Automatic content provisioning to your SharePoint site
by Yaroslav Pentsarskyy
Whether you`re still testing your future SharePoint site or ready to make a first QA or Prod deployment - you probably need to ship some content and not just empty sites. Even you landing page`s images have to be stored in document libraries; you also may need some lists created along with list items in them. This article will show one of two approaches on how to handle that.
If you`re creating document library (for example) and would like to see few files copied into it along the way, this is how you do it
Create a feature in your SharePoint solution with the content similar to this:
<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”utf-8″?>
<Feature xmlns=”http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/”
Id=”C9FB4590-08F2-4655-B1DF-5E1BE3F13773″
Title=”Provision Content”
Description=”Provisions Initial Content”
Version=”1.0.0.0″
Scope=”Web”
Hidden=”TRUE”
ActivateOnDefault=”FALSE”
AlwaysForceInstall=”TRUE”
ImageUrl=”">
<ElementFile Location=”Images/MyImage.jpg” />
<ElementManifest Location=”ItemsToProvision.xml” />
<ElementManifest Location=”ListsToProvision.xml” />
</Feature>
In here I take an image MyImage.jpg from the Images folder and copy it to the package. MyItemsToProvision.xml defines where to provision my file; and here is how it looks like:
<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”utf-8″?>
<Elements xmlns=”http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/”>
<Module Name=”Images” Url=”Lists/My Picture Library” Path=”Images”>
<File Url=”MyImage.jpg” Type=”GhostableInLibrary” >
<Property Name=”Title” Value=”My Picture Title” />
</File>
</Module>
</Elements>
You noticed I still have to create My Picture Library within my site, which is handled byListsToCreate.xml from above and here is how that one looks like:
<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”utf-8″ ?>
<Elements xmlns=”http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/”>
<ListInstance FeatureId=”1435C2C1-0423-4583-9F98-55200607A316″
Title=”My Picture Library”
Description=”Picture Library”
TemplateType=”109″
Url=”Lists/My Picture Library”/>
</Elements>
In here the only thing that needs explaining is TemplateType - will depend on what type of library you`re creating. Regular Document Library for instance is 101
That`s all, when your feature activates - My Picture Library will be created and MyImage.jpg placed into it with associated property values.
In my following article I`ll show how to create items in lists and libraries that already exist and come out of the box as you create your site.
Feel free to drop me a note if you have any question.
Yaroslav Pentsarskyy, MVP
Blog: www.sharemuch.com
