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Hands-On Lab
Querying the List Schema for Choice Fields
Lab version: 1.0.0
Last updated: 7/3/2012
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CONTENTS
OVERVIEW ................................................................................................................................................... 3
EXERCISE 1: CREATING A SHAREPOINT CONTACT LIST .................................................................... 4
Task 1 – Creating a Contact List ............................................................................................................ 4
Task 2 – Adding a Custom Field to Track Contact Type ........................................................................ 4
Task 3 – Adding Sample Contacts to the List ........................................................................................ 5
EXERCISE 2: QUERY THE LISTS WEB SERVICE FOR CHOICE FIELD OPTIONS................................ 6
Task 1 – Beginning the Exercise ............................................................................................................ 6
Task 2 – Configuring Constants in the Windows Phone 7 Application ................................................. 7
Task 3 – Configuring the Reference to the SharePoint Lists.asmx Web Service................................... 7
Task 5 – Implementing Code to Get the Contact List Choice Field Schema ......................................... 7
Task 6 – Implementing Code to Display the ContactType Field and Available Choices........................ 9
Task 8 – Testing the Application ......................................................................................................... 10
SUMMARY .................................................................................................................................................. 11
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Overview
SharePoint choice list columns provide the flexibility to add and change the values available to end
users. For example a Contact list may contain different types of contacts: Customers, Vendors, Suppliers,
Etc. When writing applications that use such a list, it is a best practice to request the list schema and
load the list of choices dynamically so that changes to the list do not require recompiling the application.
In this lab, you will create an application that reads a Contact list with a custom choice field. You will use
the SharePoint Lists Web service to get the available values for the choice field so that your application
provides the same field validation the user would receive while working with SharePoint in a web
browser.
Objectives
In this hands-on lab, you will learn how to create a Windows Phone 7 application that connects to a
Contact list to display contact details including a Choice field. This lab details how to query the Lists Web
service to determine the choices available for a field.
Learn how to use the SharePoint Lists Web service to query the list schema.
Learn how to use Linq to determine the Schema for a specific field.
Learn how to populate a ListBox control with the correct values from the list schema.
Prerequisites
The following is required to complete this hands-on lab:
Note: See Setting Up A SharePoint and Windows Phone 7 Development Environment Module for
instructions that describe how to set up the SharePoint and Windows Phone 7 developer machine.
Windows 7 x64 installed with all Windows Updates installed, in one of the following
scenarios.
◦ Installed on a physical machine
◦ Installed on a bootable VHD
SharePoint 2010 installed on the Windows 7 x64 developer machine configured with a site
collection that uses Forms Based Authentication (FBA).
Windows Phone 7 Developer Tools
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◦ http://download.microsoft.com/download/1/7/7/177D6AF8-17FA-40E7-AB53-
00B7CED31729/vm_web.exe
Windows Phone 7 Developer Tools - January 2011 Update
◦ http://download.microsoft.com/download/6/D/6/6D66958D-891B-4C0E-BC32-
2DFC41917B11/WindowsPhoneDeveloperResources_en-US_Patch1.msp
Windows Phone Developer Tools Fix
◦ http://download.microsoft.com/download/6/D/6/6D66958D-891B-4C0E-BC32-
2DFC41917B11/VS10-KB2486994-x86.exe
Exercise 1: Creating a SharePoint Contact
List
In this exercise, you will create a Contact list and add a custom Choice field called Customer Type for use
in this lab. You will add 3 contacts to the list and assign different values for the Customer Type field. The
Windows Phone 7 application will read this list and populate a list box with the appropriate values for
the list.
Task 1 – Creating a Contact List
In this task, you will create a standard Contact list. This sample data is used in this lab.
1. Open Internet Explorer and navigate to the SharePoint Team Site configured for Forms Based
Authentication.
example: http://fbawp7
2. Log into the site using site collection administrator credentials.
3. Click Site Actions, and select View All Site Content.
4. On the All Site Content page, click Create.
5. In the Create dialog, choose the Contacts list.
6. Name the list Contacts.
7. Click Create.
Task 2 – Adding a Custom Field to Track Contact Type
In this task, you will use the Contacts list and add a new column to track Contact Type.
1. In the ribbon, on the List Tools | List tab, click Create Column.
2. In the Create Column dialog, enter the following information:
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a. Column Name: ContactType
b. Column Type: Choice
c. Choices (Type each choice on a separate line):
i. Customer
ii. Vendor
iii. Partner
iv. Other
3. Click OK.
Task 3 – Adding Sample Contacts to the List
In this task, you will add sample data to the Contact list for display in the Windows Phone application.
1. In the ribbon, on the List Tools | Items tab, choose New Item.
2. Enter the following information in the New Item dialog:
a. Last Name: Jump
b. First Name: Dan
c. Full Name: Dan Jump
d. E-mail Address: dan@contoso.com
e. Business Phone: 888.555.1111
f. ContactType: Customer
3. Click Save.
4. In the ribbon, on the List Tools | Items tab, choose New Item.
5. Enter the following information in the New Item dialog:
a. Last Name: Poe
b. First Name: Toni
c. Full Name: Toni Poe
d. E-mail Address: toni@contoso.com
e. Business Phone: 888.555.2222
f. ContactType: Vendor
6. Click Save.
7. In the ribbon, on the List Tools | Items tab, choose New Item.
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8. Enter the following information in the New Item dialog:
a. Last Name: Martinez
b. First Name: Frank
c. Full Name: Frank Martinez
d. E-mail Address: frank@contoso.com
e. Business Phone: 888.555.3333
f. ContactType: Partner
9. Click Save.
10. Confirm that you have three contacts with all of the above fields completed.
Figure 1
Contact List with Data
Exercise 2: Query the Lists Web Service
for Choice Field Options
In this exercise, you will create a Windows Phone 7 application to query the Contacts SharePoint list.
You will implement the code necessary to determine what values are available for the Customer Type
choice field.
Task 1 – Beginning the Exercise
In this task, you will open the lab solution in Visual Studio 2010.
1. Make sure that you have downloaded and installed the items listed in System Requirements
above prior to beginning this exercise.
2. Launch Visual Studio 2010 as administrator and open the lab project by selecting File »
Open » Project.
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a. Browse to the WP7.SharePoint.ListSchema.sln file located at
%TrainingKitPath%\Labs\QueryingtheListSchemaforChoiceFields\Source\Before
and select it.
b. Click Open to open the solution.
Task 2 – Configuring Constants in the Windows Phone 7 Application
In this task, you will configure the constants used in the Windows Phone 7 application to work with your
development environment.
1. In the WP7.SharePoint.People project, in the Utilities folder, open the Constants.cs file.
2. Change the value for the USER_NAME and USER_PASSWORD constants to represent a
Forms Based Authentication user specific to your development environment. For this lab,
the user requires read and write permissions.
3. Change the value for the AUTHENTICATION_SERVICE_URL constant to the URL specific to
your development environment.
The following code example demonstrates the value for a SharePoint server named fbawp7.
C#
public const string AUTHENTICATION_SERVICE_URL =
"http://fbawp7/_vti_bin/authentication.asmx";
Task 3 – Configuring the Reference to the SharePoint Lists.asmx Web Service
In this task, you will configure the reference to the SharePoint lists.asmx Web service. The service
reference to this Web service has already been added to the project.
1. In the Solution Explorer, double click the ServiceReferences.ClientConfig file to open it.
2. In the Endpoint element, change the address attribute to the URL for the lists.asmx
SharePoint Web service in the site where you created the Sample Tasks list.
Example: http://fbawp7/_vti_bin/lists.asmx
Figure 2
Client Configuration Endpoint address
Task 5 – Implementing Code to Get the Contact List Choice Field Schema
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In this task, you will use the SharePoint Lists Web service to determine the valid values for the Contact
list ContactType field.
1. In the WP7.SharePoint.ListSchema project, expand the ViewModels folder, and double click
the MainViewModel.cs file.
2. Add the following code under the //TODO: 10.3.1 comment to define the ContactTypes
collection:
C#
/// <summary>
/// A collection for ContactTypes objects.
/// </summary>
public ObservableCollection<string> ContactTypes { get; private set; }
3. Add the following code under the //TODO: 10.3.2 comment to initialize the ContactTypes
collection.
C#
ContactTypes = new ObservableCollection<string>();
4. Add the following code under the //TODO: 10.3.3 comment to call the Lists Web service and
parse the result to determine the choices for the ContactType field.
C#
private void LoadChoices()
{
SPListsService.ListsSoapClient lists = new SPListsService.ListsSoapClient();
lists.CookieContainer = App.CookieJar;
lists.GetListCompleted += new
EventHandler<SPListsService.GetListCompletedEventArgs>(lists_GetListCompleted)
;
lists.GetListAsync("Contacts");
}
void lists_GetListCompleted(object sender,
SPListsService.GetListCompletedEventArgs e)
{
//Declare the namespace
XNamespace nsDocument = "http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/soap/";
//Use Linq to get the values of the
//elements under CHOICES for the ContactType field
var choiceElements = e.Result.Descendants(nsDocument + "Field").
Where(f => f.Attribute("Name").Value.Equals("ContactType"))
.SelectMany(f => f.Elements(nsDocument + "CHOICES").Elements(nsDocument +
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"CHOICE"))
.Select(f => f.Value );
//Clear the ContactTypes collection
ContactTypes.Clear();
//For each item in our list of results add a ContactType
choiceElements.ToList().ForEach(choiceElement =>
ContactTypes.Add(choiceElement));
}
5. The LoadChoices method above uses the GetList Web method to request the list schema for
the Contacts list. When the asynchronous result returns, the lists_GetListCompleted method
uses Linq to place the CHOICE elements into a variable and then the elements are loaded
into the ContactTypes collection.
Note: See the Security With SharePoint And Windows Phone 7 Applications module for more
information about security and the App.CookieJar property.
6. Add the following code under the comment //TODO: 10.3.4 to call the LoadChoices method.
C#
LoadChoices();
Task 6 – Implementing Code to Display the ContactType Field and Available Choices
In this task, you will edit the user interface to display the ContactType field in a ListBox and bind the
ItemsSource to the ContactTypes collection.
1. In the WP7.SharePoint.ListSchema project, double click the ContactView.xaml file.
2. Add the following code under the <!-- TODO: 10.3.5 Add the ContactType List Box -->.
XAML
<ListBox Height="182" Margin="0" x:Name="lbContactTypes" />
3. In the WP7.SharePoint.ListSchema project, expand the ViewModels folder, and double click
the ContactView.xaml.cs file.
4. Add the following code under the //TODO: 10.3.6 comment to bind the ContactTypes
collection to the List box named lbContactTypes.
C#
lbContactTypes.ItemsSource = App.ViewModel.ContactTypes;
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lbContactTypes.SelectedItem = viewModel.DataModel.ContactType;
The code above binds the list box ItemsSource to the ContactTypes collection that you
created from the GetList Web method. The selected item is set to the current ViewModel’s
ContactType value.
Task 8 – Testing the Application
In this task, you will test the Windows Phone 7 application.
1. In the WP7.SharePoint.ListSchema solution, select Windows Phone 7 Emulator in the
deployment location dropdown list.
2. Press F5.
The Windows Phone 7 application starts in the emulator. The application will initially display
the three contacts that you added to the contact list.
Figure 3
Contacts from SharePoint
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Clicking any contact will navigate the application to the Contact View page. Notice for each
contact that the full list of Contact Types is visible with the current Contact’s Contact Type
highlighted.
Figure 4
Contact details showing the choice field options
Summary
In this hands-on lab, you saw how to create a Windows Phone 7 application that can query the available
values for a SharePoint choice field. This level of validation ensures that users will only enter valid values
for items in SharePoint lists and when list choices are changed in SharePoint you will not have to
recompile your application to fetch the new values.
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