List Creation in SharePoint 2010 Programmatically Using VS 2010

Introduction

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

Question: What is a list?

In simple terms "When you create a custom list, a new empty list is created with just two columns -Title and Attachments. The list contains a single default view. Once you create the list, you can add more columns, views, and so on".

I think we are now good to go and implement this wonderful concept.

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

Step 2: Open up Visual Studio 2010 and create an "Empty Sharepoint Project".

 

 Step 3: Select "Deploy as a farm solution" and click on the "Finish" button. Now an empty project will be created:

 

Step 4: Add a new visual webpart for that project.

 

Step 5: 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="VisualWebPart1UserControl.ascx.cs"

    Inherits="ListCreationApplication.VisualWebPart1.VisualWebPart1UserControl" %>

<div align="center">

    <table>

        <tr>

            <td colspan="2">

                <asp:label id="Label1" runat="server" text="List Creation via Object Modelling - SharePoint 2010"

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

            </td>

        </tr>

        <tr>

            <td>

                <asp:label id="Label2" runat="server" text="Please Enter ListName" font-size="Large"

                    font-names="Verdana" font-italic="true"></asp:label>

            </td>

            <td>

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

            </td>

        </tr>

        <tr>

            <td>

                <asp:label id="Label3" runat="server" text="Please Enter List Description" font-size="Large"

                    font-names="Verdana" font-italic="true"></asp:label>

            </td>

            <td>

                <asp:textbox id="TextBox2" runat="server"></asp:textbox>

            </td>

        </tr>

        <tr>

            <td colspan="2">

                <asp:button id="Button1" runat="server" text="Create New List" font-names="Verdana"

                    width="166px" 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 6: The complete code of visualwebpart1usercontrol.ascx.cs looks like this:
 

using System;

using System.Web.UI;

using System.Web.UI.WebControls;

using System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts;

using Microsoft.SharePoint;

namespace ListCreationApplication.VisualWebPart1

{

    public partial class VisualWebPart1UserControl : UserControl

    {

        protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)

        {

            TextBox1.Focus();

        }

        protected void Button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

        {

            Label5.Text = string.Empty;

            if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(TextBox1.Text) || string.IsNullOrEmpty(TextBox2.Text))

            {

                Label5.Text = "Please Enter Some Data";

            }

            else

            {

                SPSite site = new SPSite(SPContext.Current.Site.ID);

                SPWeb web = site.OpenWeb();

                SPListTemplate template = web.ListTemplates["Custom List"];

                web.AllowUnsafeUpdates = true;

                Guid listId = web.Lists.Add(TextBox1.Text, TextBox2.Text, template);

                SPList mylist = web.Lists[listId];

                mylist.OnQuickLaunch = true;

                mylist.Update();

                web.AllowUnsafeUpdates = false;

                Label5.Text = TextBox1.Text + " List is created successfully";

                TextBox1.Text = string.Empty;

                TextBox2.Text = string.Empty;

            }

        }

    }

}

Step 7: Deploy the solution file and add the created webpart to the sharepoint site:

 

Step 8: Creating a new list:

 

Step 9: The created list looks like this: