Find if content type is hidden (Visible is not checked) on the list level using SharePoint web services

Question

I am trying to know if a content type is hidden (Visible not checked in Change new button order and default content type section) on a SharePoint list using SharePoint web services. I have tried the GetListContentTypes() and GetListContentType() methods in the Lists.asmx web service but the result does not include the Hidden attribute.

How can i find if a content type is hidden using SharePoint web services without using the SharePoint API? Do I need to create a custom web service?

Answer 1

Are you working with SharePoint 2007 or 2010? In 2010 you can use the new Client Object Model to get this information. When you do changes in the Change new button order and default content type you can see this information in the List.RootFolder.ContentTypeOrder collection. This collection only contains the visible ContentTypes, so you need to check it against all the ContentTypes on the list to find the hidden ones. See example for getting the ContentTypeOrder collection:

Add Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.dll and Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.Runtime.dll as references to your project and try this code:

using (Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.ClientContext ctx = new Microsoft.SharePoint.Client.ClientContext("http://servername/"))
{
    var web = ctx.Web;
    ctx.Load(web);
    var query = ctx.LoadQuery(web.Lists.Where(p => p.Title == "Documents"));
    ctx.ExecuteQuery();

    List list = query.FirstOrDefault();
    ctx.Load(list.RootFolder, folder => folder.ContentTypeOrder);
    ctx.ExecuteQuery();

    foreach (ContentTypeId contentTypeId in list.RootFolder.ContentTypeOrder)
    {
        Console.WriteLine(contentTypeId.ToString());
    }
}

Answer 2

Can you try using Webs.asmx and use the Method GetContentTypes. The response xml would be as below

<ContentType Name="System" ID="0x" Description="" Group="_Hidden" NewDocumentControl="" Scope="http://metechmeydhango:5000" Version="0" RequireClientRenderingOnNew="TRUE" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/soap/" > 

From above response xml you can find the Group as Hidden