I have completed my application for import/export of variations, I have uploaded everything to codeplex so have a look there:

http://www.codeplex.com/variationsettings

A neat little command utility that lets you do three things:
- Export the current variationsettings and labels to xml
- Import the variationsettings and label from xml
- EXPERIMENTAL: create the variation hierachies

Background
This application was created to extend our daily buildprocess for a public internet website

More Information
Check out Michiel Lankamp’s blog entry: http://www.sharepointblog.nl/2007/10/14/variationsettings-importexport-utility-on-codeplex/

Want the code?
Get it from http://www.codeplex.com/variationsettings/SourceControl/ListDownloadableCommits.aspx

Want the build?
Get it from http://www.codeplex.com/variationsettings/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx

Last week I was trying to enable variations using a feature in SharePoint, but I soon realized that I had a problem because Microsoft decided to make all the variation-class internal. So that shouldn’t be a problem, why not use reflection. That didn’t work either, so back to the good old Lutz Roeder’s Reflector to see what’s going on. I soon found out that variations are dependent on 2 hidden lists (VariationSettings, VariationLabels), both lists can be found using the AllProperties of the root web:

using (SPSite site = new SPSite("http://localhost"))
{
    using (SPWeb rootweb = site.RootWeb)
    {
        string _VarRelationshipsListId = rootweb.AllProperties["_VarRelationshipsListId"].ToString();
        string _VarLabelsListId = rootweb.AllProperties["_VarLabelsListId"].ToString();

        SPList VariationLabels = rootweb.Lists[new Guid(_VarLabelsListId)];
        SPList VariationSettings = rootweb.Lists[new Guid(_VarRelationshipsListId)];
    }
}

The variationlabels list contains a listitem for each variation that is available on the site, just add a new listitem to the list (make sure there is only one listitem that has the field “Is Source” set to true):

SPListItem variation = VariationLabels.Items.Add();
variation["Hierarchy Is Created"] = false;
variation[SPBuiltInFieldId.Title] = "EN";
variation["Description"] = "English";
variation["Flag Control Display Name"] = "English";
variation["Language"] = "en—US";
variation["Locale"] = 1033;
variation["Hierarchy Creation Mode"] = "Publishing Sites and All Pages";
variation["Is Source"] = false;
variation.Update();

The variationsettings are a little bit different, the settings are saved to the propertybag of the rootfolder of the list:

VariationSettings.RootFolder.Properties["SourceVarRootWebTemplatePropertyName"] = “sitetemplate#0”;
VariationSettings.RootFolder.Properties["EnableAutoSpawnPropertyName"] = true;
VariationSettings.RootFolder.Properties["AutoSpawnStopAfterDeletePropertyName"] = true;
VariationSettings.RootFolder.Properties["UpdateWebPartsPropertyName"] = true;
VariationSettings.RootFolder.Properties["CopyResourcesPropertyName"] = true;
VariationSettings.RootFolder.Properties["SendNotificationEmailPropertyName"] = true;
VariationSettings.Update();

These settings where easy, but then came the hard part, how do I create the hierarchies since all logic is internally scoped. Then I had a brainwave, why not try the good old webclient… It works:

using (WebClient webClient = new WebClient())
{
    byte[] response;
    webClient.UseDefaultCredentials = true;
    response = webClient.DownloadData(input.Url + "/_Layouts/VariationLabels.aspx");

    //get viewstate and requestdigest from page
    string viewstate = ExtractHiddenValue("__VIEWSTATE", Encoding.ASCII.GetString(response));
    string requestdigest = ExtractHiddenValue("__REQUESTDIGEST", Encoding.ASCII.GetString(response));

    //format the postdata
    string postData =
        String.Format("__VIEWSTATE={0}&__REQUESTDIGEST={1}&__EVENTTARGET={2}&__EVENTARGUMENT={3}",
                      viewstate, requestdigest,
                      "ctl00$PlaceHolderMain$ctl00$RptControls$variationLabelsCreateHierarchiesToolBarButton",
                      "");

    //send postdata to server
    webClient.Headers.Add("Content-Type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded");
    webClient.UploadData(input.Url + "/_Layouts/VariationLabels.aspx", "POST",
                         Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(postData));
}

Now I was finally able to create the hierachies in my build-script.