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Writing CAML Queries For Retrieving List Items from a SharePoint List.

Introduction:

The Collaborative Application Markup Language (CAML) is an XML-based query


language that helps you querying, building and customizing Web sites based on
Windows SharePoint Services.

I will explain in detail how to build and execute CAML queries to retrieve list items
from a SharePoint list.

List items can be retrieved in several different ways:

using the SharePoint object model,

SharePoint Lists web service,

PowerShell.

Use the SharePoint object model when your code runs on the server (like f.e. when
you’re developing a web part or an application page).

Use the SharePoint Web Services when your code doesn’t run on the server where
SharePoint is installed, for example when you develop office clients or windows
applications.

PowerShell can be used by administrators when they quickly need to retrieve some
information. In any way the CAML query is the same.

Building the CAML:

CAML is an XML-based query language. Its root element is Query. Within


the Query element two other elements are possible but not required:
the OrderBy element and the Where element.

The OrderBy element is the simplest one. It is used to sort the returning list items.
You have to specify the field(s) on which you want to sort the items and the sort
direction. The syntax looks as follows:
<OrderBy>
<FieldRef Name='LastName' Ascending='False' />
</OrderBy>
The OrderBy clause is not required and you can specify one or more fields on
which you want to sort. If you omit the Ascending attribute, your resulting rows will
be sorted in ascending order. If you want to order in descending order you have to
specify Ascending=’False’.

The Where clause is used to specify one or more filter criteria. This clause can be
very simple but can end up being rather complex. In its most simple form you
specify an operator, a field name for which you want to specify a criterion, and a
value.
<Where>
<Eq>
<FieldRef Name='LastName' />
<Value Type='Text'>Janssens</Value>
</Eq>
</Where>

Operators:

You have different operators:

Eq Equals

Neq Not equal

Gt Greater than

Geq Greater than or equal

Lt Lower than

Leq Lower than or equal too

IsNull Is null

BeginsWith Begins with

Contains Contains

Fields:

The FieldRef element can be any field of the list on which you want to execute the
CAML query. If you use the Name attribute you need to specify the internal name
of the field. But you can also use the ID attribute to specify the Guid of the field.

Value:

The Value element specifies the value part of the criterion. The attribute Type is
optional and specifies the data type of the field you want to specify the criterion for.
If omitted the data type is considered as being Text. In all other cases you have to
specify the Type attribute.

If the field type is a Lookup you need to specify the text value. For example you
have an Employees list and the Country field is a lookup field referring to the
Countries list. In that case an employee living in Belgium will have f.e. following
value: #15;Belgium. If you have to query for the employees living in Belgium you
will have to write your query as follows:

<Where>
<Eq>
<FieldRef Name='Country' />
<Value Type='Lookup'>Belgium</Value>
</Eq>
</Where>

You can find this not good coding practice because the name of the country can
change in time. In that case you can also query on the id of the country specifying
the LookupId attribute in the FieldRef element:

<Where>
<Eq>
<FieldRef Name='Country' LookupId='True' />
<Value Type='Lookup'>15</Value>
</Eq>
</Where>

If you want to specify two filter criteria you also have to specify a join
operator And or Or.

<Where>
<And>
<Eq>
<FieldRef Name='LastName' />
<Value Type='Text'>Janssens</Value>
</Eq>
<Geq>
<FieldRef Name='Age' />
<Value Type='Number'>21</Value>
</Geq>
</And>
</Where>

If you want to specify more filter criteria you have to nest them in a very specific
way:

<Where>
<And>
<And>
<Eq>
<FieldRef Name='LastName' />
<Value Type='Text'>Janssens</Value>
</Eq>
<Geq>
<FieldRef Name='Age' />
<Value Type='Number'>21</Value>
</Geq>
</And>
<Lt>
<FieldRef Name='Age' />
<Value Type='Number'>60</Value>
</Lt>
<And>
</Where>

For each extra criterion you have to add an extra join operator at the outside of the
query and add the criterion at the end:

<Where>
<And>
<And>
<And>
<Eq>
<FieldRef Name='LastName' />
<Value Type='Text'>Janssens</Value>
</Eq>
<Geq>
<FieldRef Name='Age' />
<Value Type='Number'>21</Value>
</Geq>
</And>
<Lt>
<FieldRef Name='Age' />
<Value Type='Number'>60</Value>
</Lt>
</And>
<Eq>
<FieldRef Name='Country' />
<Value Type='Lookup'>Belgium</Value>
</Lt>
</And>
</Where>

Retrieving List Items with CAML using the SharePoint Object Model:

If you need to retrieve items from a list when developing web parts, application
pages or custom field types you can best use the SPQuery object from the
SharePoint object model.
This object is located in the Microsoft. SharePoint namespace of
the Microsoft.SharePoint.dll located in the Global Assembly Cache.
Instantiate the object as follows:

SPQuery qry = new SPQuery();


The most important property is the Query property, which needs to be set to your
CAML query:
string camlquery = "<OrderBy><FieldRef Name='Country'
/></OrderBy><Where>"
+ "<Eq><FieldRef Name='LastName' /><Value
Type='Text'>Smith</Value></Eq>"
+ </Where>";
qry.Query = camlquery;
At this point you can execute the query on your list:

SPListItemCollection listItemsCollection = list.GetItems(qry);


A small remark with the GetItems method of the SPList instance: this method
returns a collection of type SPListItemCollection. It is possible that it is easier
working with a DataTable.
In that case you can execute the query as follows:
DataTable listItemsTable = list.GetItems(qry).GetDataTable();

The query will not only return all list items that have their last name set to Smith,
but also all columns of each list item. In cases you work with large lists it can be
important to retrieve a subset of list items containing only the columns you need.
In that case you will have to set the ViewFields property of the SPQuery object.
You can do this by specifying all columns you want to see returned:
qry.ViewFields = "<FieldRef Name='FirstName' /><FieldRef Name='LastName' />";
This will return the first name and the last name of the retrieved employees, but
also the system fields like the ID and the Created date.

The major disadvantage of the SPQuery object is that you can query only one list.
If you want to query more than one list you will have to use
the SPSiteDataQuery.

It is common knowledge by now but let me remind you that it’s always a good idea
to use SPQuery to retrieve a subset of list items. You can loop through the list item
collection to find the list items that match your needs but this will have a serious
negative impact on the performance of your work.

Retrieving List Items with CAML using the SharePoint Web Services:

If you are developing office clients or any other application that will not run on the
server where SharePoint is installed you will need to use the SharePoint Web
Services to retrieve (or update) information from SharePoint. If you want to query
a list you will need to execute the GetListItems method from theLists.asmx
SharePoint web service.
Working with the SharePoint web services is different in Visual Studio 2005 then in
Visual Studio 2008.

Retrieving List Items from the Lists.asmx using Visual Studio 2005

First you have to reference the web service in your Visual Studio project. If you
work with Visual Studio 2005 you have to add a Web Reference to
theLists.asmx.
Then you have to instantiate the web service and pass the url of the SharePoint
site, plus the location and name of the SharePoint web service. The SharePoint web
services are all located in the ISAPI directory of the SharePoint 12 hive but are
accessible from outside via the _vti_bin directory.

Initialize the Lists.asmx web service:


ListService listsWs = new ListService.Lists();
listsWs.Url = siteUrl + @"/_vti_bin/lists.asmx";
Then you have to set the credentials. In case you don’t need to specify a username
or password you can proceed as follows:

listsWs.Credentials = System.Net.CredentialCache.DefaultCredentials;
If you have to specify a user name and password:

listsWs.Credentials = new System.Net.NetworkCredential(userName, password);


If you also have to specify a domain, use the other overload:

listsWs.Credentials = new System.Net.NetworkCredential(userName, password,


domain);

Then you are ready to call the GetListItems method, which requires the following
syntax:
resultNode = _sharepointSite.ListsWSS.GetListItems(listName, viewName,
queryNode, viewFieldsNode, rowLimit, queryOptionsNode, webID);
Not all arguments are required. Arguments like view name, row limit and web ID
are optional.

The query node argument will contain the CAML query as explained in previous
sections but need to be enclosed within a <Query> and </Query> tag:
XmlDocument camlDocument = new XmlDocument();
XmlNode queryNode = camlDocument.CreateElement("Query");
queryNode.InnerXml = "<OrderBy><FieldRef Name='Country'
/></OrderBy><Where>"
+ "<Eq><FieldRef Name='LastName' /><Value
Type='Text'>Smith</Value></Eq>"
+ </Where>";
The same applies to the ViewFields node:
XmlNode viewFieldsNode = camlDocument.CreateElement("ViewFields");
viewFieldsNode.InnerXml = "<FieldRef Name='FirstName' />"
+ "<FieldRef Name='LastName' />";
As you will have noticed, you also need a QueryOptions node. This node will be
explained later in this series. If you have no QueryOptions to specify you can pass
in an empty node:
XmlNode queryOptionsNode = camlDocument.CreateElement("QueryOptions");
Retrieving List Items from the Lists.asmx using Visual Studio 2008

But in case you are working with Visual Studio 2008 you will have to add a Service
Reference to theLists.asmxweb service. If you don’t want to work asynchronously
you have to uncheck the Generate Asynchronous Operations option in
the Advanced dialog. When closing the dialog box Visual Studio automatically adds
an app.config or web.config file. Open this file and locate the security section.
The following XML is generated automatically:
<security mode="None">
<transport clientCredentialType="None" proxyCredentialType="None"
realm="" />
<message clientCredentialType="UserName" algorithmSuite="Default" />
</security>
Replace it with the following:

<security mode="TransportCredentialOnly">
<transport clientCredentialType="Ntlm"/>
</security>
Return to your code and instantiate the web service:

ListsWS.ListsSoapClient ws = new ListsWS.ListsSoapClient();


You also have to set the necessary credentials. If you can work with the default
credentials you can write the following:

ws.ClientCredentials.Windows.ClientCredential =
System.Net.CredentialCache.DefaultNetworkCredentials;
ws.ClientCredentials.Windows.AllowedImpersonationLevel =
System.Security.Principal.TokenImpersonationLevel.Impersonation;
If necessary you can also pass user name, password and domain:

ws.ClientCredentials.Windows.ClientCredential =
new System.Net.NetworkCredential("Administrator", "secret", "U2UCOURSE");
ws.ClientCredentials.Windows.AllowedImpersonationLevel =
System.Security.Principal.TokenImpersonationLevel.Impersonation;
If necessary you can set the URL to the web service dynamically:

ws.Endpoint.Address =
new System.ServiceModel.EndpointAddress(
"http://wss.u2ucourse.com/_vti_bin/lists.asmx");

Now you are ready to call the GetListItems method of the web service. There is no
difference in calling this method from within Visual Studio 2005:
XmlDocument camlDocument = new XmlDocument();
XmlNode queryNode = camlDocument.CreateElement("Query");
queryNode.InnerXml = "<OrderBy><FieldRef Name='Country'
/></OrderBy><Where>"
+ "<Eq><FieldRef Name='LastName' /><Value
Type='Text'>Smith</Value></Eq>"
+ </Where>";
XmlNode viewFieldsNode = camlDocument.CreateElement("ViewFields");
viewFieldsNode.InnerXml = "<FieldRef Name='FirstName' />"
+ "<FieldRef Name='LastName' />";
XmlNode queryOptionsNode = camlDocument.CreateElement("QueryOptions");
resultNode = _sharepointSite.ListsWSS.GetListItems(listName, viewName,
queryNode, viewFieldsNode, rowLimit, queryOptionsNode, webID);

Query Options

Executing a query is not only about CAML. When working with the SPQuery object
you can set different properties to influence the returned list items. When working
with the SharePoint web services, these options are translated into CAML and are
part of the QueryOptions element.
RowLimit

Setting this property limits the number of rows returned in the result set.

When working with the SPQuery object:


qry.RowLimit = 10;
When working with the GetListItems method of the Lists.asmx web service:
XmlNode queryOptionsNode = camlDocument.CreateElement("QueryOptions");
queryOptionsNode.InnerXml = "<RowLimit>10</RowLimit>";
IncludeMandatoryColumns

When this Boolean property is set to True, the result set will not only return the
columns as defined in theViewFields property, but also the columns that you
defined in the list as required.
When working with the SPQuery object:
qry.IncludeMandatoryColumns = true;
When working with the GetListItems method of the Lists.asmx web service:
XmlNode queryOptionsNode = camlDocument.CreateElement("QueryOptions");
queryOptionsNode.InnerXml =
"<IncludeMandatoryColumns>True</IncludeMandatoryColumns>";
DatesInUtc

Setting this Boolean property specifies whether the query returns dates in
Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) format. The syntax is similar to that of the
previously described property.

ExpandUserField

When you omit this property or set it to false, user fields will return the login name
of the user.

Setting this Boolean property to true (or include it in the QueryOptions node),
user fields are returned as follows:
Karine Bosch,#U2UCOURSE\karine,#karine@U2UCOURSE.COM,#,#Karine Bosch
The returned value includes the login name, e-mail address, Session Initiation
Protocol (SIP) address, and title, when present, which causes a user field to behave
as a multilookup field. The syntax is similar to that of the previously described
property.

Special Types of Queries

Some special types of lists require more specialized CAML queries. In some cases it
only affects the CAML but in other cases you have to set extra SPQuery properties.
If you execute this query against the Listsweb service it will affect another
argument of the GetListItems method, i.e. the QueryOptions argument.

Building queries for working with Folders

A first variant I will explain is how you can work with folders and sub folders. A
folder is a special list item on a list or document library. If you execute a standard
CAML query you will end up with list items from the root folder.

If you want to query all folders and sub folders of a list or document library, you
have to define extra query options. If you are working with the object model you
have to set the ViewAttributes property of theSPQuery object as follows:
qry.ViewAttributes = "Scope='Recursive'";
If you work with GetListItems method of the Lists.asmx SharePoint web service,
you have to define an extra node with the QueryOptions element:
XmlNode queryOptionsNode = camlDocument.CreateElement("QueryOptions");
queryOptionsNode.InnerXml = "<ViewAttributes Scope=\"Recursive\" />";
If you want to query a specific sub folder using the SPQuery object, you have to
set the Folder property:
qry.Folder = list.ParentWeb.GetFolder("Folders DocLib/2008");
When working with the web services you have to do the following:

XmlNode queryOptionsNode = camlDocument.CreateElement("QueryOptions");


queryOptionsNode.InnerXml = "<Folder>Folders DocLib/2008</Folder>";

Building Queries for working with DateTime Values

Filtering on DateTime fields also requires some extra attention. First of all when
querying for a specific date, you have to use the SharePoint datetime notation:
<Where>
<Ge>
<FieldRef Name="StartDate" />
<Value Type="DateTime">2008-08-10T10:00:00Z</Value>
</Ge>
</Where>
But in this case the date is hard coded and the time part will not be taken into
account. This query will return all list items with a start date as of 10 August 2008,
also those starting before 10 o’clock. If you want your query to take into account
the time part, you have to use a special attribute IncludeTimeValue that you can
set on the FieldRef element:
<Where>
<Ge>
<FieldRef Name="StartDate" IncludeTimeValue="TRUE" />
<Value Type="DateTime">2008-08-10T10:00:00Z</Value>
</Ge>
</Where>
This query will return all list items with a start date as of 10 August 10 o’clock.

As already said, this way the date is hard coded. If you want your query a bit more
dynamic, you can always use the element Today.
<Where>
<Ge>
<FieldRef Name="StartDate" />
<Value Type="DateTime"><Today /></Value>
</Ge>
</Where>
Today will not take a time part into account. Unfortunately a Now element doesn’t
exist.
You can also add or subtract a number of days from today’s date. In that case you
have to add the Offset attribute to the Today element. The Offset attribute
accepts a positive value for adding days and a negative value for subtracting days.
<Where>
<Ge>
<FieldRef Name="StartDate" />
<Value Type="DateTime"><Today Offset="10" /></Value>
</Ge>
</Where>

Building Queries for Calendar Lists

Calendar lists also require a little more attention. A calendar list is based on
the Event content type. Normal events can be retrieved with the usual CAML
queries. It’s only when you start working with recurring events (events that occur
once a day or twice a week or month) that you run into problems.
The Event content type defines a field named fRecurrence, which is set to 1 when
a recurring event is created.
Defining a recurring event
When the Calendar view is rendered a recurring event is split into a number of
event instances, one for each recurrence.
Calendar view showing event instances for recurring event
The definition of the recurrence is XML stored in another field defined by the Event
content type, i.e.RecurrenceData. An example of such a definition looks as
follows:
<recurrence>
<rule>
<firstDayOfWeek>su</firstDayOfWeek>
<repeat>
<weekly mo="TRUE" we="TRUE" weekFrequency="1" />
</repeat>
<repeatForever>FALSE</repeatForever>
</rule>
</recurrence>
Fortunately you don’t have to parse the XML yourself to get the actual instances of
the recurring event. You can use a combination of CAML syntax and query options
to achieve this.

When working with the SPQuery object you need to set


the ExpandRecurrences property to true. You also have to specify a date in
the CalendarDate property. This date will be used to compare the recurring event
instances.
Next you have to add a DateRangesOverlap element to the Where clause of the
CAML query. This element is used in queries to compare the dates in a recurring
event with the date specified in theCalendarDateproperty to see whether they
overlap. The CAML looks as follows:
<Where>
<DateRangesOverlap>
<FieldRef Name=\"EventDate\" />
<FieldRef Name=\"EndDate\" />
<FieldRef Name=\"RecurrenceID\" />
<Value Type=\"DateTime\"><Month /></Value>
</DateRangesOverlap>
</Where>
The <Month /> element is used to specify that all occurrences within a month
need to be returned. You can also specify Day, Week or Year.
In case you need to work with the GetListItems method of the Lists.asmx web
service, you translate the query options into XML:
XmlNode queryOptionsNode = camlDocument.CreateElement("QueryOptions");
queryOptionsNode.InnerXml =
"<ExpandRecurrences>TRUE</ExpandRecurrences>"
+ "<CalendarDate>2008-08-12T10:00:00Z</CalendarDate>";

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