SharePoint Development Blog

        /// <summary>
        /// Create a Publishing page based on an excisting Page Layout
        /// Remember that a SPSite is a top-level site (collection) and
        /// a SPWeb is the current site
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="site">Current Site</param>
        /// <param name="pageName">Name of the new page to create including .aspx</param>
        /// <param name="pageLayoutName">Name of the Page Layout</param>
        private void CreatePublishingPage(SPWeb site, string pageName, string pageLayoutName)
        {
            PublishingSite pubSiteCollection = new PublishingSite(site.Site);
            PublishingWeb pubSite = null;
            if (pubSiteCollection != null)
            {               
                // Assign an object to the pubSite variable
                if (PublishingWeb.IsPublishingWeb(site))
                {
                    pubSite = PublishingWeb.GetPublishingWeb(site);
                }
            }
            // Search for the page layout for creating the new page
            PageLayout currentPageLayout = FindPageLayout(pubSiteCollection, pageLayoutName);
            // Check or the Page Layout could be found in the collection
            // if not (== null, return because the page has to be based on
            // an excisting Page Layout
            if (currentPageLayout == null)
            {
                return;
            }           
            PublishingPageCollection pages = pubSite.GetPublishingPages();
            PublishingPage newPage = pages.Add(pageName, currentPageLayout);
            newPage.Description = pageName.Replace(".aspx", "");
            // Here you can set some properties like:
            newPage.IncludeInCurrentNavigation = true;
            newPage.IncludeInGlobalNavigation = true;
            // End of setting properties
            SPFile publishFile = newPage.ListItem.File;
            publishFile.Update();

            newPage.Update();
            // Check the file in (a major version)
            publishFile.CheckIn("Initial", SPCheckinType.MajorCheckIn);
            publishFile.Publish("Initial");

            // In case of content approval, approve the file
            if (pubSite.PagesList.EnableModeration)
            {
                publishFile.Approve("Initial");
            }
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Find a page layout in the layoutcollection based on the templatename
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="pubSiteCollection">The toplevel publishing site</param>
        /// <param name="templateName">Name of the pagelayout</param>
        /// <returns>Pagelayout if excists or null</returns>
        private PageLayout FindPageLayout(PublishingSite pubSiteCollection, string templateName)
        {
            PageLayoutCollection plCollection = pubSiteCollection.GetPageLayouts(true);
            foreach (Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.PageLayout layout in plCollection)
            {
                // String Comparison based on the Page Layout Name
                if (layout.Name.Equals(templateName, StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase))
                {
                    return layout;
                }
            }
            return null;
        }

[/code]

// Option 1) Inside SharePoint
SPSite siteCollection = SPContext.Current.Site;
SPWeb site = SPContext.Current.Web;

// Option 2) From an external tool
SPSite siteCollection = new SPSite("http://myurl");
SPWeb site = siteCollection.RootWeb;

// Get a ListCollection from the current site
SPListCollection lists = site.Lists;

// Add a custom List to the SharePoint site
lists.Add("Employee", "List containing employees", SPListTemplateType.GenericList);
// Put the new list in a variable
SPList employeeList = lists["Employee"];
// Get the out of the box fields (Title, Attachment etc)
SPFieldCollection fields = employeeList.Fields;
// Change the default title column           
SPField field = fields["Title"];
field.Title = "Name";
// Don't forget the update to commit changes
field.Update();   

// Add a new field
SPField fieldAdd = fields[fields.Add("Address", SPFieldType.Text, true)];

SPView view = employeeList.DefaultView;
SPViewFieldCollection viewFields = view.ViewFields;

// Add the field to the defaultview (all items)
viewFields.Add(fieldAdd);

view.Update();

// Add a record to the new list
SPListItem item = employeeList.Items.Add();
item["Name"] = "Name of the Employee";
item["Address"] = "Address of the employee";

item.Update();

[/code]