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I've been spending the last few days studying sharepoint and plan to work with it for a long time - but I've only just heard the word CAML mentioned and seen it's querying in action, is it something all sharepoint developers should know?

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Closed.. this is definitely soliciting opinions and it will depend on what you plan to do. – Kit Menke♦ Apr 18 '12 at 15:04
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However... as a SharePoint developer you definitely need to know CAML. :P – Kit Menke♦ Apr 18 '12 at 15:35
Well, if that's only your opinion - I take it with a pinch of salt :p – DeeMac Apr 19 '12 at 7:52

closed as not constructive by Kit Menke♦ Apr 18 '12 at 15:02

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4 Answers

up vote 2 down vote accepted

CAML is 100% Necesary. LINQ does not meet expectations in all scenarios. When you use SPMetal by default, you wont have access to: Created Date, Created by Modified Date, Modified by Metadata Columns People picker columns

You can configure spmetal with a .xml configuration file but I did not succed with that, so since there I never use linq again, instead of helping, it made things harder to do.

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I don't know what SPMetal is yet but I'll learn CAML, it seems necessary. +1. – DeeMac Apr 18 '12 at 14:28
up vote 1 down vote

Yes. You should definitely at least be familiar with CAML. IMHO it's easier to use than LINQ, but both achieve similar things.

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CAML doesn't provide true operations for grouping, count, average and so on. LINQ provides. But in SP reality LINQ is built on CAML thus it does these operations memory. – Yuri Leontyev Apr 18 '12 at 14:20
I didn't realise it was a case of CAML vs. LINQ to be honest. I'll learn CAML because at the moment I know nothing about it. – DeeMac Apr 18 '12 at 14:28
up vote 1 down vote

YES, because

CAML can be used to do the following:

  1. Provide schema definition to the Web site provisioning system about how the site looks and acts.
  2. Define views and forms for data and page rendering or execution.
  3. Act as a rendering language that performs functions in the DLL like pulling a value from a particular field.
  4. Provide batch functionality for posting multiple commands to the server using protocol.

Why would you use CAML as opposed to just using Microsoft FrontPage® or other editing tools?

  1. To make universal changes, such as adding a new logo to the main pages of every site you create.
  2. To define a content type, such as for adding Flash movies to the SharePoint team Web site.
  3. It provides the ultimate in customization and flexibility; manipulating CAML allows you total control over the site provisioning system, for instance, when creating a list or adding a view.

Read this post to understand what is caml and why do you need to use it.

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I didn't understand any of the points you have listed in support of CAML, I'm that new to sharepoint. I'm sure one day I'll look back on your answer and understand more clearly but for now all I know is I need to learn CAML, that'll do me. Thanks, +1. – DeeMac Apr 18 '12 at 14:29
up vote 2 down vote

It's to understand the idea of CAML as @Alexander wrote. For querying data you can use third party solutions like CAML.NET and Camlex to generate CAML. It will help to write better code.

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