Programmatically create SharePoint 2010 content type using XML definition file

Question

Is there any way to programmatically create a SharePoint 2010 content type using an XML definition file? SPFields can be added in the following way:

SPContext.Current.Web.Fields.AddFieldAsXml("<xml />");

Is there any similar way to programmatically add content types to a site collection/site?

Answer 1

You can programmatically create/add content types, but not using XML definition (as far as I'm aware). You have to construct it, add it to a content type collection, and manually add your field references to the field links collection.

A rough example would be:

using (SPSite site = new SPSite("http://localhost"))
{
    using (SPWeb web = site.OpenWeb())
    {
        SPContentType contentType = new SPContentType(web.ContentTypes["Document"], web.ContentTypes, "Financial Document");
        web.ContentTypes.Add(contentType);
        contentType.Group = "Financial Content Types";
        contentType.Description = "Base financial content type";
        contentType.FieldLinks.Add(new SPFieldLink(web.Fields.GetField("OrderDate")));
        contentType.FieldLinks.Add(new SPFieldLink(web.Fields.GetField("Amount")));
        contentType.Update();
    }
}

You don't get to control the content type IDs this way though. I prefer using features as per Greg Enslow's response.

Answer 2

The most common way is to use a feature definition and then activate the feature for your site collection. The xml for the feature will look something like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Elements xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">
   <!-- Parent ContentType: Document (0x0101) -->
  <ContentType ID="0x0101000728167cd9c94899925ba69c4af6743e"
               Name="Financial Document"
               Group="Financial Content Types"
               Description="Base financial content type"
               Version="0">
    <FieldRefs>
      <FieldRef ID="{1511BF28-A787-4061-B2E1-71F64CC93FD5}" Name="OrderDate" DisplayName="Date" Required="FALSE"/>
      <FieldRef ID="{060E50AC-E9C1-4D3C-B1F9-DE0BCAC300F6}" Name="Amount" DisplayName="Amount" Required="FALSE"/>
    </FieldRefs>
  </ContentType>
</Elements>

See the full sample at http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms463449.aspx.

Was there a specific reason you were trying to use the object model instead?