sharepoint-2010-list-form-for-deployment-in-a-visual-studio-2010-project-part-2/

I’ve created a custom control for SharePoint 2010. This control let you connect two lookup fields so that the second lookup field contains only a subset of all values depending on the selected value of the first lookup field.

The control can handle both rendering methods of SharePoint for lookup fields: If there are more then 20 items in a lookup dropdown it will be rendered alternatively as input text box and not as input dropdown…

But… It’s alpha!!!

See: http://spconditionallookup.codeplex.com

Some Screenshots…

This is the demo list where you start using the demo.

Add a new item. You see two input controls. Both are empty.

Now you open the dropdown list of the first field:

There are values in – Leave it on “(none)” for now.

Open the dropdown of the second field:

Its empty

Now select the value “List1-Value1” in the first dropdown.

Now open the second dropdown. Now there are values in there :

The second dropdown was filled with values depending on the selected value of the first dropdown.

Lets have a look behind the scene.

Open the List “This list defines the value dependencies between the main list and the conditional list”:

This list defines the values for the second dropdown depending on the values of the first dropdown.

For value “List1-Value1” you’ll find there 4 values:

Lets have a look into the project:

The Test project has 4 SharePoint List definitions… “List 1” is the “main list” and “List 3” is the “conditional list”. “List 2” will contain the items you create. “RefList” contains the dependencies between “List 1” and “List 3”.

“List 2” contains to custom list forms:

“New2” is used to create new items, “Edit2” is used to edit items.

Lets have a look into “New2”. There are only a few customizations for using the Conditional Lookup control.

This references to the input fields “ff1” and “ff2”:

1:                             <tr> 

2:                                 <td> 

3:                                     <table  border="0"  cellspacing="0"  width="100%"> 

4:                                         <tr> 

5:                                             <td  width="190px"  valign="top"  class="ms-formlabel"> 

6:                                                 <h3  class="ms-standardheader"> 

7:                                                     <nobr> Reference (lookup) to the main list </nobr> 

8:                                                 </h3> 

9:                                             </td> 

10:                                             <td  width="400px"  valign="top"  class="ms-formbody"> 

11:                                                 <SharePoint:FormField  runat="server"  ID="ff1"  ControlMode="New"  FieldName="List2RefToList1FieldA"  /> 

12:                                                 <SharePoint:FieldDescription  runat="server"  ID="ff1description"  FieldName="List2RefToList1FieldA" 

13:                                                     ControlMode="New"  /> 

14:                                             </td> 

15:                                         </tr> 

16:                                         <tr> 

17:                                             <td  width="190px"  valign="top"  class="ms-formlabel"> 

18:                                                 <h3  class="ms-standardheader"> 

19:                                                     <nobr> Reference (lookup) to the conditional list</nobr> 

20:                                                 </h3> 

21:                                             </td> 

22:                                             <td  width="400px"  valign="top"  class="ms-formbody"> 

23:                                                 <SharePoint:FormField  runat="server"  ID="ff2"  ControlMode="New"  FieldName="List2RefToList3FieldA"/> 

24:                                                 <SharePoint:FieldDescription  runat="server"  ID="ff2description"  FieldName="List2RefToList3FieldA" 

25:                                                     ControlMode="New"  /> 

26:                                             </td> 

27:                                         </tr> 

28:                                         <tr  id="idAttachmentsRow"> 

29:                                             <td  nowrap="true"  valign="top"  class="ms-formlabel"  width="20%"> 

30:                                                 <SharePoint:FieldLabel  ControlMode="New"  FieldName="Attachments"  runat="server"  /> 

31:                                             </td> 

32:                                             <td  valign="top"  class="ms-formbody"  width="80%"> 

33:                                                 <SharePoint:FormField   runat="server"  ID="AttachmentsField"  ControlMode="New"  FieldName="Attachments"/> 

34:                                             </td> 

35:                                         </tr> 

36:                                     </table> 

37:                                 </td> 

38:                             </tr> 

39: 

40: 

I needed to change some properties of user profiles of my SharePoint 2010 farm.

Of cource I wanted to do this with PowerShell!

Before you can execute the following script, be sure that your user account is “Admin” on your “User Profile Service Application” and has “Full Control” permissions on the same Service App! – You may get this error: New-Object : Exception calling ".ctor" with "1" argument(s): "No User Profile Application available to service the request. Contact your farm administrator." – You can verify or change this settings in the Central Administration –> Manage Service Applications –> (select User Profile Service Application) –> than:

1. Click “Administrators” –> Add the user that will execute the PowerShell script –> Set “Full Control” for this user –> Click “OK”
2. Click “Permissions” –> Add the user that will execute the PowerShell script –> Set “Full Control” for this user –> Click “OK”

So…

Here is the Script for reading properties from the profile system:

#region Check x64 host
if( [System.IntPtr]::Size -ne 8) {
  Write-Error "Please use a x64 PowerShell host!"
  return
}
#endregion

#region Load SharePoint SnapIn and DLL
  Remove-PSSnapin Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
  Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue
  
  [System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("Microsoft.SharePoint") | out-null    
  
  #Check available SharePoint Cmdlets
  if( (Get-Command -Noun SPWeb*) -eq $null ) {
    Write-Error "SharePoint SnapIn not loaded. SharePoint cmdlets missing!"
    return
  }
#endregion

#User must be set as Full Control *Admin* and with Full Control *Permission* on Central Admin->Manager Service Application->User Profiler Service App!!

$site=(Get-SPSite "http://sharepoint.local")
$sc = [Microsoft.Office.Server.ServerContext]::GetContext($site)

$upm = New-Object "Microsoft.Office.Server.UserProfiles.UserProfileManager" -ArgumentList ($sc)
$enumerator = $upm.GetEnumerator()
$enumerator.Reset()
while( $enumerator.MoveNext() -eq $true ) {
  $currentUserProfile = $enumerator.Current
  $propertiesCollection = $currentUserProfile.ProfileManager.PropertiesWithSection
  if( $currentUserProfile -ne $null -and $propertiesCollection -ne $null ) {
    foreach($p in $propertiesCollection) {
      Write-Output $p.Name $currentUserProfile[$p.Name].Value
    }
    
    #write to a property:
    #$currentUserProfile["FirstName"].Value="Test"
    #$currentUserProfile.Commit()
  }
}

If you need to write property values than uncomment the two lines on the bottom of the script and change them.

BE VERY CAREFULLY!!!!

You can damage your profile system if you do things wrong! – Be sure that your script will only change one property for one user. If you uncomment the script lines above this script would set the property “FirstName”  of every user  to value “Test”!!! – BE VERY, VERY CAREFULLY!!!

Sometimes you may need to create instances of generic classes in PowerShell.

Like this (in C#):

 using  System;

 using  System.Text;

 namespace  tmp1

 {

     class  Program 

     {

         static  void  Main(string [] args)

         {

             System.Collections.Generic.List<string> t = new  System.Collections.Generic.List<string>();

         }

     }

 }

There is a generic class used in the code above: System.Collection.Generic.List.

If you want to create an instance of this class in PowerShell you can not use this:

New-Object "System.Collections.Generic.List<string>"

You’ll receive an error!

Here is the solution: You can use the System.Type that represents other .NET types.

Use this PowerShell code snipped to create an instance of System.Collections.Generic.List<string>

$type = ("System.Collections.Generic.List"+'`'+"1") -as "Type"
$type = $type.MakeGenericType("system.string" -as "Type")
$o = [Activator]::CreateInstance($type)

“$o” will contain the created instance.

You can use this method for all other generic classes.

You may need to change the following details.

1. In the first line of the snipped there is ‘`‘+"1" This is the amount of parameters for the generic class.
2. In the second line you have to specify the parameter types for the generic class. Separate them with “,” and cast them to System.Type by using -as “Type”.
3. In the third line you may need to specify the constructor parameters for creating an instance of the generic class.

Here is another example:

$type = ("System.Collections.Generic.SortedList"+'`'+"2") -as "Type"
$type = $type.MakeGenericType( @( ("System.Int32" -as "Type"), ("system.string" -as "Type") ) )
$o = [Activator]::CreateInstance($type, 100)
$o.Add(1, "test")
$o

This creates an instance of System.Collections.Generic.SortedList<System.Int32, String> with a starting capacity of 10 (line 3: the second parameter of CreateInstance).

For the execution of SharePoint PowerShell scripts I need to check the execution environment of my PowerShell session to be sure that PowerShell runs as x64 application.

This was a problem because PowerShell does not provide this information itself.

BUT PowerShell is a .NET Application.

There you can check for x86 or x64 by using this static method (in C# or VB.NET):

System.IntPtr.Size

In PowerShell syntax:

This results in “4” for x86 and “8” for x64. (Without question marks of cource. The result type is int.)

So you can use this in your PowerShell script.

Here I started 2 PowerShell sessions: one x86 and one x64. See the result of the command above:

(In the window title you see “Windows PowerShell (x86)” –> That’s the x86 session. The x64 session has no special window title.)

Here is a corresponding PowerShell code snipped:

#region Check x64 host
if( [System.IntPtr]::Size -ne 8) {
  Write-Error "Please use a x64 PowerShell host!"
  return
}
#endregion