Add a lookup field to a content type in sharepoint

sharepoint content-type lookup-field
Zarek picture Zarek · Aug 18, 2009 · Viewed 28.7k times · Source

How can I add a lookup field to a content type in sharepoint using the xml definition? (I'm getting errors).

Things to note: - The lookup list will exist when the content type is added to the document library. - The lookup list will always have the same name. - The lookup list has a space in the name.

This is what I've added to the xml:

  <Field ID="{GUID}"
         Type="Lookup"
         List="$Resources:core,lists_Folder;/List%20Name"
         ShowField="Title"
         Name="MyLookupFieldName"
         DisplayName="MyLookupFieldName"
         StaticName="MyLookupFieldName"
         Hidden="FALSE"
         Required="FALSE"
         Sealed="TRUE"
         >

When I then programatically add the content type to a document library I get an exception (with no useful information), and the following is logged to the sharepoint log:

08/18/2009 17:13:39.50 w3wp.exe (0x08B8) 0x11B0 Windows SharePoint Services Database 6f8g Unexpected Unexpected query execution failure, error code 8114. Additional error information from SQL Server is included below. "Error converting data type nvarchar to uniqueidentifier." Query text (if available): "{?=call proc_GetListMetaDataAndEventReceivers(?,?,?,?,?,?)}"

Answer

Ahmed Atia picture Ahmed Atia · Jun 27, 2011

Luckily, in SharePoint 2010, you can declaratively do this by setting all required properities as shown in the following working example.

<Field Type="Lookup" DisplayName="Link Type" Description="Represents link type." 
Required="TRUE" EnforceUniqueValues="FALSE" List="Lists/Links Types" WebId="~sitecollection" 
Overwrite="TRUE" PrependId="TRUE" ShowField="Title" UnlimitedLengthInDocumentLibrary="FALSE" 
Group="Research Links Columns" ID="{a15e9fa2-4ea0-41f1-a583-b21d53cf72d3}" 
SourceID="{30650f6f-fbb8-4acc-a935-29745f5d3c59}" StaticName="Link_x0020_Type" 
Name="Link_x0020_Type" Hidden="FALSE" ReadOnly="FALSE"></Field>

It's important to set WebId to have value of "~sitecollection" and set Overwrite to be TRUE.
More info

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