How to: Create and Retrieve a Social Rating

Applies to: SharePoint Server 2010

In this article
Creating Social Ratings
Retrieving Social Ratings
Enabling Social Ratings on a List

The SocialRatingManager object enables you to create a social rating for any specified URL. Because entries in Microsoft SharePoint Server lists and document libraries can be represented by URLs, you can create and retrieve social ratings for those items, and for any other SharePoint Server page. This topic demonstrates how to use the SocialRatingManager to create and retrieve social ratings and how to enable social ratings on a SharePoint Server in a custom application. The samples in this topic assume that you have added the following references to your Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 project:

• Microsoft.SharePoint

• Microsoft.Office.Server

• Microsoft.Office.Server.UserProfiles

• System.Web

Creating Social Ratings

The overloaded SetRating method creates a single SocialRating object for the current user on a single specified URL. A social rating consists of a URL and an integer ranging from 0 through 5. It also can optionally consist of a string title for the rating and a FeedbackData object that consists of name/value pairs that will be logged as analysis data. The sample below demonstrates how to use the SocialRatingManager to create a single rating on a specified URL.

Uri myUri = new Uri("URL");
FeedbackData myFeedbackData = new FeedbackData();
myFeedbackData.UserTitle = "employee";
using (SPSite site = new SPSite("SharePoint site URL"))
{
SPServiceContext context = SPServiceContext.GetContext(site);
SocialRatingManager mySocialRatingManager = new SocialRatingManager(context);
mySocialRatingManager.SetRating(myUri, 5, myFeedbackData);
}

Retrieving Social Ratings

The overloaded GetRating method retrieves a single SocialRating object for a single specified URL. If you do not specify a UserProfile, the method returns the social rating (if any exists) added to the specified URL by the current user. The sample below demonstrates how to use the SocialRatingManager to retrieve a single rating for a specified user.

using (SPSite site = new SPSite("SharePoint site URL"))
{
SPServiceContext context = SPServiceContext.GetContext(site);
SocialRatingManager mySocialRatingManager = new SocialRatingManager(context);
SocialRating aRating = mySocialRatingManager.GetRating(myUri);
Console.WriteLine(aRating.Url + ": " + aRating.Rating);
}

The overloaded GetRatings method retrieves all SocialRating objects for a specified URL or user. If you specify a URL, the method returns all social ratings added to that URL in the current SPServerContext. If you specify a user, the method returns all social ratings that the specified user added.

using (SPSite site = new SPSite("SharePoint site URL"))
{
SPServiceContext context = SPServiceContext.GetContext(site);
UserProfileManager myUserProfileManager = new UserProfileManager(context);
UserProfile myUserProfile = myUserProfileManager.GetUserProfile(false);
SocialRatingManager mySocialRatingManager = new SocialRatingManager(context);
SocialRating[] ratings = mySocialRatingManager.GetRatings(myUserProfile);
Console.WriteLine("Ratings for user:");
foreach (SocialRating rating in ratings)
{
   Console.WriteLine(rating.Url + ": " + rating.Rating);
}
}

Enabling Social Ratings on a List

You can enable the average rating field and the rating count field on lists and document libraries by using the user interface for list and document library settings. Both fields are available as site columns that you can add to any list or document library by enabling item rating from within the list or library settings. The sample below demonstrates how to enable these fields on any list by using code inside a custom application.

public void AddRatingsFields(SPList list)
{
    //Add the average rating field.
    SPField averageRatingField = list.ParentWeb.AvailableFields[new Guid("5a14d1ab-1513-48c7-97b3-657a5ba6c742")];
    list.Fields.AddFieldAsXml(averageRatingField.SchemaXml, true, SPAddFieldOptions.AddToAllContentTypes | SPAddFieldOptions.AddFieldToDefaultView);

    //Add the rating count field.
    SPField ratingCountField = list.ParentWeb.AvailableFields[new Guid("b1996002-9167-45e5-a4df-b2c41c6723c7")];
    list.Fields.AddFieldAsXml(ratingCountField.SchemaXml, true, SPAddFieldOptions.AddToAllContentTypes | SPAddFieldOptions.AddFieldToDefaultView);
}

See Also

Reference

Microsoft.Office.Server.SocialData

Concepts

How to: Create and Retrieve a Social Tag

How to: Create and Retrieve a Social Comment