How to Require a Unique Title in a SharePoint List

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In this example, I am using –

• MOSS 2007
• JQuery 1.4.2 – http://jquery.com/
• SPServices (A JQuery Library) – http://spservices.codeplex.com/

First let me say, props to the SPServices developers. This is a great project and has become a necessity for my SharePoint development.

Goal – Require a unique title in a SharePoint list

This is helpful when you are using this list as a lookup value in another list or are using some other relational design.

*These steps may be slightly different depending on your configuration. This is a short and ‘to the point’ tutorial – let me know if there are some steps that would benefit from expansion.

1. In SharePoint Designer, open the web site that contains the list you want to modify
2. If you do not already have the JQuery and SPServices libraries installed, do this now.
   1. I usually create a ‘scripts’ folder in the root of the website, then create a ‘js’ folder, then upload my library files there.
3. Next, find the list that you want to modify and expand it.
4. Right click the “NewForm.aspx” and choose “New From Existing Page”
   1. This method automatically changes the list to use our new form
5. In the source view of the Untitled page, find where you want to add the script tags.
   1. I usually add mine inside the main content placeholder.
6. Paste the following  text inside your document –
   
<!-- SPSERVICES JQUERY SCRIPT -->
<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript" src="../../scripts/js/jquery.SPServices-0.5.7.min.js"></script>
<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript" src="../../scripts/js/jquery-1.4.2.min.js"></script>
<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript">
$(document).ready(function() {
$().SPServices.SPRequireUnique({
columnStaticName: "Title",
duplicateAction: 1,
ignoreCase: "true",
initMsg: "This value must be unique.",
initMsgCSSClass: "ms-vb",
errMsg: "This value is not unique.",
errMsgCSSClass: "ms-formvalidation",
completefunc: null
});
});
</script>
7. **Be Aware**
   1. You may need to correct the path of the JS libraries.
      <script language="javascript" type="text/javascript" src="~YOUR-PATH/jquery.SPServices-0.5.7.min.js"></script>
   2. You may not need these script references if your master page references them. This all depends on your current configuration.
8. Save the file in your list as “MyNewForm.aspx”
9. Repeat from step 4, for the “EditForm.aspx” so the title uniqueness can be maintained during an edit process.
10. Now access the ‘New’ button on your list; validation should stop you now from creating a duplicate title.
11. Review the $().SPServices.SPRequireUnique documentation here to discover all the parameters/options.