Show All Content Types 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 content type?
 

In simple terms "Content types are reusable sets of columns which can be used across multiple lists or libraries. They are considered to be a central component to management of metadata".

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="ShowContentTypes_App.VisualWebPart1.VisualWebPart1" %>

<div style="text-align: center;">

    <table>

        <tr>

            <td colspan="2">

                <asp:label id="Label1" runat="server" text="Get All Content Types in SharePoint 2010 using VS 2012"

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

            </td>

        </tr>

        <tr>

            <td>

                <asp:listbox id="ListBox1" runat="server" height="246px" width="314px"></asp:listbox>

            </td>

        </tr>

        <tr>

            <td colspan="2">

                <asp:button id="Button1" runat="server" text="Get All Content Types" font-names="Verdana"

                    width="213px" backcolor="Orange" font-bold="True" onclick="Button1_Click" />

            </td>

        </tr>

        <tr>

            <td colspan="2">

                <asp:label id="Label5" runat="server" font-bold="true" font-names="Verdana" forecolor="Maroon"></asp:label>

            </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.Net.Mime;

using System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts;namespace ShowContentTypes_App.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)

        {

        }

        protected void Button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

        {

            SPWeb web = SPContext.Current.Web;

            SPContentTypeCollection coll = web.ContentTypes;

            foreach(SPContentType type in coll)

            {

                ListBox1.Items.Add(type.Name);

            }

        }

    }

}

 

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: List of content types showing output of the application looks like this:

 

I hope this article is useful for you.