How to get List by Url using SharePoint 2013 CSOM

Question

SharePoint 2013 CSOM API contains the following methods for accessing List object:

• ListCollection.GetById method - returns the list with the specified list identifier
• ListCollection.GetByTitle method - returns the list with the specified title from the collection

For example:

var listTitle = "Tasks";
using(var ctx = new ClientContext(webUrl))
{
     var list = ctx.Web.Lists.GetByTitle(listTitle);
     ctx.Load(list);
     ctx.ExecuteQuery();
}

From another hand, SSOM API contains SPWeb.GetList method to gets the list that is associated with the specified server-relative URL.

The question is: how to effectively load List by server-relative URL in CSOM?

Answer 1

For those who are still looking for the answer. SharePoint 2013 (since SP1 at least see UPD below) contains special method Web.GetList. It accepts site-relative url for the list, i.e. site/dev/lists/mylist.

Sample code for .NET object model:

var ctx = new ClientContext("http://sp2013dev/sites/dev");
var list = ctx.Web.GetList("sites/dev/lists/Addresses");
ctx.Load(list);
ctx.ExecuteQuery();    
Console.WriteLine(list.Title);

The same situation for JavaScript object model (except the fact that msdn documentation is lacking and you don't find this method here at the moment of writing this, May 2015):

var context = SP.ClientContext.get_current();
var list = context.get_web().getList("/sites/dev/Lists/Addresses"); 
context.load(list);
context.executeQueryAsync(function() { 
    alert("loaded!"); 
    }, function() { 
    alert("failed!"); 
});

Now we don't need all this hacks with folder or list properties.

UPD:

Just tested that this method is not included in SP1. It works starting from February 2015 CU (sorry, can't check the exact CU number)

Answer 2

This seems to be pretty close in performance:

context.Load(lists, all => all
  .Where(l => l.RootFolder.Name == "MyListUrl")
  .Include(l => l.Id));
context.ExecuteQuery();
list = lists.Single();

If you need to get this by server-relative url you would need to parse the web url and list url first.

Answer 3

Yet another version to load List by server relative Url using CSOM.

The solution consists of the following steps:

1. Retrieve list Folder object using Web.GetFolderByServerRelativeUrl method
2. Retrieve List by specifying List ID stored in vti_listname property from Folder.Properties object

Code:

static class WebExtensions
{
    /// <summary>
    /// Load List by server relative Url
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="web"></param>
    /// <param name="listUrl"></param>
    /// <returns></returns>
    public static List LoadListByUrl(this Web web, string listUrl)
    {
        var ctx = web.Context;
        var listFolder = web.GetFolderByServerRelativeUrl(listUrl);
        ctx.Load(listFolder.Properties);
        ctx.ExecuteQuery();
        var listId = new Guid(listFolder.Properties["vti_listname"].ToString());
        var list = web.Lists.GetById(listId);
        ctx.Load(list);
        ctx.ExecuteQuery();
        return list;
    }
}

Usage

using(var ctx = new ClientContext(webUrl))
{
    ctx.Credentials = new SharePointOnlineCredentials(userName,securePassword);
    var tasksList = ctx.Web.LoadListByUrl("Lists/Tasks");
    Console.WriteLine(tasksList.Title);
}

Cons:

1. Only SharePoint 2013 CSOM is supported
2. Requires two separate requests to server

Answer 4

I unfortunately couldn't get any of the above working, so I used an ugly hack:

public static List GetListByUrl(ClientContext context, string listUrl)
        {
            List result = null;

            ListCollection lists = context.Web.Lists;
            context.Load(lists, all => all.Include(l => l.RootFolder));            
            context.ExecuteQuery();

            string listUrlPartial = new Uri(listUrl).PathAndQuery.ToLower().Replace("%20", " ");
            foreach (List list in lists)
            {
                string thisListUrlPartial = list.RootFolder.ServerRelativeUrl.ToLower().Replace("%20", " ");
                if (listUrlPartial.StartsWith(thisListUrlPartial))
                {
                    result = list;
                    break;
                }
            }

            return result;
        }

Of course, your mileage will vary. Recommend upgrading to latest SharePoint patch to get the new method (as per @Kai's answer), but unfortunately I don't have that option at the moment.

Answer 5

I do not have SP1 for my SharePoint, but this worked for me:

var clientContext = new SP.ClientContext("absolute url to sites that contains the list");

var IssueList = clientContext.get_web().get_lists().getByTitle("title of the list");