Wrapping Your Head Around Content Types MORE THAN JUST DOCUMENTS

Scott Ray Brewster  MCTS SharePoint in 2008  Sec+, ITIL, MOF, CKM  

What is a content type?  “A content type is a reusable collection of metadata (columns), workflow, behavior, and other settings for a category of items or documents in a Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 list or document library. Content types enable you to manage the settings for a category of information in a centralized, reusable way.”  Enterprise (OOTB) Content Types  Site Content Types  List Content Types

Document Content Types  What most of you have seen.  New template or formatted content you use over and over.  Project Plan  Meeting Agenda  Meeting Minutes  Change Request  Invoice  Work Order  Add the template directly to the content type.

Content Type Planning Base Content Type Child 1 CT Child 2 CT Title XXX Filename XXX Choice Column 1 XXX Choice Column 2 XX Choice Column 3 X Mult-line Text Column X Put it all on paper first. Don’t forget to build your look up lists first. Create a base content type for all of your child content types. Think of how you can cascade additional columns to save time at creation. Year-based content types could add a new dynamic, so base FY15 on FY14 and FY16 on FY15 and so on.

Example: Project Plans and Meeting Minutes New Doc Content Type Meeting Minutes Project Plan Title XXX Filename XXX Classification XXX Project XX Document Status X Review Comments X Put it all on paper first. Don’t forget to build your look up lists first. Create a base content type for all of your child content types. Think of how you can cascade additional columns to save time at creation. Year-based content types could add a new dynamic, so base FY15 on FY14 and FY16 on FY15 and so on.

Creating a New Document Content Type

Other Content Types  Take advantage of these.  Does a list look more like a spreadsheet or a database?  Lists are databases; content types are tables.  AllItems.aspx is your join query for all of your tables.  All other views are just different queries.

Example: Contact List ContactVendor Employee Last Name XXX First Name XXX Address XXX Number XXX Company X Product X Business Unit X Manager X Date of Hire X You don’t want to have your team sync 20 different contact lists to Outlook. Must use the Contact list to make the sync. Columns must match Outlook fields. Only use fields in each content type that you must and delete the rest.

Example: Super Calendar EventTDYLeave Title XXX Location XXX Start Time XXX End Time XXX Company Sponsored X Speaking X Leave Type X Emergency POC X Approval XX Overlays have their purposes, but they don’t capture extra metadata. Do you want location for someone’s vacation? Want to be able to use a CQWP to pull all of the vacations on every calendar in the site collection? Want to be able to run a workflow to approve someone’s TDY?

Example: Military Orders Log Just ran into this issue and couldn’t find any help when I searched online or called out for help.

Example: Military Orders Log Just ran into this issue and couldn’t find any help when I searched online or called out for help.

Example: Military Orders Log Just ran into this issue and couldn’t find any help when I searched online or called out for help.

Example: Military Orders Log Just ran into this issue and couldn’t find any help when I searched online or called out for help.

Example: Military Orders Log Just ran into this issue and couldn’t find any help when I searched online or called out for help.

Example: Military Orders Log Just ran into this issue and couldn’t find any help when I searched online or called out for help.

Example: Military Orders Log Just ran into this issue and couldn’t find any help when I searched online or called out for help.

Pittfalls  Calculations will run for content types other than where you want them if you don’t use plenty of IF statements.  Datasheet views can start to play havoc if you have calculations that run on columns where not every content type has them.  No permissions on the content types.   Title is the same for all content types, so it might be best to have some real thought into how you intend to use them.