Base Content Type Hierarchy
Published: May 2010
Available in SharePoint Online
Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 includes many built-in content types. All but one of these content types are derived from other built-in content types, and they can be organized in a hierarchy based on parentage. At the top of the hierarchy is the System content type. Next below System is the Item content type, which is derived from System and from which all other content types ultimately derive.
A partial list of the built-in content types is shown in the following table.
Name | ID |
|---|---|
System | 0x |
Item | 0x01 |
Document | 0x0101 |
Event | 0x0102 |
Issue | 0x0103 |
Announcement | 0x0104 |
Link | 0x0105 |
Contact | 0x0106 |
Message | 0x0107 |
Task | 0x0108 |
Workflow History | 0x0109 |
Post | 0x0110 |
Comment | 0x0111 |
East Asia Contact | 0x0116 |
Folder | 0x0120 |
Notice that many of these base content types correspond to types of lists that you can create. This correspondence is by design. For more information, see Default List Content Types.
You can determine the line of descent for a content type by carefully inspecting its content type ID. For example, notice that all of the content types descended from Item have IDs that begin with the ID for Item. The ID for a child content type is formed by appending information to the ID of the parent content type. For more information, see Content Type IDs.
For a complete list of built-in content types, see the fields of the SPBuiltInContentTypeId class.
The three most important built-in content types are Item, Document, and Folder. The reason these three types are important is that SharePoint Foundation enforces certain rules about how content types that are derived from them can be used. You can assign content types to list items, documents, and folders. However, any content type that you assign to a document library must inherit from Document or from a content type derived from Document. Moreover, any content type that you assign to a list must not derive from Document. The exception to this pair of rules is the Folder content type and its derivatives. Folders can exist on both lists and document libraries.
The built-in content types are organized in groups such as List Content Types, Document Content Types, Folder Content Types, and _Hidden. You can obtain the name of the group that a given content type belongs to by reading the Group property of an SPContentType object in server code or the same property of a ContentType object in client code.
Content types that belong to the "_Hidden" group are not displayed in the user interface for users to apply to lists or use as the basis for other content types. For more information, see Content Type Access Control.
You can find out which content types are available for assignment to lists and libraries, and how they are grouped, by viewing the Site Content Types gallery under Site Settings in the user interface. You can obtain a more complete listing—one that includes hidden content types—by writing server code such as the following console application.
using System; using System.Collections; using Microsoft.SharePoint; namespace Test { class Program { static void Main(string[] args) { using (SPSite site = new SPSite("http://localhost")) { using (SPWeb web = site.OpenWeb()) { // Create a sortable list of content types. ArrayList list = new ArrayList(); foreach (SPContentType ct in web.AvailableContentTypes) list.Add(ct); // Sort the list on group name. list.Sort(new CTComparer()); // Print a report. Console.WriteLine("{0,-35} {1,-12} {2}", "Site Content Type", "Parent", "Content Type ID"); for (int i = 0; i < list.Count; i++) { SPContentType ct = (SPContentType)list[i]; if (i == 0 || ((SPContentType)list[i - 1]).Group != ct.Group) { Console.WriteLine("\n{0}", ct.Group); Console.WriteLine("------------------------"); } Console.WriteLine("{0,-35} {1,-12} {2}", ct.Name, ct.Parent.Name, ct.Id); } } } Console.Write("\nPress ENTER to continue..."); Console.ReadLine(); } } // Implements the Compare method from the IComparer interface. // Compares two content type objects by group name, then by content type Id. class CTComparer : IComparer { // The implementation of the Compare method. int IComparer.Compare(object x, object y) { SPContentType ct1 = (SPContentType)x; SPContentType ct2 = (SPContentType)y; // First compare group names. int result = string.Compare(ct1.Group, ct2.Group); if (result != 0) return result; // If the names are the same, compare IDs. return ct1.Id.CompareTo(ct2.Id); } } }
When this application runs on a website that has only the built-in content types available, it generates the following output.
Site Content Type Parent Content Type ID _Hidden ------------------------ System System 0x Health Analyzer Rule Definition Item 0x01003A8AA7A4F53046158C5ABD98036A01D5 Health Analyzer Report Item 0x0100F95DB3A97E8046B58C6A54FB31F2BD46 Office Data Connection File Document 0x010100629D00608F814DD6AC8A86903AEE72AA Universal Data Connection File Document 0x010100B4CBD48E029A4AD8B62CB0E41868F2B0 User Workflow Document Document 0x010107 Workflow Task Task 0x010801 Administrative Task Task 0x010802 Workflow History Item 0x0109 Person Item 0x010A SharePointGroup Item 0x010B DomainGroup Item 0x010C RootOfList Folder 0x012001 Document Collection Folder Folder 0x0120D5 Document Content Types ------------------------ Document Item 0x0101 List View Style Document 0x010100734778F2B7DF462491FC91844AE431CF Form Document 0x010101 Picture Document 0x010102 Master Page Document 0x010105 Wiki Page Document 0x010108 Basic Page Document 0x010109 Web Part Page Basic Page 0x01010901 Link to a Document Document 0x01010A Dublin Core Columns Document 0x01010B Folder Content Types ------------------------ Folder Item 0x0120 Discussion Folder 0x012002 Summary Task Folder 0x012004 Group Work Content Types ------------------------ Circulation Item 0x01000F389E14C9CE4CE486270B9D4713A5D6 New Word Item 0x010018F21907ED4E401CB4F14422ABC65304 Resource Item 0x01004C9F4486FBF54864A7B0A33D02AD19B1 Official Notice Item 0x01007CE30DD1206047728BAFD1C39A850120 Phone Call Memo Item 0x0100807FBAC5EB8A4653B8D24775195B5463 Holiday Item 0x01009BE2AB5291BF4C1A986910BD278E4F18 What's New Notification Item 0x0100A2CA87FF01B442AD93F37CD7DD0943EB Timecard Item 0x0100C30DDA8EDB2E434EA22D793D9EE42058 Resource Group Item 0x0100CA13F2F8D61541B180952DFB25E3E8E4 Users Item 0x0100FBEEE6F0C500489B99CDA6BB16C398F7 List Content Types ------------------------ Item System 0x01 Event Item 0x0102 Reservations Event 0x0102004F51EFDEA49C49668EF9C6744C8CF87D Schedule and Reservations Event 0x01020072BB2A38F0DB49C3A96CF4FA85529956 Schedule Event 0x0102007DBDC1392EAF4EBBBF99E41D8922B264 Issue Item 0x0103 Announcement Item 0x0104 Link Item 0x0105 Contact Item 0x0106 Message Item 0x0107 Task Item 0x0108 Post Item 0x0110 Comment Item 0x0111 East Asia Contact Item 0x0116 Special Content Types ------------------------ Unknown Document Type Document 0x010104 Press ENTER to continue...
