SLAM! SharePoint List Association Manager
Most developers who have used SharePoint as an application development framework have run into the realization that SharePoint is NOT a relational database. In fact, the accepted wisdom is if you need relational tables, use ASP.NET/SQL straight-up, not SharePoint.
Enter
SharePoint List Association Manager (SLAM). In short it allows you to define relationships (one to one, one to many, many to many) between SharePoint lists (or Content Types) and then leverage those relationships in webparts or custom field types using familiar and straight forward SQL queries.
Version 2.0 for SharePoint 2010 is now the latest version of SLAM. Major updates include the option to enable synchronous updating of the SLAM database, the introduction of a new SLAM ID field that can serve as an application-wide non-GUID unique identifier for slammed List Items, the generation of foreign key constraints in the SLAM database, and the provision of location tables. For configuring both new and existing features, see the
SLAM Config page for more details.
To Upgrade:
With the release of SLAM 2.0 for SharePoint 2010, a fresh install of SLAM is recommended. SLAM 2.0 adds new features that make significant changes to the generated database such as foreign key constraints and location tables. For this reason, and this being the first "official" release for SharePoint 2010, SLAM 2.0 is a new feature and can be installed side-by-side with previous versions. The recommended path for upgrading then is to create a new SLAM database, copy the existing slam.config, update "AssociatedList" to "AssociatedTypeName" and "AssociationName" to "AssociationTableName" in the new config file, deactivate the old feature, swap the old config for the new config, activate the new feature, then go to SLAM Control Panel to Activate the new version of SLAM.
After activation, SLAM can be synchronized, and the existing data will be saved in the new schema.
Read our
Hierarchy page for more info on what hierarchy does and how to start using it. For the latest SLAM news
follow us on twitter.
Documentation
For more information on the general architecture of SLAM,
click here
Need help? Have questions?
You can either use the discussion tab, or feel free to contact us either using our
website form or email us directly at
slam@awsystems.com. We actively support SLAM and will continue to be posting more information here in the coming days.
Not a Developer? Still interested in using SLAM?
SLAM, in its current form, is aimed as a tool for developers. However, if you're interested in implementing SLAM and you aren't a developer please
let us know!
Follow us!
For the latest news and updates to SLAM,
follow us on twitter.