How to create a Document Set using C#

I decided to expand on one of Travis Nielson’s posts called Introducing Documents Sets. Being the eternal developer that I am I decided to write a blog on how to create a Document Set using C# and the new object model for SP2010.

 

In trying to figure out how to do this, I though I would try the 2007 way and add a new ListItem to my test document library….well that didn’t work so well. While I was looking at the code for the NewDocSet.aspx page I stumbled upon a new assembly and namespace. The assembly that I am referring to is Microsoft.Office.DocumentManagement and the namespace is Microsoft.Office.DocumentManagement.DocumentSets. Within the new namespace lives the DocumentSet class. The DocumentSet class makes it pretty easy for creating a DocumentSet. Using the same content types from Travis’ blog I created a quick console application to create the DocumentSet in code. Below are the lines of code necessary to create a DocumentSet using the default content: 
SPSite site = newSPSite(“http://sp2010”);
SPWeb web = site.OpenWeb();
SPList list = web.Lists[“Proposals”];
Hashtable props = newHashtable();
props.Add(“Name”, “Proposal 1”);
props.Add(“Description”, “Proposal 1”);
props.Add(“Customer ID”, “1234”);
props.Add(“Customer Name”, “Customer 1”);
DocumentSet ds = DocumentSet.Create(list.RootFolder, “Proposal 2”, list.ContentTypes[“Proposals”].Id, props, true);
web.Dispose();
site.Dispose();
If you do not want to provision default content then after you create the DocumentSet you can add the desired content by manipulating the Item property (SPListItem) of the DocumentSet.