Programatically changing field order in Sharepoint 2007 list

Question

I\'m adding in two new fields into an already existing Sharepoint list programmatically through a feature. The fields are being added successfully but I have been unable to adju

Answer 1

I took a look at the source of the Column ordering page (formEdt.aspx), it looks like they use web services, not the object model:

function DoBuildAndSubmit()
{
    var numFound, currentSelect, selectValue;
    var form = document.forms.aspnetForm;
    var numFields = form["numSelects"].value;
    var xml = "<Fields>";
    numFound = 0;
    while(numFound < numFields)
    {
        for(x = 0; x < numFields; x++)
        {
            currentSelect = form["FormPosition" + x];
            if(currentSelect.selectedIndex == numFound)
            {
                selectValue = currentSelect.options[numFound].value;
                xml = xml + "<Field Name=\"" + selectValue + "\"/>" + "\n";
                numFound++;
            }
        }
    }
    for(x = numFields ; x < 67; x++)
        xml  = xml + "<Field Name=\"" + form["FormPosition" + x].value + "\"/>"  + "\n";
    xml = xml + "</Fields>";
    document.frmLayoutSubmit["ReorderedFields"].value=xml;
    document.frmLayoutSubmit.action = "http://local/_vti_bin/owssvr.dll?CS=65001";
    document.frmLayoutSubmit.submit();
}

Now, it might be possible to do through the object model, but I don't have a good feeling about it when the UI is punting.

Answer 2

I used the code from your answer, except I programmatically examined the content types and fields for the list I wanted to re-order.

//Step 1 (optional): List out the content types and fields for your list to see what is in the list

 SPList list = web.Lists[strListName];

 string strRet="";
 foreach (SPContentType spct in list.ContentTypes)
                {
                    strRet += "<strong>Content Type: </strong>" + spct.Name + ", <strong>Fields</strong>: <br />";
                    foreach (SPField field in spct.Fields)
                    {

                        if (strFieldInfo != "")
                        {
                            strFieldInfo += ", ";
                        }

                        strFieldInfo += "\"" + field.StaticName + "\"";
                    }
                    strRet += strFieldInfo + "<br />-----<br />";
                }

//Output the results
lblOutput.Text = strRet;

Now, you'll have an idea of how many content types your list has and what fields are in the list.

By default, if content type management is not enabled, you'll have one content type that has all the fields.

Sample output from the above code:

Content Type: Event, Fields:

"ContentType", "Title", "Location", "EventDate", "EndDate", "Description", "fAllDayEvent", "fRecurrence", "WorkspaceLink", "EventType", "UID", "RecurrenceID", "EventCanceled", "Duration", "RecurrenceData", "TimeZone", "XMLTZone", "MasterSeriesItemID", "Workspace", "Course", "CourseLocation"

Next Step 2 is to change the order of the content type. You can cut and paste from the output from step 1, re-order it, and add "{" and "};" around it to create the string array for the ordering you want.

 if (list.ContentTypes.Count > 0)
                {

                    SPContentType ct = list.ContentTypes[0]; //Specify the content type here, if you have more than one content type in your list.

                    string[] fieldnames = { "ContentType", "Title", "Course", "CourseLocation",  "EventDate", "EndDate", "Description", "fAllDayEvent", "fRecurrence", "WorkspaceLink", "EventType", "UID", "RecurrenceID", "EventCanceled", "Duration", "RecurrenceData", "TimeZone", "XMLTZone", "MasterSeriesItemID", "Workspace", "Location"};
                    ct.FieldLinks.Reorder(fieldnames);
                    web.AllowUnsafeUpdates = true;
                    ct.Update(true);
                    web.AllowUnsafeUpdates = false;
                }

Answer 3

Here's a powershell version:

# Moves "FieldToBeMoved" after "Description" field
$list = $web.Lists["Documents"]
$ct = $list.ContentTypes[0] # Or find the desired CT

$newOrder = @()
foreach ($field in $ct.Fields)
{
    if ($field.StaticName -ne "FieldToBeMoved")
    {
        $newOrder += $field.StaticName
    }
    if ($field.StaticName -eq "Description")    
    {
        $newOrder += "FieldToBeMoved"
    }
}

$ct.FieldLinks.Reorder($newOrder)
$ct.Update();