CleverWorkarounds After much frustration, it seems DEFAULT is the way to go…

February 28, 2008

More SharePoint Branding – Customisation using JavaScript Part 3

Filed under: Application Development,Branding,JavaScript,master pages,page layouts,SharePoint,Web Parts — admin @ 10:56 pm


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    image

Socially inept technical guy    imageimageimage

[Quick Navigation: Part 1, Part 2, Part 4, Part 5 and Part 6]

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More SharePoint Branding – Customisation using JavaScript Part 2

Filed under: Application Development,Branding,Governance,JavaScript,master pages,page layouts,SharePoint,Web Parts — admin @ 10:11 pm

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    image
Socially inept technical guy    imageimageimage
Luddite IT manager                   imageimageimageimageimageimageimageimageimage 
(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

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November 14, 2007

SharePoint Branding Part 7 -The ‘governance’ of it all..

Filed under: Branding,COBiT,CSS,Features,Governance,ISO17799/27001,ITIL,master pages,page layouts,planning,SharePoint,Solutions — Tags: , , , , , — admin @ 3:16 am

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!

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October 8, 2007

SharePoint Branding – How CSS works with master pages – Part 1

Filed under: Branding,CSS,Features,master pages,page layouts,SharePoint — admin @ 3:04 pm

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]

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.

 

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.

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