Question

I have a few generic questions about what are the best practices for SharePoint(2010).

I am currently implementing a feature that requires me to fetch information from a list. I am not quite sure on how to manage these information. I created a class that helps me manage theses information (User.cs). I have a getter in the class that currently searches for a value in a specific list. How should i handle the value ? Should i keep it in a member and refresh only when its subject to changes or should i refresh the value from the list each time i get it ?

private void doesUserHasActivities(){
      using(SPSite site = new SPSite("http://vmsharepoint2010/")){
          using(SPWeb web = site.openWeb("http://vmsharepoint2010/")){
              SPList list = web.list["Users"];
              SPListItem user;
              /*Information values is refresh each time its accessed, is this bad ?*/
              for(int i=0; i < list.items.length; i++){
                  user = list.item[i];
                  string accName = user["Acc_Name"];
                  if(accName == this.providedAccountname){//providedAccountname from a TextBox
                      //found the user i wanted into the list
                      //look if the list has data
                      bool hasActivities = user["Activities"] != null;
                  }
              }
          }
      }
}

Also, is there other ways to access specific data, in this case the activities list without looping through each rows trying to match the correct user and then looking up the values in the activities list ?

Can i store the row itself as a member for my meta data ? Will my reference still point to the row of the user list i want to if another user is added ?

Answer 1

You’ll need to learn CAML and perform a CAML query.

Create an SPQuery object. Set it’s Query property to be what you need it to be, then use list.getItems(SPQuery query) to get just the items that match your query.

You can figure out the CAML for it yourself; you’ll need to learn it if you want to deal with SharePoint code at all. There is lots of information on basic syntax, and tools for helping auto-generate it based on more user friendly syntax.

The items won’t update dynamically when items are added to the list or updated in the list; you will need to re-run the query.