{"id":2142,"date":"2016-04-30T22:02:58","date_gmt":"2016-04-30T20:02:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.itidea.nl\/?p=2142"},"modified":"2016-05-01T17:20:19","modified_gmt":"2016-05-01T15:20:19","slug":"setting-default-value-at-library-using-rest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.itidea.nl\/index.php\/setting-default-value-at-library-using-rest\/","title":{"rendered":"Setting default value at library using REST"},"content":{"rendered":"

A nice feature available at document library level is to set a default value on a field.
\nThis can be done in the UI by navigating to the document library settings and select ‘Column default value settings’. A default value can be set at a specific folder in the library or at the root folder of the document library as can be seen in the picture below.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

When a default value is set there are two things that happen under the SharePoint hood:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. A file called client_LocationBasedDefaults.html is created in the Forms folder of the library<\/li>\n
  2. The event receiver ‘LocationBasedMetadataDefaultsReceiver ItemAdded’ is attached to the library<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The file contains xml which stores the default value set at the field level. An example of the file contents:<\/p>\n

    <MetadataDefaults><a href=”\/teams\/testteamsite\/TestDefaultValue\/DocLib”><DefaultValue FieldName=”MyColumn”>123<\/DefaultValue><\/a><\/MetadataDefaults><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    Now I want to accomplish the same thing using REST.
    \nFirst the file with xml is created and uploaded to the appropriate location using the following piece of code.<\/p>\n

    \r\nvar\u00a0fileCollectionEndpoint = String.format( \u00a0 "{0}\/_api\/web\/getfolderbyserverrelativeurl('{1}\/{2}\/forms')\/files"\r\n+\u00a0"\/add(url='{3}',overwrite=true)",\r\n_spPageContextInfo.webServerRelativeUrl,\r\n_spPageContextInfo.webServerRelativeUrl,\r\nlist,\u00a0"client_LocationBasedDefaults.html");\r\n\r\n$http({\r\nmethod: "POST",\r\nurl: fileCollectionEndpoint,\r\ndata: "<MetadataDefaults><a href=\\"" + _spPageContextInfo.webServerRelativeUrl\r\n+ "\/" + list + "\\"><DefaultValue FieldName=\\"MyColumn\\">MyValue<\/DefaultValue><\/a><\/MetadataDefaults>",\r\nheaders: {\r\n"Accept": "application\/json;odata=verbose",\r\n"content-type": "application\/json;odata=verbose",\r\n"X-RequestDigest": $('#__REQUESTDIGEST').val(),\r\n}\r\n} <\/pre>\n
    In the UI the result is visible immediately and the default value of ‘MyColumn’ is set to ‘MyValue’.<\/p>\n
    \"DefaultValue<\/a><\/p>\n
    So it seems to do the trick, but since the event receiver is missing, the default value won’t be set when adding a document to the library\u2026<\/p>\n
    Unfortunately I wasn’t able to add an event receiver using REST\u2026<\/p>\n
    Besides setting a default value by using the option above, there is another option: set a default value at field level. Probably less fancy, because it’s not possible to set a default value at folder level, but for now an acceptable solution.
    \n    \"DefaultValue<\/a><\/p>\n
    This can be accomplished by REST:<\/p>\n
    \r\n\r\n$http({\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 method: "POST",\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 url: rootUrl + "\/" + url +\r\n"\/_api\/web\/lists\/getbytitle('" + listTitle +\r\n"')\/fields\/getbytitle('" + columnTitle + "')",\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 data: "{ '__metadata': { 'type':\r\n'SP.Field' }, 'DefaultValue': '" + itemValue.toString() + "' }",\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 headers: {\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 "Accept":"application\/json;odata=verbose",\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 "X-HTTP-Method":"MERGE",\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 "content-type":"application\/json;odata=verbose",\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 "X-RequestDigest":$('#__REQUESTDIGEST').val(),\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 "If-Match": "*",\r\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 }\r\n}\r\n<\/pre>\n
    Summary<\/h4>\n
    Setting a default value at library level isn’t that easy using REST, because it’s impossible to add an event receiver to the list. At this particular scenario another option is viable: set a default value at field level. This is an easy step to accomplish using REST.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
    A nice feature available at document library level is to set a default value on a field. This can be done in the UI by navigating to the document library settings and select ‘Column default value settings’. A default value … Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,35,31],"tags":[37,44],"class_list":["post-2142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-office-365","category-sharepoint-2013","category-visual-studio","tag-office365","tag-sharepoint-2013"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itidea.nl\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itidea.nl\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itidea.nl\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itidea.nl\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itidea.nl\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2142"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/www.itidea.nl\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2142\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2163,"href":"https:\/\/www.itidea.nl\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2142\/revisions\/2163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.itidea.nl\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itidea.nl\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.itidea.nl\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}