Generate SharePoint project constants with T4 by feature definitions

Problem

Usually the main problem of SharePoint development is accessing SPListItem fields values by theirs internal names of field ids. For example:

SPListItem listItem = GetLIstItem();
// I prefer to use field ids for speed and garanteed way extract values
listItem[SPBuiltInFieldId.Title]

The output file will be like that:

But in some scenarios fieldId doesn’t help me for get values, such as get it in item event receivers. In this case I need to know the field internal name.

public override void ItemAdding(SPItemEventProperties properties)
        {
            string toolTipFieldInternalName = "";
            //oops, this place have some perfomance overhead
            using (SPWeb web = properties.OpenWeb())
            {
                toolTipFieldInternalName = web.Lists[properties.ListId].Fields[toolTipFieldId].InternalName;
 
            }
 
            string urlVal = properties.AfterProperties["URL"].ToString();
            SPFieldUrlValue val = new SPFieldUrlValue(urlVal);
            string desc = val.Description;
            properties.AfterProperties[toolTipFieldInternalName] = desc;
        }

For best experience you may install Visual T4 Editor

There is a simple way to extract and generate usefull constants for field ids and internal names from features definition files in your project with T4 mechanism built-in into visual studio:

Constants.tt (this code works fine only in Visual Studio 2010)

<#@ template inherits="Microsoft.VisualStudio.TextTemplating.VSHost.ModelingTextTransformation" language="C#" debug="true" hostSpecific="true" #>
<#@ assembly name="Microsoft.VisualStudio.TextTemplating.Modeling.10.0.dll"#>

<#@ output extension=".cs" #>
<#@ Assembly Name="System.Core.dll" #>
<#@ Assembly Name="System.Xml.dll" #>
<#@ Assembly Name="System.Xml.Linq.dll" #>
<#@ Assembly Name="System.Windows.Forms.dll" #>
<#@ Assembly Name="EnvDTE" #>
<#@ import namespace="System" #>
<#@ import namespace="System.IO" #>
<#@ import namespace="System.Diagnostics" #>
<#@ import namespace="System.Linq" #>
<#@ import namespace="System.Xml.Linq" #>
<#@ import namespace="System.Collections" #>
<#@ import namespace="System.Reflection" #>
<#@ import namespace="System.Collections.Generic" #> 
<#@ import namespace="EnvDTE" #>
<#@ import namespace="Microsoft.VisualStudio.TextTemplating" #>
<# 
var currentDirectory = Path.GetDirectoryName(Host.TemplateFile);
var xmlFiles = Directory.GetFiles(currentDirectory, "*.xml", SearchOption.AllDirectories);
var fieldQualifier = XName.Get("Field", "http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/");
var listdQualifier = XName.Get("ListInstance", "http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/");
#>using System;	

namespace <#= System.Runtime.Remoting.Messaging.CallContext.LogicalGetData("NamespaceHint") #>
{
    public static partial class Constants 
    {
        public static class Fields
        {
<#  
		var fields = xmlFiles
					.Select(XDocument.Load)
					.Select(d => d.Descendants(fieldQualifier))
					.SelectMany(x => x)
					.Where(i => i != null)
					.Select(i => new KeyValuePair<string, string>(
							i.Attribute("ID") != null ? i.Attribute("ID").Value : null,
							i.Attribute("Name") != null ? i.Attribute("Name").Value : null))
					.Where(i => !string.IsNullOrEmpty(i.Key) && !string.IsNullOrEmpty(i.Value))
					.Distinct();
            foreach (var field in fields)
            {
			#>
            public static string <#= field.Value #>_InternalName = "<#= field.Value #>";
            public static Guid <#= field.Value #>_Id = new Guid("<#= field.Key #>");
			
<#
			}
		   #>

		}

        public static class Lists
        {
		}
    }
} 

The output file will be like follow:

 
using System;	

namespace MyProjectNameSpace.Project1
{
    public static partial class Constants 
    {
        public static class Fields
        {
            public static string DocKind_InternalName = "DocKind";
            public static Guid DocKind_Id = new Guid("{b4fc3e5e-7573-4e39-9417-81d85f25ed73}");
			
            public static string RegDate_InternalName = "RegDate";
            public static Guid RegDate_Id = new Guid("{e453a0ee-7797-4d90-941c-0ea9a775f48d}");
			
            public static string RegUser_InternalName = "RegUser";
            public static Guid RegUser_Id = new Guid("{616997f5-6cf2-4795-b625-d7b7f4681a2e}");
        }

       public static class Lists
       {
       }
    }
} 

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