If you try to use an "Out-of-the-Box" content type as an example, you may get confused. For this example, I'm going to use a template to make it easier on us. This example will show you how to create a content type using the base Document content type to store presentations.
First, I'm going to select SharePoint from my project types, and select an Empty template.
After I name it, I'm going to add a new item to the project. We're going to select Content Type and name it Presentation.
A Content Type Settings window will open and it will contain a dropdown with a list of base content types. We're going to select Document. If you want, you can add an event receiver if you'd like to write custom code that will do some work with the fields in your content type. I'm not going to do that in this demo.
When you click OK in the Content Type Settings window, the following xml template will be created. Notice that there are 2 sections that are commented out. These locations are where we are going to define the fields that are associated with our content type. In the FieldRef's section, we only need to provide the Fields with a name and id. The second commented section contains the details, like the underlying name and the type.
First things first. Let's remove the 1st comment and add 3 fields. Location, PresentationType, and Presenter. Give each field a unique GUID.
Now we can provide the details. Remove the 2nd commented section and add the following code. The attributes are identical to the commented code that you just removed. Make sure the GUID's provided in this section match the corresponding fieldRef's GUID. Notice that the first field is a Single line text, the second field is a Choice, and the third is a Person or Group field. Pay attention to The Choice field. You'll need to add a Choices child element that contains each choice. As you can see, the choices that I'm adding are "Business" and "Classroom".
Now we can create our feature file to deploy our feature. Nothing out of the ordinary here.
When we install and activate our feature, the new Presentation content type will be available. Make sure you go to the document library settings and make sure that you allow the document library to manage content types. [See: Content Types - What and Why? for more information on this]
You can see Presentation available in the menu below.
When I click on the menu item, a new document will open with the new fields in the DIP. Notice that a dropdown is available for our choice field and Presenter has its own controls for searching/verifying usernames.
That wasn't so bad. Take a peak at some of the default content types in the FEATURES folder of the 12 hive. They're scary.Labels: Developer
