Content Type dropdown in a custom list edit form

Question

I have two content types created A and B. I have a list definition where I placed those content types. Using SPD 2010, I created a custom list edit form and as you know, SPD 2010 will ask you to bind it with a content type, so I selected A. Then I copied it and with some modifications added it to VS 2010 project.

When the feature is activated,during editing list item I see fields from content type A but I am not able to edit fields from content type B because there is no dropdown on top which lets me select a content type from A or B.

So I wanted to know if it is possible to have that content type selected dropdown in here in a custom list form in list definition.

Answer 1

When creating the list form, just try to bind it to the second content type (B). In my environment, this surprisingly works fine (fields from both content types are shown in the form).

Probably the point is that I have a required field in the first content type.

Anyway, even if you will not get it working, you still can do merging of the forms manually. The point is that the generated forms are represented with DataFormWebPart with some custom XSLT, so you can generate two forms for both content types, then switch to Code tabs of the forms, and then copy corresponding XSLT code from one form to the other (don't forget to change IDs of the server controls - FormField and FieldDescription, - to prevent duplicates). Also probably you will need to clear the SelectCommand attribute of the SPDataSource which is binded to your DataFormWebPart.

Answer 2

  protected void ddlContractTemplates_SelectedIndexChanged(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
       Uri testurl=this.Request.Url;
       var qsCol = HttpUtility.ParseQueryString(Request.Url.Query);
       qsCol["ContentTypeId"] = ddlContractTemplates.SelectedValue;
      string  newUrl = testurl.Scheme + "//" + testurl.Host + ":" + testurl.Port + "/"+testurl.GetComponents(UriComponents.Path, UriFormat.SafeUnescaped) + "?" + qsCol.ToString();
       SPUtility.Redirect(newUrl,SPRedirectFlags.Default,HttpContext.Current);         }