Creating a simple Event Receiver in SharePoint 2013

Create an empty SharePoint 2013 project in Visual Studio 2012. In the project, select add new item and select Event Receiver

Select the type of event receiver you need to add, and select the events you need to handle.

In this sample I'm trying to update a SharePoint list based on file changes happening to a separate SharePoint library. Basically, the list will act like a log. So we need to create the library and a list. Here, I have created the Department library to add and maintain documents and also created DocumentLog list to log the changes happening to the library. 

In the list I have three columns, Title, Action & DateAndTime in order to catalog the changes happening to the library.

[The created document library and list]

Back to the SharePoint project. Now go to the event receiver .cs file and you'll get a bunch of methods base on your selection during event receiver creation. Edit the code as below to implement the logic. Note that the ItemAdded method is used instead of the ItemAdding method.


public override void ItemAdded(SPItemEventProperties properties)
        {
            //base.ItemAdded(properties);
            using (SPWeb web = properties.OpenWeb())
            {
                try
                {
                    SPList list = web.Lists["DocumentLog"];
                    SPListItem newItem = list.Items.Add();
                    newItem["Title"] = properties.ListItem.Name;
                    newItem["DateAndTime"] = System.DateTime.Now;
                    newItem["Action"] = "Item Added";
                    newItem.Update();
                }
                catch (Exception ex)
                {
                    throw ex;
                }
            }
        }

public override void ItemUpdating(SPItemEventProperties properties)
        {
            //base.ItemUpdating(properties);
            using (SPWeb web = properties.OpenWeb())
            {
                try
                {
                    SPList list = web.Lists["DocumentLog"];
                    SPListItem newItem = list.Items.Add();
                    newItem["Title"] = properties.ListItem.Name;
                    newItem["DateAndTime"] = System.DateTime.Now;
                    newItem["Action"] = "Item Updated";
                    newItem.Update();
                }
                catch (Exception ex)
                {
                    throw ex;
                }
            }
        }

public override void ItemDeleting(SPItemEventProperties properties)
        {
            //base.ItemDeleting(properties);
            using (SPWeb web = properties.OpenWeb())
            {
                try
                {
                    SPList list = web.Lists["DocumentLog"];
                    SPListItem newItem = list.Items.Add();
                    newItem["Title"] = properties.ListItem.Name;
                    newItem["DateAndTime"] = System.DateTime.Now;
                    newItem["Action"] = "Item Deleted";
                    newItem.Update();
                }
                catch (Exception ex)
                {
                    throw ex;
                }
            }
        }


As I am targeting to add the event receiver only to the Department document library, the Elements.xml file requires a change.

 Note that I have commented out the setting which points to all document libraries, instead pointed to Department document library. The edited Elements.xml file is as below:


<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Elements xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">
  <!--   <Receivers ListTemplateId="101"> -->
  <Receivers ListUrl="Department">

   <Receiver>
        <Name>DepartmentEventReceiverItemAdded</Name>
        <Type>ItemAdded</Type>
        <Assembly>$SharePoint.Project.AssemblyFullName$</Assembly>
        <Class>MySharePointProject.ListEventReceiver.DepartmentEventReceiver</Class>
        <SequenceNumber>10000</SequenceNumber>
      </Receiver>

      <Receiver>
        <Name>ListEventReceiverItemUpdating</Name>
        <Type>ItemUpdating</Type>
        <Assembly>$SharePoint.Project.AssemblyFullName$</Assembly>
        <Class>MySharePointProject.ListEventReceiver.DepartmentEventReceiver</Class>
        <SequenceNumber>10000</SequenceNumber>
      </Receiver>
      <Receiver>
        <Name>ListEventReceiverItemDeleting</Name>
        <Type>ItemDeleting</Type>
        <Assembly>$SharePoint.Project.AssemblyFullName$</Assembly>
        <Class>MySharePointProject.ListEventReceiver.DepartmentEventReceiver</Class>
        <SequenceNumber>10000</SequenceNumber>
      </Receiver>
</Receivers>
</Elements>

Compile and deploy the solution to your site. Now you may play around with the library and observe the changes happening to the list.... :)

I have added a document, uploaded, added, modified the 3 docs and then deleted one of the docs respectively.

And here's what I get in the DocumentLog list.