Content Types in MOSS 2007
In this article I will try to describe the one of the best feature in Microsoft office Share Point 2007 called Content Types.
Content types are simply collection of contents.Each content in a Content type can have different settings.Basically it is a reusable collection of settings which you want to apply to a particular category of contents.
Simply, We can map different content types(with different settings or templates or metadata) to a document library and create new/upload documents in any one of the content type.
Usually content types inherit its parent content type settings. There are four parent content types they are Document, Folder, Lists and Special.
Let me explain this feature and advantages of Contet Type with an example.
Assume that we need to create document library for following two different documents with the respective custom column and template...
Document Type 1: “Employee Severance Policy” with metadata “Business Group ”
Document Type 2: “Contingent Worker Expense” with metadata “Region .
In this scenario in SPS 2003 we are forced to create two different document libraries for above documents as their metadata and the template is different. But in MOSS 2007 its not required to have two different document libraries as we could able to store in a same document library by using Content Types feature.
Creating Content Type for “Employee Severance Policy”
Let me create a Content Type for “Employee Severance Policy” and “Contingent Worker Expense” documents.
From Main Page Go to SiteActions -> SiteSettings ->
Clik ‘SiteContentType’ (Under Galleries Section)
Click Create new in site content type gallery…
Enter the new content type Name ,Description and Group. I have selected the new group option and created a new group called ‘Employee Severance Policy ’।
Now clik ok, so the new content type will be created like below…
Now clik ‘Add from new site column’ link under column section to add a new Drop Down column called ‘Business Group’ with the different values like ‘Trade’, ‘Finance’ , ‘Marketing’ , ect.
Click ‘OK’ button to create the new column and it will be under Columns section of ‘Employee Severance Policy’s site content type page…
Click ‘Advanced Settings’ link under Settings section of ‘Employee Severance Policy’s site content type page
In advanced settings page upload the document template file for Employee Severance Policy and click ok…
Finally the new Content Type for ‘Employee Severance Policy’ is created with custom column called ‘Business Group’
Creating Content Type for “Contingent Worker Expense”
Next I’m going to create a Content Type for ‘Contingent Worker Expense’ templates with a custom column called ‘Region’
Click Create new in site content type gallery…
Enter the new content type Name ,Description and Group. I have selected the new group option and created a new group called ‘Contingent Worker Expense’।
Now clik ok, so the new content type will be created like below…
Now clik ‘Add from new site column’ link under column section to add a new Drop Down column called ‘Region’ with the different values like ‘Canada’, ‘India’ , ‘UK’ ,’US’, ect.
The new column will be created after ‘OK’ click. It will be displayed under Columns section of ‘Contingent Worker Expense’s site content type page…
Click ‘Advanced Settings’ link under Settings section of ‘Contingent Worker Expense’s site content type page
In advanced settings page upload the document template file for Contingent Worker Expense and click ok…
Finally the new Content Type for ‘Contingent Worker Expense’ is created with custom column called ‘Region’
Creating Document Library ‘CorpDocLib’, Assigning Content Types ‘Employee Severance Policy’ and ‘Contingent Worker Expense’ for ‘CorpDocLib’.
Frist Lets Create a documents library called ‘CorpDocLib’ and Assign the new ‘Content Types’ for ‘CropDocLib’ document library
Go to Setting-> Document Library Settings of ‘CorpDocLib’
In CropDocLib’s Settings screen click Advanced Setting under General Settings section
In Advanced Settings page, select ‘Allow Management of content types?’ as ‘Yes’ and click ‘Ok’ button….
Now we will be able to see the new section called ‘Content Types’ next to ‘General Settings’ section in setting page of ‘CorpDocLib’
Once the content type section is added, we could be able to assign the content types for the documents library.
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Now click ‘Add from existing site content types’ under ‘Content Types’ section of ‘CropDocLib’s settings page.
In Add content types page select ‘Employee Severance Policy’ and ‘Contingent Worker Expense’ and click add button to get under ‘content types to add’
Now click ‘Ok’ button…
Now both the content types (‘Employee Severance Policy’ and ‘Contingent Worker Expense’) should be under ‘Content Types’ Section and both the custom columns( ‘Business Group’ and ‘Region’) should be under ‘Columns’ section।
Uploading Documents for Content Types ‘Employee Severance Policy’ and ‘Contingent Worker Expense’ in ‘CropDocLib’ document library।
Go to ‘CorpDocLib’ document library , Click ‘Upload’ -> ‘UploadDocument’ , browse the document to be uploaded and click ok
Now we will get the ‘edit item’ screen where in we will be asked to select the content type for the uploaded document with an warning message ‘The document was uploaded successfully. Use this form to update the properties of the document.’
Select the content type ‘Contingent Worker Expense’ for the uploaded document
Now we be able to see the custom field ‘Region’ which we have added for ‘Contingent Worker Expense’ content type.
Select a value for custom field ‘Region’and click ok.
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Repeat the same for ‘Employee Severance Policy’ (upload a new Employee Severance Policy document, select the value for custom field ‘Business Groups’ and click ok)
Now the document library ‘CropDocLib’ has two documents with two different templates assigned to it…।
