Master Page
A crowd favorite, master pages have emerged as the new "it" thing in SharePoint design. Master pages are a feature of ASP.NET 2.0 and allow you to store common page elements, such as a header, content container, and footer, in a single file. This file is then applied to every content page in your site creating a unified and branded look across the entire site.
The benefits to master pages:
- If your design really deviates from the standard SharePoint look and feel, master pages are for you. They allow for the most finite control over your page design
- Multiple master pages can be created for various site needs, such as home splash screens, sub page designs, regional or divisional designs, etc
- You can assign a master page to an entire site, or to a single page, and several options in between. You have excellent control of where the master page is applied within your site
The potential issues that you need to know about:
- Your custom master page will not reach past your standard web pages and affect the application screens (these are the administrative screens peppered throughout the site; you can pick them out by looking at the URL, they always include "_layouts" in the address). For some sites, especially external facing brochureware sites, this isn't a big deal. For others, especially internal sites and Intranets, this can present an issue
- Creating and editing master pages does require a certain web skill set. You need to know HTML, CSS and be comfortable with ASP.NET and understand what a content placeholder is and how to use them
- CSS only based master page designs are a challenge to create! Short of pitching everything provided to you by the application, you will have tables in your design no matter what, and working around those tables and needs for SharePoint will cause you CSS headaches
How to create a master page
A great way to create master pages is to use SharePoint Designer. Yes you can use other tools, but SharePoint Designer helps create that bridge between you and your SharePoint site and just makes working with the site a heck of a lot easier. Through either SharePoint Designer or the SharePoint site interface you can add and manage master pages in the Master Page Gallery and apply master pages to your site and site pages. To create the file in SharePoint Designer you just do a File / New / SharePoint Content / Master Page. If you don't use SharePoint Designer, you can use the web interface to upload a master page to the Master Page Gallery much like you would upload a document to a SharePoint document library
When you first deploy your base master page, it can be rather alarming since there is no design or layout! That is ok, this is a great way to start your design. Add in your design code to the top of the file, and then locate the content placeholders you need in your design. Move the content placeholder code to the appropriate place in your design code, then hide all of the ones you did not use at the bottom of the file where indicated. It is a puzzle approach and you essentially fit together your code and the SharePoint content placeholders to create your custom master page
Another approach is to start off with a master page that SharePoint provides (for WSS sites it is only default.master, publishing sites include several other master pages) and then modify the code from there. We personally don't like this approach because we think it takes more time to create custom master pages this way, and it limits your creativity. When you look at an existing design and try to morph it into your own, you may very well end up with a site design that looks similar to the original
Using the master page you created
Once the master page has been created, you can do several things with it. Using SharePoint Designer you can set the master page to be used for the site, or you can attach it to a single page. If you have a MOSS site, you can also use the site settings to specify the master page to be used for the site. Make sure you publish your MOSS master page before you use it for testing or production
Themes
Themes are very useful and provide a more lightweight way to brand your SharePoint site. A theme can change the existing colors and images of a site, but not the layout of the elements in the site design. A theme does not include any HTML or ASP.NET code, it is only a collection of image files and CSS files. The theme is applied on top of the site, replacing images and CSS styles in the site, essentially re-skinning the site. Themes can be used alone, or in conjunction with a custom master page
The benefits to themes
- Often a theme can handle your design changes for SharePoint. The web page layout for SharePoint uses the standard formula of header, main navigation across the top and a left navigation area. If your design includes the same layout, you may be able to create your design only with a theme
- Themes can be used to alter a design to create different variations of a design for departments, divisions or regional sub sites
- Themes affect all aspects of a site, including the application screens
The potential issues that you need to know about
- When you apply a theme to a site, any child sites will not inherit the theme application. You have to individually apply the theme to the child sites. This is an out-of-the-box limitation, and like most SharePoint issues, can be worked around programmatically. If this will create an issue, check out some of the solutions available for forcing theme application via Features and other means
- When you make a change to a theme, you have to reapply the theme to the site to see the change
- When working with a theme, you can only utilize existing CSS styles used in the master page (be it your own or the default SharePoint ones). If there are elements on the page that need to be moved, you will have to use positioning in the CSS styles to shift their layout. You can't add CSS IDs or class names, so you are limited to what you can do with what is given to you in the master page code.
How to create a theme
Themes are applied to a site in the Site Settings. When a Theme is applied, a copy of the theme is created in the content database and it pops up in SharePoint Designer. This makes for a great way to develop a Theme. When you make a change to any of the files in SharePoint Designer, it will automatically appear in the site. Because of this, SharePoint Designer is a great platform for custom theme development, but we don't suggest leaving these changes in the content database post development. When another theme is applied to the site, the previous theme is wiped out (including your changes) and the new theme is put in its place
So you can create a custom theme in one of two ways. First, just strike out on your own. You can apply a theme to a site, then open up the CSS file in SharePoint Designer and delete out all of the contents and start writing your own style overrides for the site. Add images in the same way. Or, you can pick a theme that looks similar to your design (if one exists) then make modifications to that theme in SharePoint Designer until the theme looks like your design
Don't forget about the power of CSS. There isn't necessarily a one to one relationship with elements on the page. If there is a CSS class or ID attached to a page element, you can dictate many things about that element just using CSS, such as display, placement and look. Through CSS, you can actually create a lot of modifications to the page
Using the theme you created
After you are done tweaking your theme, you can create a more permanent version that lives on the web server and is available to all sites. How to create a theme is very well documented. On the web server in the 12 directory, you create a copy of an existing theme, modify the INF file, theme directory name, and the SPTHEMES.XML file. Then you can strip out the theme contents, and insert in the CSS and images you created in SharePoint Designer. Recycle the application pool for the SharePoint site or reset IIS, and your custom theme is now available for use
CSS
Really no matter how you brand your SharePoint site, you will be dealing with CSS. In addition to master pages and themes, you can choose to only do CSS and not use master pages or themes as a vehicle for implementation. You can just make CSS changes and tell the SharePoint site to reference the new CSS file
The benefit to CSS only solutions
- The CSS file does not have to live on the SharePoint web server. You can point the CSS reference to anywhere else on the web. This is ideal if you don't have access to your web server
The potential issue that you need to know about
- WSS only sites don't have a site setting to specify an alternative CSS file. You will have to change something else in the site in order to pull in the CSS file. You can modify default.master, or a specific content page like default.aspx, or include it at the page level in a Content Editor Web Part. A more elegant way to handle this issue is to use a theme. If you don't have access to the web server, you can assign a theme to your WSS site, empty out the contents of the theme in SharePoint Designer, then point to or include your custom CSS. Just be sure to keep a back up copy
How to use your custom CSS
MOSS has a nice feature that allows you to specify an alternative CSS file in the Site Settings. If you have multiple files you want to include, just specify one file in the site settings, then use the import declaration in the CSS file to include additional CSS files. If you have a WSS only site, see the bullet point above for options
What about editing CORE.CSS?
Yes, ok you can do this, but we really don't recommend it. Here is why:
- You aren't supposed to edit the default SharePoint files - basic rule of thumb and changes can throw you into an "unsupported state". If you choose to do this anyways, create a back up of Core.css before you make any changes so at anytime you can overwrite your modified file and put yourself back into a supported state
- Core.css is HUGE. 15,000 lines of code kind of huge. We say don't edit this file because dealing with that large of a file is difficult and you will quickly get bogged down trying to keep up with your changes
- Core.css isn't the only CSS file that SharePoint uses. In all, there are 26 CSS files in SharePoint (depending on your installation). So really you aren't looking at making edits to only one CSS file, you will probably get into making tweaks for 1-5 files out of that 26. It really comes down to management of your changes and knowing what was modified where. Make it easy and just create a separate style sheet.
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When you browse a Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 site collection, you cannot access the site collection as expected. Instead, you receive an HTTP 404 error message. Additionally, you experience the following symptoms:
- The following error message is logged in the Application log on the server that is running SharePoint Services 3.0:
Event Type: Error
Event Source: Windows SharePoint Services 3
Event Category: Topology
Event ID: 6800
Date: date
Time: time
User: N/A
Computer: computer_name
Description:
The database WSS_Content on computer_name\Microsoft##SSEE is not accessible to missing Windows Internal Database signatures.
- You receive an error message in the upgrade log that resembles the following:
[SPServerSequence] [DEBUG] [date time]: Web service Instance SPWebServiceInstance Parent=SPServer Name=computer_name not added. Status = Provisioning
Finally, you may also receive one of the following error messages:
Access to the table dbo.sites is blocked because the signature is not valid
Access to module dbo.proc_GetCurrent is blocked because the signature is not valid.
This problem occurs after a hotfix package or a public update for Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 is applied
Cause:
This problem occurs if the SPWebService service has not been fully provisioned.
Resolution:
To resolve this problem, follow these steps:
1. Click Start, click Run, type cmd in the Open box, and then click OK.
2. Change to the following directory:
system drive:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\12\Bin
3. At the command prompt, type the following command, and then press ENTER to stop the SPWebService service:
stsadm -o provisionservice -action stop -servicetype spwebservice -servicename ""
4. After the SPWebService service has stopped, type the following command, and then press ENTER to start the SPWebService service:
stsadm -o provisionservice -action start -servicetype spwebservice -servicename ""
5. After the SPWebService service is started, type the following command to complete the hotfix process or the update process:
psconfig -cmd upgrade -inplace b2b -wait -force
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The following describes few advantages of using Windows Sharepoint. ASPHostCentral.com, as a leading Windows Sharepoint and MOSS 2007 hosting provider, proudly presents this article to anyone and we believe it may benefit ASP.NET and Sharepoint community or anyone who are using Sharepoint/MOSS.
1 – Discovered the solutions straight to your business requirements
Small, medium or even world class organizations seeking a more customized deployment can get started quickly with application templates for addressing specific business processes or sets of tasks.
2 – Business security made easy to users
Windows SharePoint able to increase the security of information resources, while decreasing cost and complexity associated with site provisioning, site management, and support.
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Enable workspaces with document storage and retrieval features, including check-in/check-out functionality, version history, custom metadata, and customizable views.
4 – Improve team productivity – the main company priority
Connect people with the information and resources they need. Users can create team workspaces, coordinate calendars, organize documents, and receive important notifications and updates through communication.
5 – Feeling slow loading time with SharePoint interface? Not at all with SharePoint 3.0!
The intelligence of Windows SharePoint improvements in Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 includes enhanced views and menus that simplify navigation within and among SharePoint sites. Integration with familiar productivity tools, including programs in the Microsoft Office system
6 – Now you can manage your documents easier than you thought
Users have the ability to view revisions to documents and restore to previous versions, and the control to set document- and item-level security.
7 – many more
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