get Items from Sharepoint-list

Question

I've created a list in sharepoint by using visualstudio. The List is based on a custom contenttype. Because I want to delete the title field I've switched off inheritation of the Contenttype:

 <Elements xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">

  <Field ID="{51CC6776-F855-48d5-A4EC-B7CE11CE2324}"
      DisplayName="ExpiresDate" Name="ExpiresDate"
      Type="DateTime" Required="False"
      UnlimitedLengthInDocumentLibrary="FALSE"/>


  <!-- Parent ContentType: Element (0x01) -->
  <ContentType ID="0x0100b48c62c42879472aa8f1e1afc4dba7ce"
               Name="GroupsList - ContentTypeGroups"               
               Group="Custom Content Types"
               Description="My Content Type"
               Inherits="false"
               Version="0">
      <FieldRefs>
        <RemoveFieldRef ID="{fa564e0f-0c70-4ab9-b863-0177e6ddd247}" />

      <FieldRef ID="{51CC6776-F855-48d5-A4EC-B7CE11CE2324}" Name="ExpiresDate" Required="FALSE" ShowInNewForm="FALSE" ShowInEditForm="FALSE" />
      </FieldRefs>
  </ContentType>
</Elements>

Now I wanted to read out the fields content via powershell:

$site = New-Object Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSite($GroupListURL)
$web = $site.OpenWeb()
$list = $web.Lists[$GroupListName]
$items = $list.Items
$listitem = $list.Items.GetItemByID($ItemID)
$ExpiresDate = $listitem["ExpiresDate"]

But I'm only get Null for ExpiresDate. If I set inheritation to true I get ExpiresDates Value but the TitleField is still visible.

Does anyone know why?

Answer 1

You content type inherits from system/item according to the content type id:

0x0100b48c62c42879472aa8f1e1afc4dba7ce

See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa543822.aspx

Title is a required to be a part of any content type that inherits from Item.

I'm not sure why you want to delete the Title field. If you want to inherit from the Item content type, can you just set a default value on the Title field and hide it?

Answer 2

As Doug mention don't delete the Title field. The better way is to set it optional and then hide it. You will also have some drawback when you hide the title field. For example you will lose the dropdown menu because it is attached to the title field.

You can hide fields form a form by using powershell. I wrote about this in the following blog post. http://www.n8d.at/blog/sharepoint-2010/hide-fields-from-lists-and-content-types/