CAML, IntApp, SharePoint

I just got done doing a bunch of work in IntApp Integration Builder where I had to do things like reading/updating SharePoint lists and libraries.

This post/blog is never going to be highly detailed in any one area. I have no interest in explaining CAML, XML, IntApp, web services, logic, etc. There are plenty of resources online to find out how to write a CAML query. The reason I write this stuff down at all is because I have spent a lot of time looking for solutions that have been solved by others... but they don't usually share the information. Lots of questions with few answers. The goal here is to share the answers that I've found so someone else doesn't have to go through the try/fail/try again steps to get the answer.


If you use IntApp, they have a lot of great resources. You'll need to sign up on their customer community portal, but you can then find templates for solutions. This is the barebones "here is how we did this" kind of template that lets you skip past the first 20% of the setup.

So here are the basics:

SharePoint Web Services:
Every MS SharePoint site has a set of web services.
You can access them via URL by adding "_vti_bin/lists.asmx" to the end of your site URL like this:

http://yoursite/_vti_bin/lists.asmx

You'll need to us WSDL format (web services description language) so you add "?wsdl" to the end of the URL.

http://yoursite/_vti_bin/lists.asmx?wsdl

"Lists.asmx" is one of many web services. Lists.asmx gives you access to the lists in your SharePoint site. A library is a sub-type of list, so from now on, I'll just call it a list.

On to the CAML:
(Collaborative Application Markup Language)


You'll need a SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) wrapper around your query.

<soap12:Envelope xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:soap12="http://www.w3.org/2003/05/soap-envelope">
     <soap12:Body>
          Your web service call goes here
     </soap12:Body>
</soap12:Envelope>

 You'll also need the web service call. Each web service has multiple functions. I'll use "GetListItems" as the example. The name should be self-explanatory... it "Get"s a "List"s "Items". At least one piece of information you need... "listName" is the GUID of  the list or library that you wish to query.

 <GetListItems xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/soap/">
     <listName>_YOURLISTGUID_</listName>
     <viewName>_YOURVIEWGUID_</viewName>
     Your CAML query goes here (or somewhere in the "GetListItems" tag.) The order shouldn't matter)
     <ViewFields>
          <FieldRef Name="ID" />
          <FieldRef Name="Title" />
          <FieldRef Name="yourfield" />
          ...etc
     </ViewFields>
     <rowLimit>0</rowLimit>
</GetListItems>

Quirk #1:
When querying a SharePoint web service, the "ViewFields" don't matter. You need to have the tag there, and it can be empty "<ViewFields></ViewFields>", but don't bother listing the fields you want to have returned in the dataset. The fields that are returned are defined in the view.
The "viewName" GUID is optional. If you leave it out, the list's "default" view will be used and you will only be able to access the fields that are returned in that default view. So if you've added a custom column into your list and it's not in the default view, you will need to add it there or create another view containing the fields you need and then use "viewName" to tell the web service which view to return.

** How you find your SharePoint list or view GUID? **

OK, So new we just need a query. There a lot of good resources online to figure out how to write a CAML query.

Quirk #2:
Normally your CAML query is wrapped in this:

<Query>...</Query>

With these web services you'll need to put an extra <query> tag (lower-case "q") wrapping the whole thing, like this:

<query><Query>...</Query></query>

If you don't do this, your query will be ignored, the web service will be called, and your dataset will be all values from the view sorted in the default sort order for the view that you've chosen (or the default view if you've not set a viewName GUID). If you've got data returned and the filter or sort doesn't work, this is probably why.


By the way the "<rowLimit>" tag works just fine. Use "0" to return all, or another number to limit the dataset to that number of records.


Here are some MORE TIPS for working with IntApp Relationship Builder and SharePoint web services.