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.

Read our Illustrated Guide to SLAM for more information on what SLAM is and how to start using it.

View our Intro to SLAM movie for a brief introduction to what SLAM is, how to use SLAM and a look at the first SLAM add-on, hierarchy.

Version 1.2 just released, has significant improvements including working across multiple site collections. You can specify which site collections in the SLAM Config, see the SLAM Config page for more details. In addition, SLAM will now follow inheritance. So if you have a base content type and content types inheriting from it, SLAMing the base content type will automatically SLAM all of it's children.

To Upgrade:
If upgrading, run the SLAM 1.2 Setup then Reactive SLAM by navigating to the SLAM Control Panel > Activation > Activate. If using Hierarchy run the updated Setup also in the v1.2 release.

Previous major features (as of 1.1.6): hierarchy add-on. 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

We have a set of API Documentation available here. There's a lot of good stuff there and it's growing every day.

Note that you can set up SLAM and use it without ever looking at the API documentation. We provide it for those that are interested in extending the platform, or are just curious as to how it works.

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.