How can I set the default value for a custom "Number" field in SharePoint?

Question

I created a custom field for a content type I am creating using the XML below.

<Field ID="{GUID}" Required="False" DisplayName="Likes" Name="Likes" Type="Number" SourceID="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/v3"&gt;&lt;Default&gt;0&lt;/Default&gt;&lt;/Field&gt;

The field is meant to be used as a counter of sorts, and will be incremented programmatically. But, I can't get the value to default to "0" when a new item is created. However, for some reason, when I create a new column manually using the Site Collection settings page and configure it to default to "0" it works as it should.

So far, I've tried the following tactics:

• I removed the "default" element from the field definition, and set the "DefaultValue" attribute on the content type definition.
• I exported a definition for the manually-created, working column (using an Imtech STSADM tool). Then, I added it to my field definitions XML and modified the IDs so that I could add it to my content type. When I did this, it still didn't work, even though it was exported from a working column!

Any idea why this isn't working for me?

Answer 1

Other than case (it's Default, not default), it looks good to me. Also, maybe you could try Integer or Counter for Type instead of Number.

Answer 2

The cause of this issue was that my custom content type (the one that contained the number field) was not set as the default content type for the Pages list. I was most likely creating page items using a different content type, accidentally.