Prevent hardcoded SharePoint ID’s in your code

Now and again I come across code with hardcoded SharePoint ID’s in it. Or scary loops matching a field, list or property name.

SharePoint provides some classes containing the out of the box ID’s, you only have to know they exist.

I made an overview so nobody has to hardcode those pesky GUID’s, ContentTypeId’s or property names.

WSS – Microsoft.SharePoint.SPBuiltInFieldId

The SPBuiltInFieldId class contains 314 GUID’s for the default SharePoint fields. You can find them all on the SPBuiltInFieldId fields page, but I name some of the more common ones:

Created
Created_x0020_By
ID
Modified
Modified_x0020_By
Title
UniqueId

WSS – Microsoft.SharePoint.SPBuiltInContentTypeId

The SPBuiltInContentTypeId class contains 34 content type ID’s for the default SharePoint content types. You can find them all on the SPBuiltInContentTypeId fields page, but I name some of the more common ones:

Announcement
Document
Folder
Item
Task

WSS – Microsoft.SharePoint.SPListTemplateType

The SPListTemplateType enumeration is more commonly known and used but what’s more special about this enumeration is to use it in combination with the SPSite.GetCatalog method.

With this method you can easily retrieve the MasterPageCatalog for the current site collection:

var site = SPContext.Current.Site;
var masterPageGallery = site.GetCatalog(SPListTemplateType.MasterPageCatalog)
                                                            as SPDocumentLibrary;
if (masterPageGallery != null)
{
    // DoStuff()
}

The enumerations contains 4 list template ID’s for the default SharePoint catalogs.

ListTemplateCatalog
MasterPageCatalog
WebPartCatalog
WebTemplateCatalog

MOSS – Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.FeatureIds

The FeatureIds class contains 16 GUID’s for the MOSS publishing features. You can find them all on the FeatureIds fields page, but I name the most common ones:

Navigation
Publishing

MOSS – Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.Internal.WssFeatureIds

This class is not documented and the namespace implies it’s internal. The WssFeatureIds class however is public and the only place the 24 WSS feature id’s are available.

Because this class is not documented I list all fields:

AnnouncementsList
BasicWebParts
ContactsList
CustomList
DataConnectionLibrary
DataSourceLibrary
DiscussionsList
DocumentLibrary
EventsList
GanttTasksList
GlobalContentTypes
GlobalFields
GlobalMobilityRedirect
GridList
IssuesList
LinksList
NoCodeWorkflowLibrary
PictureLibrary
SurveysList
TasksList
TeamCollaboration
WebPageLibrary
WorkflowHistoryList
XmlFormLibrary

MOSS – Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.FieldId

The FieldId class contains 61 GUID’s for the publishing fields. You can find them all on the FieldId properties page, but I name some of the more common ones:

Contact
PageLayout
PreviewImage
PublishingPageContent
PublishingPageImage
RollupImage

MOSS – Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.ContentTypeId

The ContentTypeId class contains 10 content type ID’s for the publishing content types. You can find them all on the ContentTypeId properties page, but I name some of the more common ones:

ArticlePage
MasterPage
PageLayout
WelcomePage

MOSS – Microsoft.Office.Server.UserProfiles.PropertyConstants

The PropertyConstants class contains 42 names of the standard user profile properties. You can find them all on the PropertyConstants fields page, but I name some of the more common ones:

BirthDay
CellPhone
Department
FirstName
LastName
Manager
PictureUrl
PreferredName
Title
WorkEmail
WorkPhone