Programmatically hiding an SPField

Question

Hi all:

I'm having trouble hiding a SPField from the user view programmatically.

I tried the obvious way of:

SPField newField = web.Site.RotWeb.Fields.GetField("order");
string newField = list.Fields.Add(newField);
list.Fields["order"].Hidden = true; // <--- exception: read-only field
list.Update();

The exception says the field is read only so I can't modify it.

This field is added in the code and hence it'll be unghosted from the field collection. Besides from the UI, how can I make the field hidden?

Thanks.

Answer 1

First, try setting ReadOnlyField to false (then back to true after setting Hidden).

If that does not work, check the value of CanToggleHidden. If CanToggleHidden is false, you can either:

• Override it with reflection as in this example.
• Add the field using XML as in this example. Note: if you need to use an existing site column, you can try adding ID attribute with the column's Guid to the XML string.
• Skip Hidden and use ShowInDisplayForm, ShowInEditForm, and ShowInNewForm instead.

Answer 2

nevermind, I saw that you are adding the field. try getting a new instance of the field after it is created and then applying the hidden atttribute before updating the list.