Creating Fields and Content Types cleanly in SharePoint

Joel Plaut

September 30, 2014

All Post

when creating Content Types in SharePoint, it’s nice to script the process, for planning and repeatability. Here’s a nifty routine that allows a single line creation of Site Columns and Content Types.

First, here’s the routine to create Site Columns. The here-string XML is replaced with placeholders filled by parameters. Note the convenient parameters:

function tryAdd-TextField ([Microsoft.SharePoint.SPWeb] $web, [string] $DisplayName, [string] $InternalName, [string] $Group, [Boolean] $Hidden, 
[Boolean] $Required, [Boolean] $ShowInDisplayForm, [Boolean] $ShowInEditForm, [Boolean] $ShowInNewForm )
{
$fields = $web.fields;
try
{
    $q=$fields.getFieldByInternalName($InternalName); 
} catch
{
    $q=$null;
}
 
if ($q -ne $null)
{
Write-Host "$($InternalName) already exists!, no action taken to create this site column"
}
else
{
$fieldXMLString = '
 '
 
 $FieldXMLString = $FieldXMLString.Replace("@InternalName",$InternalName.tostring())
 $FieldXMLString = $FieldXMLString.Replace("@DisplayName",$DisplayName.tostring())
 $FieldXMLString = $FieldXMLString.Replace("@Group",$Group.tostring())
 $FieldXMLString = $FieldXMLString.Replace("@Hidden",$Hidden.tostring())
 $FieldXMLString = $FieldXMLString.Replace("@Required",$Required.tostring())
 $FieldXMLString = $FieldXMLString.Replace("@ShowInDisplayForm",$ShowInDisplayForm.tostring())
 $FieldXMLString = $FieldXMLString.Replace("@ShowInEditForm",$ShowInEditForm.tostring())
 $FieldXMLString = $FieldXMLString.Replace("@ShowInNewForm",$ShowInNewForm.tostring())
 
 $web.Fields.AddFieldAsXml($fieldXMLString)
 }
 }

function tryAdd-CT ([Microsoft.SharePoint.SPWeb] $web, [string] $Field, [string] $Group, [string] $Parent, [string] $Name, [string] $Description )
{
    try
    {
        $ctypeParent = $web.availablecontenttypes[$Parent]
 
    }
    catch
    {
        $ctypeParent = $null;
    }
 
    if ($ctypeParent -eq $null)
    {
        write-host "Content Type $($Name) not created because there was a problem finding the Parent Content Type $($Parent)"
    }
    else
    {
    $ctype = new-object Microsoft.SharePoint.SPContentType($ctypeParent, $web.contenttypes, $Name)
    $ctype.Description = $Description
    $ctype.group = $Group
 
    if (![string]::IsNullOrEmpty($field))
    {
    foreach ($fld in $field.split("|"))
     {
        $f=$web.fields.getFieldByInternalName($fld)  
        $link = new-object Microsoft.SharePoint.SPFieldLink $f
        $ctype.FieldLinks.Add($link)
     }
    }
 
    try
    {
        $ctype = $web.contenttypes.add($ctype)
    }
    catch
    {
        write-host "Content Type $($Name) already exists"
    }
    }
}

Let’s now create some site columns:

tryAdd-TextField -web $Web -DisplayName "Year"    -InternalName "YearACT"    -Group "Actuarial" -Hidden $False -Required $False -ShowInDisplayForm $True -ShowInEditForm $False -ShowInNewForm $False
tryAdd-TextField -web $Web -DisplayName "Quarter" -InternalName "QuarterACT" -Group "Actuarial" -Hidden $False -Required $False -ShowInDisplayForm $True -ShowInEditForm $False -ShowInNewForm $False
tryAdd-TextField -web $Web -DisplayName "Month"   -InternalName "MonthACT"   -Group "Actuarial" -Hidden $False -Required $False -ShowInDisplayForm $True -ShowInEditForm $False -ShowInNewForm $False
tryAdd-TextField -web $Web -DisplayName "LOB"     -InternalName "LOBACT"     -Group "Actuarial" -Hidden $False -Required $False -ShowInDisplayForm $True -ShowInEditForm $False -ShowInNewForm $False

Here’s how to create a Content Type with one field:

tryAdd-CT -web $Web -Field $null -Group "Actuarial"  -Parent (select-parent)  -Name "My Core ACT" -Description "Core Actuarial Document"

Note in the comment below, the fields can be passed in pipe-delimited

tryAdd-CT -web $Web -Field "YearACT|QuarterACT|MonthACT|LOBACT" -Group "Actuarial"  -Parent "My Core ACT" -Name "General (ACT)" -Description "General Actuarial Document"