WSS Base Field Types are great, each field type has a matching SQL type and you can pretty much do a lot with OOTB Field types, well almost. Custom validation and checking for uniqueness are two things which are currently not supported OOTB.

How many times an end user might have gone.. Oh I wish if I could check for a valid email or I wish there was a way to add a given title only once to the list. Well not for long. 

I have decided to write three production quality custom field type features and make them available for free. One week, one feature at a time.

Week 1: Custom Validation Field – the idea here is to allow users to have user friendly field type (as simple as the build in single text field) where users can enter regular expressions and custom error messages to setup the custom field via the web browser.

Week 2 extends from week 1: Unique Value Field – the idea here is to allow users to have user friendly field type (as simple as the build in single text field) where users can enable checking for unique values with the optional ability to keep the deafulty Title field in sync with the custom fields value.

Week 3 concludes the three weeks: Surprise Field Type – this one’s a bit more innovative and I rather keep it a little secret,  want to prove the concept before I let the cat out of the bag.