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New Post: Project SPListItem to a strongly typed class

sadomovalex — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 06:27:29 GMT

hi cadrell0,
this is interesting idea. But use case is not very clear at the moment. If we are talking about SPMetal strongly-generated class, then most probably developers will use Linq 2 Sharepoint. So probably this feature will help in situations when we create POC class and map SPListItem to it by ourselves (I don't think people will create strongly-typed classes which will be only used for writing strongly-typed queries with Camlex). Do you have other scenarios, where this feature will help?

In general it should be possible to implement it, although I can't say at the moment how easy it will be. For SPListItem we currently use indexer operations, so we will need to add support for retrieving property names. Will add this feature to the [Future improvements](camlex.codeplex.com/wikipage?title=Future improvements), but there are other features in the queue now. You may send pull requests and I will review it.

I've just tried to download the source code (from Source code) - it works. So may be it was temporary problem on Codeplex.

New Post: Project SPListItem to a strongly typed class

cadrell0 — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 13:48:32 GMT

I'm completely new to SharePoint, so you'll have to forgive me if this is a completely ridiculous idea, however, I'm going to ask anyway.

How hard would it be to use strongly typed classes to generate the query rather than basing everything off of SPListItem?

Instead of

var caml =
    Camlex.Query()
        .Where(x => (string)x["Status"] == "New")
        .ToString();

I'm thinking something like

    Camlex.Query<MyClass>()
        .Where(x => x.Status == "New")
        .ToString();

MyClass would look something like

    public class MyClass
    {
        public string Status { get; set; }
    }

Because Where takes an Expression, it shouldn't be hard to extract the property Name or Type.

I was going to look how you are building the CAML to see how feasible this is, but I get an error on the Source Code page. Not sure if that is a CodePlex issue or something on your end.

New Post: Camlex and Joins

sadomovalex — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 21:40:07 GMT

hi ibragimdeltorro,
no news yet unfortunately about this functionality. In nearest releases I'm planning to add other features for SP2010 (e.g. In clause), joins will go after it. But can't provide exact date due to the extremely high workload. Also I reconsidered the plans about separate branches for different Sharepoint version - most probably it will be still separate branches for different APIs only (basic OM and client OM) as it is now.
Also remember that you always may send pull request by yourself.

New Post: Camlex and Joins

ibragimdeltorro — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 10:19:48 GMT

whats news?

New Post: download camlex reverse engineering offline

sadomovalex — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 08:20:36 GMT

hi kavalirakesh,
Camlex.NET.dll contains base for reverse engineering: transformation from CAML to expression tree. After that it is up to you how you will use this expression tree. One of the application - is to generate C# code as we did on the http://camlex-online.org. C# generation from expression tree is not part of Camlex and we won't include it here. We used another open source project expression2code for it (with several changes). Another application of reverse engineering - add conditions into existing string queries using lambda expressions. And there will be more in future.

New Post: download camlex reverse engineering offline

kavalirakesh — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 07:25:13 GMT

HI

camlex is excelent product saved my time to create dynamic CAML.
i saw the camlex reverse engineering online its more excellent.
can i use the camlex reverse engineering as offline use.
means like camlex .dll can i download the camlex reverse engineering.
so i can implement in my projects to create bidirectional caml queries.
thanks
rakesh

New Post: Adding expressions to dynamically built multiple in clauses

sadomovalex — Sun, 03 Feb 2013 18:17:44 GMT

yes, as I wrote above In is not supported yet.

New Post: Adding expressions to dynamically built multiple in clauses

rjn71 — Fri, 01 Feb 2013 21:55:47 GMT

Hi Sadomovalex

I have replaced the In clause with multiple equal expressions combined with a WhereAny clause and it is working fine.

Regards

Rajesh

New Post: Adding expressions to dynamically built multiple in clauses

rjn71 — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 23:39:52 GMT

Hi Sadomovalex

I thought I would build my in query separately and add to other expressions using WhereAny expression as below

string searchQuery = Camlex.Query().WhereAny(inQuery, searchExpressions).ToString();

When I do this, I get the below exception.

WHERE tag contain element which can't be translated:
<In>
<FieldRef Name="Location" />
<Values>
<Value Type="MultiChoice">UK</Value>
<Value Type="MultiChoice">USA</Value>
</Values>
</In>

at CamlexNET.Impl.ReverseEngeneering.Caml.Factories.ReAnalyzerFromCamlFactory.getAnalyzerForWhere(XElement el)
at CamlexNET.Impl.ReverseEngeneering.Caml.Factories.ReAnalyzerFromCamlFactory.Create(XElement el)
at CamlexNET.Impl.ReverseEngeneering.Caml.Factories.ReTranslatorFromCamlFactory.Create(String input)
at CamlexNET.Impl.Query.getWhereExpressionFromString(String existingWhere)
at CamlexNET.Impl.Query.WhereAny(String existingWhere, IEnumerable`1 expressions)

Looks like the WhereAny can't combine expressions with dynamically built In query. Am I doing anything wrong? Can't I build "In" query this way and combine with other expressions? If this doesn't work then I will have to go with Contains clause which is supported by Camlex. Please confirm.

Regards

Rajesh

New Post: Adding expressions to dynamically built multiple in clauses

sadomovalex — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 08:19:09 GMT

hi,
I meant that you can downloaded sources from source code and add this method by yourself. The example which I showed above is from source code.
Currently In operation is not supported.

New Post: Adding expressions to dynamically built multiple in clauses

rjn71 — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 00:08:14 GMT

Hi Sadomovalex

Thanks for your reply, unfortunately I didn't follow it properly. I couldn't find the method getWhereExpressionFromString anywhere. I couldn't find this method in Camlex.Query().

Btw, does the above method convert the where clause into an expression if it contains "In" clause?

Thanks

New Post: Adding expressions to dynamically built multiple in clauses

sadomovalex — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 20:50:24 GMT

Rajesh hi,

currently no, it is not supported. But it is definitely interesting feature and I think it will be useful to add it to one of the next releases. It should not be complicated, so you can do it by yourself if will check implementation of WhereAny method:

public IQuery WhereAny(string existingWhere, IEnumerable<Expression<Func<SPListItem, bool>>> expressions)
{
    var whereExpr = this.getWhereExpressionFromString(existingWhere);
    var exprs = new List<Expression<Func<SPListItem, bool>>>(expressions);
    exprs.Add(whereExpr);
    return this.WhereAny(exprs);
}

I.e. if you will have several string queries, you can call getWhereExpressionFromString() method for each, insert them to list and then call original WhereAny() method as in the example above.

New Post: Adding expressions to dynamically built multiple in clauses

rjn71 — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 21:50:36 GMT

I'm building a query dynamically and there are a few fields which need "In" clause query. Since the Camlex expressions do not support In clause yet, I'm building the in claues separately as a where query. I have a couple of fields on which I'm creating this. I see that WhereAny takes an existing query, but only one query can be passed. Is there a way to pass multiple where caluses to existing expressions?

Regards

Rajesh

New Post: this support Author Lookup Field Query?

jinho — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 04:37:53 GMT

I find this http://camlex.codeplex.com/discussions/264821 ,

string caml = Camlex.Query().Where(x => x["Author"] == (DataTypes.UserId)"123").ToString();

and

string caml = Camlex.Query().Where(x => x["Author"] == (DataTypes.Integer)Camlex.UserID).ToString();

cool, thanks;

New Post: this support Author Lookup Field Query?

Jinho — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 04:33:23 GMT

Camlex.net how do like this CAML Query：

int _id=web.EnsureUser("loginName").ID;
SPQuery query = new SPQuery();
query.Query = @"<Where><Eq><FieldRef Name='Author' LookupId='TRUE' /><Value Type='Integer'>" + _id + @"</Value></Eq></Where><OrderBy><FieldRef Name='Created' Ascending='False' /></OrderBy>";

thanks.

New Post: Dynamic Caml expression - Contains clause

rjn71 — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 22:08:21 GMT

Hi Sadomovalex

Thanks for the reply and your approach. I guess I'll go with the one supported by Camlex. I don't think there's any downside to using all types as string(first one in the example) as opposed to SharePoint types(second one in the example).

Regards

Rajesh

New Post: Dynamic Caml expression - Contains clause

sadomovalex — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 20:37:47 GMT

hi Rajesh,

example with Contains can't be done exactly like you want. There are several reasons. First reason comes from C#: you can't cast object to type like this:

Type t = typeof(Foo);
object o = ...;
((t)o).MethodFromFooClass();

But this problem can be avoided: you need to separate list of expressions for each type like this:

public struct SearchField<T> where T : StringBasedFieldType
{
    public string FieldName { get; set; }
}

...

string searchText = "test";
var searchFields1 = new List<SearchField<DataTypes.Text>>
    {
        new SearchField<DataTypes.Text>{FieldName = "Title1"},
        new SearchField<DataTypes.Text>{FieldName = "Title2"},
    };
var searchFields2 = new List<SearchField<DataTypes.Note>>
    {
        new SearchField<DataTypes.Note>{FieldName = "Note1"},
        new SearchField<DataTypes.Note>{FieldName = "Note2"},
    };
var searchConditions = getExpressions(searchFields1, searchText);
searchConditions.AddRange(getExpressions(searchFields2, searchText));
Console.WriteLine(Camlex.Query().WhereAny(searchConditions).ToString());

...

public static List<Expression<Func<SPListItem, bool>>> getExpressions<T>(List<SearchField<T>> searchFields, string searchText)
    where T : StringBasedFieldType
{
    var result = new List<Expression<Func<SPListItem, bool>>>();
    foreach (var searchField in searchFields)
    {
        string fieldName = searchField.FieldName;
        result.Add(x => ((T)x[fieldName]).Contains(searchText));
    }
    return result;
}

As you can see in this example we have 2 lists with search fields: one for DataTypes.Text and another for DataTypes.Note. Then we create search conditions from each list and merge results. It produces the following Caml:

<Where>
  <Or>
    <Or>
      <Or>
        <Contains>
          <FieldRef Name="Title1" />
          <Value Type="Text">test</Value>
        </Contains>
        <Contains>
          <FieldRef Name="Title2" />
          <Value Type="Text">test</Value>
        </Contains>
      </Or>
      <Contains>
        <FieldRef Name="Note1" />
        <Value Type="Note">test</Value>
      </Contains>
    </Or>
    <Contains>
      <FieldRef Name="Note2" />
      <Value Type="Note">test</Value>
    </Contains>
  </Or>
</Where>

But then we have another problem: currently in Camlex method Contains is defined only for types which inherit DataTypes.StringBasedFieldType. There are only 2 such types: DataTypes.Text and DataTypes.Note. And it is quite logical, because Contains and BeginWith methods are used with strings. I don't think we want to change it. However you may get source code and change it by yourself: inherit DataTypes.Choice and DataTypes.User from DataTypes.StringBasedFieldType and then use my example.

Another way is to convert Caml query to xml using ToCaml() method and change type attribute using linq2xml.

About another your questions:

a. If I understood your question correctly yes it is possible starting from 3.2 version where we implemented support of adding dynamic conditions to existing string queries. You can find examples here: http://sadomovalex.blogspot.fi/2012/06/camlexnet-32-add-expressions-to.html. However if you just have list of conditions and want to add more conditions to it you can do that by the same way as in the example above.

b. No, In clause is not supported yet (Camlex was created for Sharepoint 2007, while In clause was introduced in Sharepoint 2010. But we still want to have compatibility. For implementing it I most probably will create separate branch for Sharepoint 2007, while branch for Sharepoint 2010 will be used as base), but it will be next feature which I'm going to implement.

New Post: Dynamic Caml expression - Contains clause

rjn71 — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 14:13:11 GMT

First of all thanks for building such a great tool and making life easy. I need some help in building a dynamic Contains query.

I'm building a dynamic caml expression for searching a list on multiple columns. User would type a text and select one or more columns from the list. Columns can be of type text, note, Choice, lookup, User etc. Entered text should be searched on all these columns.

I see that there's no way to specify column type while building a Contains expression.

for e.g. the below code treats all columns to be of type text

List<Expression<Func<SPListItem, bool>>> searchConditions = null;
if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(searchText) && searchFields != null)
{
    searchConditions = new List<Expression<Func<SPListItem, bool>>>();
    foreach (SearchField searchField in searchFields)
    {
         string fieldName = searchField.FieldName;
         searchConditions.Add(x => ((string)x[fieldName]).Contains(searchText));
    }
}

Suppose I am searching on 3 columns - Title(Text), Brand(Lookup) and Created By(User), using a Or query I'll get this caml query generated

<Where>
    <Or>
       <Contains>
          <FieldRef Name="Title" />
          <Value Type="Text">Some text</Value>
       </Contains>
       <Or>
          <Contains>
             <FieldRef Name="Brand" />
             <Value Type="Text">Some text</Value>
          </Contains>
          <Contains>
             <FieldRef Name="Author" />
             <Value Type="Text">Some text</Value>
          </Contains>
      </Or>
    </Or>
</Where>

In the query above, everywhere column type is "Text". Is it possible to get the actual types as below? Is there any downside if I go with the above?

<Where>
    <Or>
       <Contains>
          <FieldRef Name="Title" />
          <Value Type="Text">Some text</Value>
       </Contains>
       <Or>
          <Contains>
             <FieldRef Name="Brand" />
             <Value Type="Choice">Some text</Value>
          </Contains>
          <Contains>
             <FieldRef Name="Author" />
             <Value Type="User">Some text</Value>
          </Contains>
      </Or>
    </Or>
</Where>

Any help is much appreciated.

Regards

Rajesh

New Post: Why do I get "not supported " exception in the 2nd block of code

sadomovalex — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 12:29:07 GMT

senglory hi,

in CAML there are no options for specifying should query be case sensitive or not. Camlex is a tool which simplifies creation of CAML queries, but it doesn't extends the CAML. I.e. all limitations of CAML are still here. So your 2nd syntax is not correct.

By default CAML queries are case insensitive and you don't need to do extra steps for this. If it doesn't in your case (otherwise you would not worry about that I guess), then probably collation of your content database was changed from CI (case insensitive) to CS (case sensitive). You should investigate the reasons of this.

More often people ask how to make search via SPQuery case sensitive. In order to do that you have to retrieve items using case insensitive CAML and then additionally filter them in memory.

New Post: Why do I get "not supported " exception in the 2nd block of code

senglory — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 08:14:50 GMT

                        var lst2 = web.Lists["Виды документов"];
                        var nameFieldName = lst2.Fields["Название"].InternalName;
                        var name1 = "";
                        SPQuery search;
                        string caml1;

                        name1 = "Изменение банковских реквизитов контрагента";
                        caml1 = Camlex.Query().Where(x => ((string)x[nameFieldName]) == name1).ToString();

This code works fine, no run-time exceptions. But this:

                        var lst2 = web.Lists["Виды документов"];
                        var nameFieldName = lst2.Fields["Название"].InternalName;
                        var name1 = "";
                        SPQuery search;
                        string caml1;

                        name1 = "Изменение банковских реквизитов контрагента";
                        caml1 = Camlex.Query().Where(x => ((string)x[nameFieldName]).ToUpper() == name1.ToUpper()).ToString();

tells me something unclear about incorrect syntax or similar. I wonder why and how to have case-insensitive strings comparison in Camlex?