Working With Contacts List In SharePoint

This article is the 38th part of my SharePoint series. Here are my previous articles.

1. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part One - Introduction
2. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Two - Web Application
3. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Three - Site Collections
4. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Four - Subsites
5. Learn SharePoint In Series – Part Five – SharePoint Lists
6. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Six - Power Of Versioning
7. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Seven - Lists Advanced Settings
8. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Eight - Validation Settings in List Settings
9. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Nine - Audience Targeting
10. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Ten - Rating Settings
11. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Eleven - Form Settings in List Settings
12. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Twelve- Save list as a template in List Setting
13. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Thirteen- Permission Settings in List Settings
14. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Fourteen- Enterprise Metadata and Keywords
15. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Fifteen - Retention Policy Under Information Management
16. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Sixteen - RSS Settings in List Setting
17. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Seventeen - List Columns in SharePoint
18. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Eighteen - Multiple Lines Of Text Column Type in SharePoint
19. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Nineteen - Number and Choice Column Type in SharePoint
20. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Twenty - Currency and Yes No Column types in SharePoint
21. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Twenty One - Person or Group Column types in SharePoint
22. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Twenty-Two - Date and Time Column types in SharePoint
23. Learn SharePoint In Series – Part Twenty-Three – Look Up Column Type in SharePoint
24. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Twenty Four - Hyperlink or Picture Column Types in SharePoint
25. Learn SharePoint In Series -Part Twenty-Five - Calculated Column in SharePoint
26. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Twenty-Six - Task Outcomes and External Data Column Type in SharePoint
27. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Twenty-Seven - Introduction to Managed Metadata Column Types
28. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Twenty-Eight - Introduction to Site Columns
29. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Twenty Nine - Editing and Deleting Site Columns
30. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Thirty - Column Reordering in SharePoint
31. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Thirty-One - Indexing in SharePoint Lists and Libraries
32. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Thirty-Two - Introduction to SharePoint Views
33. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Thirty-Three - Creating a SharePoint List View
34. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Thirty-Four- Editing and Deleting a SharePoint List View
35. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Thirty-Five - Standard View and Datasheet View
36. Learn SharePoint In Series - Part Thirty-Six - Gantt View in SharePoint
37. Learn SharePoint In Series - Calendar View In SharePoint

In the previous article, we have seen Calendar View in detail. We have seen how to work with Calendar Views. So with this, we have completed the views in SharePoint. Now we will be exploring the components of SharePoint in detail. In this article, we have seen how we can work with custom lists. In this article, I am going to explain what is Contact List in SharePoint.

In this article, I am going to cover the following topics,

• Background
• Introducing Contact List
• Creating Contact List
• Advantages of Contacts Lists
• Operations involved in Contact Lists
• Summary

Background

In this article, we have seen what SharePoint lists are and why we use lists. There, we saw that we use SharePoint lists to store our data in a tabular format, the same as we do with SQL Database Tables or MySql Database Tables.

Now, imagine a situation; in which you have to maintain contact information for your employees or your team members. You will define the attributes to be included, such as First Name, Last Name, Email Address, Phone Number, Address, City, Birthdate, and many more. Now, this can be done in multiple ways. One way is by creating a custom list in SharePoint and creating required fields with appropriate field types; while another way is to create a SharePoint Contact list in which a default template is provided by SharePoint to maintain the contact information. Let’s explore how the SharePoint Contact list helps us in maintaining the contact information and how it is different from Custom Lists.

Introduction to SharePoint Contact List

SharePoint provides a default list template using which we can create a list that can be used to maintain our contact information. When we create a SharePoint Contact list, the basic fields related to Contacts automatically get created. For example, when you create a Contact list, you will have a few columns, such as First Name, Last Name, Date of Birth, etc. created by default with the list. So, you do not need to recreate it again. You can just reuse those fields.

Creating Contact lists

In order to create a contact list, please log into your SharePoint site and follow the below-given steps.

Step 1. Click on the "Settings" icon on the top right of the page and click “Site Contents”.

Step 2. Now, click on the “Add an app” option.

Step 3. On the “Add an app” page, select the "Contacts" list template. You might have to search the Contact list template in the search box and then click on the "Contacts" icon.

Step 4. Now, enter the name for the contact list and click on “Create”.

Step 5. Once you have clicked on the Create button, SharePoint will create a contact list with the name “My Contacts” and you will see the following screen.

Step 6.Now, click on this newly created “My Contacts” list and it will open the list view screen as shown in the below image.

Here, you can see that the Last Name, First Name, Company, Business Phone, Home Phone, and Email Address columns are automatically created and a default view with the name “All Contacts” is also created.

Step 7. Apart from the above-mentioned fields, SharePoint creates too many other fields with this contact list. But those fields are not included in the default view, so we cannot be able to see them on the list view screen. In order to see the list of the fields that SharePoint has automatically added, you have to visit the "Contact list settings" page.

Step 8. In order to check what are the fields created by the contact lists, let us open the list setting page. To open the list setting page, click on the “LIST” tab from the ribbon and click on "List Settings".

Scroll down to this page and you can see all the associated fields with the contact list. You will find that all the basic fields required to maintain a contact's information are already created while creating a contact list. For details, please check the below snap.

Advantages of using a Contact List in SharePoint

The basic and important benefit of the Contact List is that it provides the standard metadata related to a person or contact by default. No need to create common properties, like First Name, Last Name, Address, etc.

It provides some special fields as well, such as Last Name Phonetics, First Name Phonetics, and Company Phonetics. These fields are used in searching the contacts.

Operations Involved in Contact lists

The contact list comes up with the default metadata columns. It doesn’t mean we cannot create any custom columns; we can always create a new column or delete an existing one from the contact lists based on our requirements. We can also customize the Views of the Contact list. All of the tasks discussed in the previous articles of this series are applicable to this contact list also.

Summary

In this article, we have seen what contact list templates are in SharePoint and how we can make use of this contact list based on our requirements. We have also seen how to create the Contact list and how to manage it. In the next article, we will look into the Announcement Lists and their importance.