SharePoint: Create and add a Policy to a content type programmatically

I had to add a custom action to the Sharepoint expiry policy of a content type.

How to make a custom action, and add it to a policy in the Sharepoint configuration screen of the content type is not so hard - see http://jack.whyyoung.com/blog/www-sharepointblogs-com-MainFeed-aspx-GroupID-3/19732-aspx.htm for this.

But to add this policy to a content type automatically - in code int the feature event receiver of this content type - I had to search a little bit harder..

Use the Policy (in namespace Microsoft.Office.RecordsManagement.InformationPolicy) object (do not use the SPPolicy class, that's for other purposes :) ) to add the expiration policy programmatically to the content type. Here is the code:

using (SPSite site = (SPSite)properties.Feature.Parent)
            {
                string policyFeatureId = "Microsoft.Office.RecordsManagement.PolicyFeatures.Expiration";
                SPContentType administrativeDocumentContentType = site.RootWeb.ContentTypes[new SPContentTypeId("0x01010091C4CA4E2BA24AE9BD4F276750C0A5A9")];

                //Add the custom action "AdministrativeDocumentExpirationSendEmail" to the policy resource collection
                string actionmanifest = @"<?xml version=""1.0"" encoding=""utf-8"" ?><p:PolicyResource id=""Dolmen.SharePoint.Customer.ExpirationActions.AdministrativeDocumentExpirationSendEmail"" featureId=""Microsoft.Office.RecordsManagement.PolicyFeatures.Expiration"" type=""Action"" xmlns:p=""urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:server:policy""><p:LocalizationResources>dlccore</p:LocalizationResources><p:Name>AdministrativeDocumentExpirationSendEmail</p:Name><p:Description>Sends a mail on the Expiration date</p:Description><p:Publisher>Dolmen Computer Applications</p:Publisher><p:AssemblyName>Dolmen.SharePoint.Customer.ExpirationActions, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=79b87b017c9b0654</p:AssemblyName><p:ClassName>Dolmen.SharePoint.Customer.ExpirationActions.AdministrativeDocumentExpirationSendEmail</p:ClassName></p:PolicyResource>";
                //string actionmanifest = System.IO.File.ReadAllText("actionmanifest.xml");
                PolicyResourceCollection.Add(actionmanifest);

                if (Policy.GetPolicy(administrativeDocumentContentType) == null)
                {
                    //if the content type hasn't got a Policy yet, create a new Policy
                    Policy.CreatePolicy(administrativeDocumentContentType, null);
                }

                Policy policyOfContentType = Policy.GetPolicy(administrativeDocumentContentType);
                policyOfContentType.Name = "Administrative Document - Expiration Policy";
                //Add expiration policy to the content type
                if (policyOfContentType.Items[policyFeatureId] == null)
                {
                    string customData = @"<data><formula id=""Microsoft.Office.RecordsManagement.PolicyFeatures.Expiration.Formula.BuiltIn""><number>0</number><property>Expiration</property><period>days</period></formula><action type=""action"" id=""Dolmen.SharePoint.Customer.ExpirationActions.AdministrativeDocumentExpirationSendEmail"" /></data>";

                    policyOfContentType.Items.Add(policyFeatureId, customData);
                }
            }

Tip: to get the customData and the policyFeatureId you can create a policy with the standard Sharepoint configuration screen and read it out in a console application using following code:

SPContentType administrativeDocumentContentType = site.RootWeb.ContentTypes[new SPContentTypeId("0x01010091C4CA4E2BA24AE9BD4F276750C0A5A9")];

                Policy policy = Policy.GetPolicy(administrativeDocumentContentType);

                foreach (PolicyItem item in policy.Items) {
                    Console.WriteLine("Custom data: " + item.CustomData + "\n policy feature id: " + item.Id);
                }