Automatically fill in metadata on new document created from template

Question

I have a custom button on my application page to open a new document from a document template, like you would do directly on a list. The code is similar to:

<a href="http://Site/test/documents" onClick="createNewDocumentWithProgID  
('http:\u002f\u002fsite\u002ftest\u002fdocuments\u002fForms\u002ftemplate.doc',    
'http:\u002f\u002fsite\u002ftest\u002fdocuments',    
'SharePoint.OpenDocuments', false)">Click to create document</a>

This opens my document template in Word without any problem. The document template is coupled to a content type, so all metadata fields are defined.

But now I do want to set metadata (properties) in the newly created document, preferably before the document gets opened so the data is visibile in the Document Information Panel inside Word. This data has to be set dynamically because it's based on parameters defined in the application page. Is this possible?

Answer 1

Document Information Panel (this is how "Document Properties window inside Word" actually called) is rendered according to a document library content type. So, when your parameters on the application page you mentioned are saved, you should probably apply default values to your document library, using SPField.DefaultValue.

This can be done easily:

var documentLibrary = web.GetListFromUrl("http://Site/test/documents/Forms/AllItems.aspx");
var field = documentLibrary.Fields["YourFieldName"];
field.DefaultValue = "Your default value";
field.Update();

Answer 2

So perhaps this is being a little cheeky, but perhaps try the following:

1. Create a library with content type X
2. Create a new document of type X. Fill out the properties.
3. Download the document to your desktop and delete it from the library
4. Convert the document to a document template and upload into the content type X as the default template

I have no idea if that will work, but it should only take 10-15 minutes to test.

Answer 3

With the remarks of Neil and omlin I opted to do a small tweak on the initial idea: When the user clicks the 'new item' button in the custom application page, I create a new document from the document template and place it in the correct subfolder (which I know according to the parameters available). Once this is done, I register a piece of javascript that triggers the 'open document' javascript code. For the end-user it seems like he's opening a new file, with the only difference that we just created it in the correct place and filled the metadata.

SPContentType contentType = list.ContentTypes["ctypename"];

// get the document template
string templateUrl = l.ContentTypes["ctypename"].DocumentTemplateUrl;
SPFile sourceFile = web.GetFile(templateUrl);

if (sourceFile != null)
{
    string fileName = CreateNewFileName();
    SPFile file = folder.Files.Add(fileName, sourceFile.OpenBinary(), true); // overwrite is true
    file.Item["ContentType"] = "ctypename";

            // set other fields
            ...

    file.Item.Update();
    file.Update();
    folder.Update();
}

// open the document
String scriptString = "editDocumentWithProgID2(\"" + SPContext.Current.Site.Url +
       "/Listname/SubFoldername/Filename.doc\", \"\", \"SharePoint.OpenDocuments\", \"0\", \"" +
       SPContext.Current.Site.Url +
       "\", \"0\")";

// popup window to open document
ScriptManager.RegisterStartupScript(this.Page, this.Page.GetType(), "click", scriptString, true);

The button itself is placed in an AJAX updatepanel. This enables me execute the code without a full page postback.