Creating a Countdown Feature based on List definition and Timer Job

In this post, I’ll be elaborating on some of the interesting aspects of SharePoint 2010 programming while trying to work on a project to create a countdown timer job for a visual web part packaged as a SharePoint feature. Some of these would include:

Part 1 - How to include the GUID generator in Visual Studio 2010. (This post)

Part 2 - How to create a Visual web part utilizing custom List Definition and List Instance without using Content Types.

Part 3 - How to include sample data with the List instance deployment.

Part 4 - How to create, deploy and utilize a Timer Job.

Before we jump into the List Definition, let’s first do a prep-work, much needed for the most of the Content development in SP 2010. Even though the GUID Generator can be accessed online here, I prefer to use it in my VS 2010 IDE.

- Start VS 2010. Go to [Tools] –> [External Tools].

- Provide the “Title” = “Create GUID”

- In the “Command”, click the “…” button next to it, and browse to the location “C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v7.0A\Bin\guidgen.exe”.

- Click [Add] and then click [OK].

You should be now able to see an option to create GUID right from this Tools menu in VS 2010:

That’s it in Part 1 for our prep-work. I’ll start with the List definition in Part 2.