How to get language-specific field names in SharePoint 2010

In SharePoint 2010 you can access a site using different languages. Recently I had to synchronize list data with an external system, using the list field display names. Since the display name changed with the language, I had to make sure that the external system got the data in a specific language.

How to create lookup fields in CAML that works

For my first post on this blog I will demonstrate how to avoid the most common problem with deploying SharePoint lookup fields.

Basically, a lookup field is defined using CAML just like any other SharePoint field. However, there is a problem: You need to add a reference to the lookup list. There are several ways to achieve this. Below, I have outlined three standard ways to do this, and a fourth way, my preferred, that handles the problems inherent in each of the other three solutions.