Using CAML "Contains" in SharePoint 2010 Programmatically Using VS 2012

Introduction

Today, in this article let's play around with one of the interesting and most useful concepts in SharePoint 2010.

Question: What is retrieving list data using CAML?

In simple terms "It enables retrieval of list data using SPQuery with a CAML based notation".

Step 1: Open SharePoint 2010 Central Administration and navigate to a specific site.

Step 2: Open up Visual Studio 2012 and try to create a "SharePoint Visual Web Part" project, as in:

 

Step 3: Select "Deploy as a farm solution" as in the following and click the "Finish" button.

 

 

Step 4: The complete code of visualwebpart1usercontrol.ascx looks like this:

 

<%@ Assembly Name="$SharePoint.Project.AssemblyFullName$" %>

<%@ Assembly Name="Microsoft.Web.CommandUI, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" %>

<%@ Register TagPrefix="SharePoint" Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls"

    Assembly="Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" %>

<%@ Register TagPrefix="Utilities" Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint.Utilities" Assembly="Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" %>

<%@ Register TagPrefix="asp" Namespace="System.Web.UI" Assembly="System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35" %>

<%@ Import Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint" %>

<%@ Register TagPrefix="WebPartPages" Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages"

    Assembly="Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" %>

<%@  Control Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeBehind="VisualWebPart1.ascx.cs"

    Inherits="ContainsUsingCAMLApp.VisualWebPart1.VisualWebPart1" %>

<div>

    <table style="font-family: Verdana; text-align: center;">

        <tr>

            <td colspan="2">

                <asp:label id="Label1" runat="server" text="Contains Using CAML - SharePoint 2010 via Visual Studio 2012"

                    font-bold="true" forecolor="Maroon" font-size="Large"></asp:label>

            </td>

        </tr>

        <tr>

            <td>

                <asp:label id="Label2" runat="server" text="Please Enter FirstName:"></asp:label>

            </td>

            <td>

                <asp:textbox id="TextBox1" runat="server"></asp:textbox>

            </td>

        </tr>

        <tr>

            <td colspan="2">

                <br />

                <br />

                <asp:button id="Button1" runat="server" text="Contains Retrieve App- CAML" forecolor="Orange"

                    font-bold="true" backcolor="Black" onclick="Button1_Click" width="294px" />

            </td>

        </tr>

        <tr>

            <td colspan="2">

                <asp:label id="Label4" runat="server" font-bold="true"></asp:label>

            </td>

        </tr>

        <tr>

            <td align="center" colspan="2">

                <br />

                <br />

                <asp:gridview id="GridView1" runat="server" backcolor="LightGoldenrodYellow" bordercolor="Tan"

                    borderwidth="1px" cellpadding="2" enablemodelvalidation="True" forecolor="Black"

                    gridlines="None" autogeneratecolumns="False"><AlternatingRowStyle BackColor="PaleGoldenrod" /><FooterStyle BackColor="Tan" /><HeaderStyle BackColor="Tan" Font-Bold="True" /><PagerStyle BackColor="PaleGoldenrod" ForeColor="DarkSlateBlue" HorizontalAlign="Center" /><SelectedRowStyle BackColor="DarkSlateBlue" ForeColor="GhostWhite" /><Columns><asp:BoundField DataField="ID" HeaderText="Student Id" ReadOnly="true" SortExpression="ID" /><asp:BoundField DataField="Title" HeaderText="First Name" ReadOnly="true" /><asp:BoundField DataField="LastName" HeaderText="Last Name" ReadOnly="true" /><asp:BoundField DataField="Age" HeaderText="Age" ReadOnly="true" /></Columns><EmptyDataTemplate><asp:Label ID="Label3" runat="server" Text="No Records Exsist" ForeColor="Red" Font-Bold="true"></asp:Label></EmptyDataTemplate></asp:gridview>

            </td>

        </tr>

    </table>

</div>

 

Step 5: The complete code of visualwebpart1usercontrol.ascx.cs looks like this:

 

using Microsoft.SharePoint;

using System;

using System.ComponentModel;

using System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts;namespace ContainsUsingCAMLApp.VisualWebPart1

{

    [ToolboxItemAttribute(false)]

    public partial class VisualWebPart1 : WebPart

    {

        // Uncomment the following SecurityPermission attribute only when doing Performance Profiling using

        // the Instrumentation method, and then remove the SecurityPermission attribute when the code is ready

        // for production. Because the SecurityPermission attribute bypasses the security check for callers of

        // your constructor, it's not recommended for production purposes.

        // [System.Security.Permissions.SecurityPermission(System.Security.Permissions.SecurityAction.Assert, UnmanagedCode = true)]

        public VisualWebPart1(){}protected override void OnInit(EventArgs e)

        {

            base.OnInit(e);

            InitializeControl();

        }

        protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)

        {

            TextBox1.Focus();

        }

        protected void Button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

        {

            if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(TextBox1.Text))

            {

                Label4.Text = "Please Enter Some Values";

                Label4.ForeColor = System.Drawing.Color.Red;

            }

            else

            {

               

               SPWeb web = SPContext.Current.Web;

                SPList list = web.Lists["Student"];

                SPQuery query = new SPQuery();

                query.Query = "<Where><Contains><FieldRef Name='Title' /><Value Type='Text'>" + TextBox1.Text +"</Value></Contains></Where>";

                SPListItemCollection item = list.GetItems(query);

                GridView1.DataSource = item.GetDataTable();

                GridView1.DataBind();

                TextBox1.Text = string.Empty;

            }

        }

    }

}
 

Step 6: Deploy the solution file and add the new webpart to a SharePoint site.

 

Step 7: The output of the application looks like this:

 

 

 

Step 8: Contains using CAML list data output of the application looks like this:

 

 

I hope this article is useful for you.