LINQ TO SharePoint [SPMETAL.EXE]-PART-I

In this blog post i am going to show how to query SharePoint custom list  using LINQ to SharePoint providers. To query SharePoint list using LINQ to SharePoint first we need to create strongly typed classes using SPMETAL.EXE then we can able to program against SharePoint list.

LINQ to SharePoint provides

1) Strongly-typed queries and Intelligence Help while building Query.

2) Compile-time Check.

and LINQ to SharePoint going to get rid of CAML ( Collaborative Application Markup Language ) .

Steps to follow to do LINQ to SharePoint

1) Pass a SharePoint site or site collection URL  as parameter to SPMETAL.EXE command like utility.  you can find this utility  at 14 hives dir

(C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\BIN)

2) SPMETAL will Generates Strongly typed entity classes for all  items ( TASKS, LIST, CALNDER etc..)  and emits DataContext   class.

3) Refer this DataContext class in any project and reference Microsoft.SharePoint.Linq.dll. now you can start doing LINQ to SharePoint

SPMETAL.EXE  Parameter Syntax

SPMETAL /web <SiteUrl> /namespace:<NamespaceName>  /code:<outputfilename.cs>

Here is the my site which has custom list

SPMETAL /web:http://localhost:44119/ /namespace:SreeniContacts  /code:SreeniLinqCtx.cs 

LINQ to SharePoint Query  (  Console application project )

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using SreeniContacts;

namespace ConsoleApplication3
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            SreeniLinqCtxDataContext ctx = new SreeniLinqCtxDataContext("http://localhost:44119/");

            var query = from contact in ctx.Sreenicontacts 
                        where contact.Title =="Manager"
                        select contact;
            foreach (var item in query)
            {
                Console.WriteLine(item.Title +" "+ item.Fname +"  "+ item.Lname +"  "+ item.Phone );
            }
        }
    }
}

NOTE: choose Any CPU as your Platform targets otherwise you get the following error. 

Right click the project select properties set Platform Targets as Any CPU. 

DataContext object will keep tracks of entity changes. using DataContext object we can do CURD operations on the list.

Part-II we will see how we can add Items to custom list using DataContext object.

Nandri(Thanks)

SreenivasaRagavan.