Enum & Find SharePoint Content Types (OOTB, Custom & Hidden)

Downloads

SPEnumContentTypes (3.2 KB) SPGetSupportedContentType (3.1 KB) C# Source (36.0 KB)

Custom SharePoint development usually requires the creation of custom content types.  While the process of defining, packaging and deploying content types as solutions (.wsp) is simplified in Visual Studio 2010, I have encountered issues while upgrading modified content types during the development process.  The problem is basically caused when a content type is still being used somewhere in SharePoint. Determining exactly where with the standard SharePoint web interface can be time consuming and occasionally not possible.

Below are a couple of console applications I created to address these issues. The complete Visual Studio 2010 project and source code is available for download at https://barkes@bitbucket.org/barkes/sharepoint-utilities

SPEnumContentTypes
This console utility returns a categorized list of built-in, custom and hidden content types (name, parent and id).




SPGetSupportedContentTypes
Need a quick way to find all usages of a particular content type? Use this console utility for a complete list.

 SPEnumContentTypes.cs

using System;
using System.Collections;
using Microsoft.SharePoint;

namespace Barkes.SharePoint.CmdLine
{
    class SPEnumContentTypes
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            if (args.Length == 1)
            {
                string url = args[0];
                WriteContentTypes(url);
            }
            else
            {
                WriteUsage();
            }
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Show the command usage on the console.
        /// </summary>
        private static void WriteUsage()
        {
            Console.WriteLine();
            Console.WriteLine("Barkes SharePoint Utilities");
            Console.WriteLine();
            Console.WriteLine("SPEnumContentTypes url");
            Console.WriteLine();
            Console.WriteLine("SPEnumContentTypes http://myserver/mysite");
            Console.WriteLine();
        }

        private static void WriteContentTypes(string url)
        {
            using (SPSite site = new SPSite(url))
            {
                using (SPWeb web = site.OpenWeb())
                {
                    // Create a sortable list of content types
                    ArrayList list = new ArrayList();
                    foreach (SPContentType ct in web.AvailableContentTypes)
                        list.Add(ct);

                    // Sort the list on group name
                    list.Sort(new CTComparer());

                    // Write the header
                    Console.WriteLine("\nSite: {0}", url);
                    Console.WriteLine("Total Content Types: {0}", list.Count);
                    Console.WriteLine("\n{0,-35} {1,-12} {2}", "Site Content Type", "Parent", "Content Type ID");

                    for (int i = 0; i < list.Count; i++)
                    {
                        SPContentType ct = (SPContentType)list[i];

                        if (i == 0 || ((SPContentType)list[i - 1]).Group != ct.Group)
                        {
                            Console.WriteLine("\n{0}", ct.Group);
                            Console.WriteLine("-------------------------------");

                        }

                        Console.WriteLine("{0,-35} {1,-12} {2}", ct.Name, ct.Parent.Name, ct.Id);
                    }
                }
            }
        }

        // Implements the Compare method from the IComparer interface.
        // Compares two content type objects by group name, then by content type Id.
        class CTComparer : IComparer
        {
            int IComparer.Compare(object x, object y)
            {
                SPContentType ct1 = (SPContentType)x;
                SPContentType ct2 = (SPContentType)y;

                // First, compare group names
                int result = string.Compare(ct1.Group, ct2.Group);
                if (result != 0)
                    return result;

                // If the names are the same, compare the IDs
                return ct1.Id.CompareTo(ct2.Id);
            }
        }
    }
}

 SPGetSupportedContentType.cs

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using Microsoft.SharePoint;
using Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration;

namespace Barkes.SharePoint.CmdLine
{
    class SPGetSupportedContentTypes
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            if (args.Length == 2)
            {
                string url = args[0];
                string ctName = args[1];

                WriteSupportedContentTypes(url, ctName);
            }
            else
            {
                WriteUsage();
            }
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Show the command usage on the console.
        /// </summary>
        private static void WriteUsage()
        {
            Console.WriteLine();
            Console.WriteLine("Barkes SharePoint Utilities");
            Console.WriteLine();
            Console.WriteLine("SPGetSupportedContentTypes url content_type_name");
            Console.WriteLine();
            Console.WriteLine("SPGetSupportedContentTypes http://myserver/mysite MyContentType");
            Console.WriteLine();
        }

        private static void WriteSupportedContentTypes(string url, string ctName)
        {
            try
            {
                using (SPSite site = new SPSite(url))
                {
                    SPWebCollection webs = site.AllWebs;

                    Console.WriteLine("ctype.Id\tctype.Name\tlist.ID\tlist.DefaultViewUrl");

                    foreach (SPWeb web in webs)
                    {
                        foreach (SPList list in web.Lists)
                        {
                            foreach (SPContentType ctype in list.ContentTypes)
                            {
                                if (ctype.Name == ctName)
                                {
                                    Console.WriteLine("{0}, {1}, {2}, {3}", ctype.Id, ctype.Name, list.ID, list.DefaultViewUrl);
                                    Console.WriteLine();
                                }
                            }
                        }

                        web.Dispose();
                    }
                }
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("An error occurred: ");
                Console.WriteLine(ex.Message);
                Console.WriteLine(ex.StackTrace);
            }
        }
    }
}