Hey there. Welcome to part 3 of my series on SharePoint customisation using JavaScript and web parts.
So here is the lowdown so far. We are trying to find an effective, repeatable way to easily customise SharePoint form pages, so that we can hide fields or form elements when we need to. The goals were to:
- Allow hidden fields based on identity
- Avoid use of SharePoint Designer
- Avoid customisations to the form pages that unghosted the pages from the site definition
So how have we progressed thus far?.
- Part 1 of this series looked at how we can use JavaScript to deal with the common request of hiding form elements from the user in lists and document libraries.
- Part 2 wrapped this JavaScript code into a web part which has been loaded into the SharePoint web part gallery.
So let’s knock the rest of this over and pick up right from we left off…
CleverWorkArounds Coffee requirement of this post depends on how much you hate JavaScript.
Metrosexual web developer 
Socially inept technical guy
[Quick Navigation: Part 1, Part 2, Part 4, Part 5 and Part 6]
Continue reading “More SharePoint Branding – Customisation using JavaScript Part 3″
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Hi again.
JavaScript sucks! There I said it. Despite me hating it as a programming language, I can’t deny that in SharePoint, it does have its uses.
CleverWorkArounds Coffee requirement of this post depends on how much you hate JavaScript.
| Metrosexual web developer |
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| Socially inept technical guy |
|
| Luddite IT manager |
(sorry … why are you here anyway?) |
[Quick Navigation: Part 1, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5 and Part 6]
To quickly recap the first post of this series, we looked at how we can use JavaScript to deal with the common request of hiding form elements from the user in lists and document libraries. The technique demonstrated can be used for columns, buttons and whatever else you want. The method once debugged, is fairly easy to implement with SharePoint designer with and some cut and paste.
But there are several problems with the method that prevent it from getting a better CleverWorkaround rating than “Meh”. They include:
- One size fits all, fields are hidden for all visitors irrespective of need.
- You need to modify the page in SharePoint designer via cut and paste of JavaScript code
- You need to modify auto-generated pages
- You need to modify a page from its site definition
- Insecure, relying on client side to hide content/controls is not a secure solution
Continue reading “More SharePoint Branding – Customisation using JavaScript Part 2″
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Well, here we are! After delving into dark arts where everybody but metrosexual web designers fear to tread (HTML and CSS), we then delved into the areas that metrosexual web designers truly fear to tread (packaging, deployment and even some c# code!). Finally, we get to the area where everybody is interested until it happens to get in their way! (Ooh, I am a cynical old sod tonight).
That is Governance!
Continue reading “SharePoint Branding Part 7 -The ‘governance’ of it all..”
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So, here we are at the fifth article in my series on SharePoint branding. By now, we have left all the master page stuff way behind, and we have created a custom feature to install our branding to a server.
To recap for those of you hitting this page first, I suggest you go back and read this series in order.
- Part 1 dealt with the publishing feature, and some general masterpage/CSS concepts and some quirks (core.css and application.master) that have to be worked around.
- Part 2 delved into the methods to work around the application.master and core.css issue
- Part 3 delved further into the methods to work around the application.master and core.css issue and the option that solved a specific problem for me
- Part 4 then changed tack and introduced how to package up your clever branding
Continue reading “SharePoint Branding Part 5 – Feature Improvements and Bugs”
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Welcome to the fourth article in my series on SharePoint branding. Sorry for the time it’s taken to get this one out, but a certain game called “The Legend of Zelda: Hourglass Phantom” on NDS got in the way. I finished it yesterday and only had to cheat via google once 
. Anyway it’s out of my system now so I can get back to this.
After 3 epic articles on all that painful CSS and master page stuff (part one, two and three), we now focus on what you have to do to get your branding masterpiece deployed to the SharePoint farm the clever way. In this next set of articles, we will look at where things should go, and then how to get it there the right way.
Continue reading “SharePoint Branding Part 4 – Packaging up your masterpiece into a Feature”
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After a web designer applied a new master page to a site, he killed the site. We saw these messages (debug logging was enabled on the site)
Server Error in ‘/’ Application.
——————————————————————————–
Compilation Error
Description: An error occurred during the compilation of a resource required to service this request. Please review the following specific error details and modify your source code appropriately.
Continue reading “Careful with pre-requisite SharePoint Features”
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Welcome to the third article (or is it a manifesto?) in my series on SharePoint branding. In this article, we continue examining methods to incorporate CSS files into master pages for clever branding. In my first article of this topic, I discussed what I think is the main issue with SharePoint branding – APPLICATION.MASTER and CORE.CSS. The previous article to this one, examined 5 methods to deal with the trial and tribulations of APPLICATION.MASTER and CORE.CSS behavior. So, to recap where we got to, let’s re-examine the original scenario and then look at the summary of the 5 different several methods with their relative merits and issues.
The Scenario
Like many organizations, my client had an existing corporate branding standard that was used in a non SharePoint environment and naturally enough, they wanted their SharePoint site to look like this branding. This was for a fully featured intranet/extranet that utilized most of the MOSS2007 features such as
- Document collaboration
- Infopath Forms Services
- Workflow
- Enterprise Search
- Excel services
- Business Data Catalog
- Custom web parts
- Event Handlers
It was *not* a public site at all.
Initial investigation soon concluded that we would need a custom master page. DEFAULT.MASTER didn’t quite have the design flexibility that was required. In fact the branding requirements were actually closer to some of the built in master pages such as BLUEGLASS.MASTER, since this was for intranet purposes, particularly collaborative document management, those master pages are unsuitable.
Continue reading “SharePoint Branding – How CSS works with master pages – Part 3″
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Jeez if I had realised how long it would take to write these damn articles, I probably wouldn’t have started! In my first article of this topic, I discussed the theory behind master pages, the publishing feature, and what I think is the main issue with SharePoint branding – APPLICATION.MASTER and CORE.CSS. In this article I will now list a branding scenario that I had to deal with, and the various options you can use to deal with the challenges of APPLICATION.MASTER and CORE.CSS
The Scenario
Like many organizations, my client had an existing corporate branding standard that was used in a non SharePoint environment and naturally enough, they wanted their SharePoint site to look like this branding.
This was for a fully featured intranet/extranet that utilized most of the MOSS2007 features such as
- Document collaboration
- Infopath Forms Services
- Workflow
- Enterprise Search
- Excel services
- Business Data Catalog
- Custom web parts
- Event Handlers
It was *not* a public site at all.
Initial investigation soon concluded that we would need a custom master page. DEFAULT.MASTER didn’t quite have the design flexibility that was required. In fact the branding requirements were actually closer to some of the built in master pages such as BLUEGLASS.MASTER, since this was for intranet purposes, particularly collaborative document management, those master pages are unsuitable. (I will explain why soon).
Continue reading “SharePoint Branding – How CSS works with master pages – Part 2″
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This is version 2 of this article, after I went and accidentally blew away my first masterpiece that took literally days to write. If this has ever happened to you, don’t you hate it, that your second version is never as good as your first?
Quick Links: [Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7]
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Anyway, this is (attempt 2 of) part 1 of a series of articles that cover SharePoint branding in some detail. Kudos has to be given Heather Solomon especially for her wonderful site and articles on this subject (and author of the book to your left . In Addition, Andrew Connell and Mike have done some great work that helped me in this area.
So, SharePoint branding was the catalyst behind my deciding to make a blog and call it cleverworkarounds. The whole experience at times made me want to change careers, but I ultimately got there. I would go down one path, only to be stumped by a problem, and think I have the solution, only to find another quirk that needed another workaround. So the aim of cleverworkarounds is to determine the least dodgy way to implement branding of a SharePoint installation. No doubt people will disagree with the conclusions I’ve reached, but that’s expected since the cleverness of a workaround really depends on your needs.
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So this series of articles will cover a few issues. First some basic master page theory, then I will talk about the difference between branding in WSS3 (the freebie version) and MOSS07 (the pricey one). I will then take you through the quirks of CSS and master pages. Subsequent articles will get into the details of branding techniques and finally finish off by covering the governance issues surrounding branding.
Continue reading “SharePoint Branding – How CSS works with master pages – Part 1″
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