You can enable “Audience Targeting” in list level in SharePoint 2010, When you enable the Audience Targeting a filed called “Target Audience” is added to the list and you can populate this field with target audience for every item to show the items only to the specified audience. But the audience filtering doesn’t apply to XSLTListViewWebPart and only applies to “ContentByQueryWebpart”. That means, you cant expect the XSLTListViewWebPart to filter the items based on audience while you are viewing the items in the list view or through XSLTListViewWebPart in any web part page, This item level audience filtering works only when you use the “ContentByQueryWebpart” and configures it to apply audience filtering.

This behavior is because item level audience filtering is implemented through “CrossListQueryCache” and “CrossListQueryInfo” API and ContentByQueryWebpart uses them to query against the sites and lists, Hence able to apply the item level audience filtering in the ContentByQueryWebpart, But the XSLTListViewWebPart renders the item based on view (SPView) which fetches the item based on the “Query” (SPQuery) element of view. In Short, Item level audience filtering cannot be applied for XSLTListViewWebPart.

I have implemented the following work around to filter the list items based on audience in the XSLTListViewWebPart

1.    Construct the CrossListQueryInfo and CrossListQueryCache to fetch the items from the list
2.    The result set after executing the CrossListQueryInfo would be “DataTable” which cannot be fed to XSLTListViewWebPart directly, So need to loop through the “rows” in the datatable and get the “Target Audience” field value
3.    Construct the CAML query on the fly based on the “Target Audience” field value in the result data table and apply the query to the current view using XMLDefinition property of XSLTListViewWebPart.
4.    Implement the above steps in a hidden control/delegate/WebPart and it to the “AllItems.aspx” view page or to any other web part page which has the XSLTListViewWebPart.

Following is the sample hidden web part which implements the above said work around, Create the hidden web part and add it to the Web Part page which has the XSLTListViewWebPart :

It’s a hidden web part doesn’t carry any control and the code is implemented in the “OnLoad” event of the Web part :

protected override void OnLoad(EventArgs e)

        {

            base.OnLoad(e);

            CrossListQueryInfo cqInfo = new CrossListQueryInfo();

            cqInfo.Lists = "<Lists><List ID=\"60C4944A-9E1C-4089-ADDF-A6EAD9274029\" /></Lists>"; // Hard coded GUID of the List

            cqInfo.AudienceFieldId = "Target_x0020_Audiences";

            cqInfo.ViewFields = "<FieldRef Name=\"Title\" /><FieldRef Name=\"Body\" /><FieldRef Name=\"Target_x0020_Audiences\" />";

            cqInfo.Webs = "<Webs Scope=\"Recursive\" />";

            cqInfo.Query = "<Where></Where>";

            cqInfo.RowLimit = 500;

            cqInfo.FilterByAudience = true;

            cqInfo.UseCache = true;

            CrossListQueryCache clqc = new CrossListQueryCache(cqInfo);

            DataTable dt = clqc.GetSiteData(SPContext.Current.Site, SPContext.Current.Web.Url); // Get the datatable after Audience filtering

            SPWeb web = SPContext.Current.Web;

            SPList oList = SPContext.Current.Web.Lists["Custom Announcements"];

            SPLimitedWebPartManager webPartManager = web.GetLimitedWebPartManager(web.Url + "/sitepages/Home.aspx", PersonalizationScope.Shared);

            oWP = this.WebPartManager.WebParts.OfType<Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages.XsltListViewWebPart>().FirstOrDefault();

            SPQuery oQuery = new SPQuery();

            string query = BuildCAMLQuery(dt); // Build the Query for the current view to filter the items by getting the Target Audience values from Datatable

            XmlDocument viewXmlDoc = new XmlDocument();

            viewXmlDoc.LoadXml(oWP.XmlDefinition);

            XmlNode queryNode = viewXmlDoc.DocumentElement.SelectSingleNode("Query");

            queryNode.InnerXml = query;

            oWP.XmlDefinition = viewXmlDoc.OuterXml;

            this.Hidden = true;

        }

Following is the BuildCAMLQuery method which is used above in which i am building the CAML query based on the values of returned dataset from CrossListQueryCache

public string BuildCAMLQuery(DataTable oDt)

        {

            StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();

            sb.Append("<Where>");

            sb.Append("<In>");

            sb.Append("<FieldRef Name='Target_x0020_Audiences'/>");

            sb.Append("<Values>");

            foreach (DataRow dr in oDt.Rows)

            {

                sb.Append("<Value Type='TargetTo'>" + dr["Target_x0020_Audiences"].ToString() + "</Value>");

            }

            sb.Append("</Values>");

            sb.Append("</In>");

            sb.Append("</Where>");

            return sb.ToString();

        }    

Deploy this WebPart to the site and add the Hidden WebPart  to the view page or to the web part page in which you have the XSLTListViewWebPart, I have a hardcoded List ID in the above sample, You can create a configurable web part property to provide the list id.

                                                        HAPPY CUSTOMIZING

There have been so many Myths around “SharePoint 2013 Preview Stand alone installation” and its issues… Of course lots of work around to overcome the issues are revolving around in the web, Before you try them please read below :

Following is the main issue which you may encounter while installing the SharePoint 2013 preview in “Stand Alone” mode in a Work Group environment or in a Domain Controller:

ErrorCode:SubStatus:
Service running under Network Service account in workgroup environment is not supported

Don’t work around this issue by creating Configuration Database through PowerShell by excluding the Distribution Cache service…. Even though your server will be up and running but you will loose lot of functions (Especially User Profiles and My Sites) around distribution cache and also will see lots of unexpected behavior in service application such as User profile, Search Etc.

I have installed the SharePoint 2013 Preview in a stand alone server connected to my domain running in a different server and i don't have any issues and everything went well.

So the Moral of the story is, Not only the complete farm set up (Which is obvious), Don’t install the SharePoint 2013 Preview in a Work Group environment or in a Domain controller even in Stand alone server set up which is not supported.

Product group is updating the documentation and will be updated in a week or so.

When it comes to trimming search results on BCS external system, there are two approaches : You can trim during CRAWL time or during QUERY time.

QUERY time security trimming :

Trimming search results at query time requires that the permission for the current user be checked against every item returned from the search query (Crawled URL) after the query is complete. This is potentially a very expensive process, but it may be required because of the external system or because SharePoint is using something other than active directory for security. If you are using NTLM users for granting permissions for individual item in external system then the recommended is to go for CRAWL time security trimming as Query time security trimming is expensive process. For CRAWL time security trimming all you need to include is a column to your external system table which will carry the permission information for the item (ROW). If you have huge external system which is already built and if you feel including a column with permission populated in it would be a tedious work then you can opt for query time security trimming.

CRAWL time security trimming :

Trimming search results in CRAWL time is preferred approach, because you can build up an Access Control List (ACL) during the crawl that becomes part of the Search Index. Either you can have the set of security principal stored in the external system (in BYTE Array format) for each item and fetch it using BDC model or you can store the user information in external system(in Domain\username String format) for each item and fetch it as a Byte array through BDC .NET Assembly connector. The reason to fetch the security principal information in Byte Array is because BCS uses in built “WindowsSecurityDescriptorField” property which expects Byte Array to be returned.

Implementing a CRAWL time security trimming in the BDC model which directly connects with external data source is quite easy. All you need to do is to include is the “WindowsSecurityDescriptorField” property to the specific finder method instance in your BDC model and need to map the external system column which carries the ACL information. (The ACL information in the back end external system need to be stored as BYTE array data type). Following is the sample specific finder method instance of BDCM looks like with CRAWL time security trimming. NOTE : If you are adding any new set of permission then you need run the FULL CRAWL again since the ACL will be built during the Crawl and will be part of the index

The highlighted values below tells you the methodology explained here :

<Method Name="Item SpecificFinder ">

  <Properties>

    <Property Name="RdbCommandType" Type="System.Data.CommandType, System.Data,

Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089">Text</Property>

    <Property Name="RdbCommandText" Type="System.String">

      SELECT [Identifier] ,

      [SecurityDescriptor] FROM [Test].[dbo].[Items] WHERE [Identifier] = @Identifier

    </Property>

    <Property Name="BackEndObjectType" Type="System.String">SqlServerTable</Property>

    <Property Name="BackEndObject" Type="System.String">Items</Property>

    <Property Name="Schema" Type="System.String">dbo</Property>

  </Properties>

  <Parameters>

    <Parameter Direction="In" Name="@Identifier">

      <TypeDescriptor TypeName="System.Int32" IdentifierName="Identifier" Name="Identifier" />

    </Parameter>

    <Parameter Direction="Return" Name="BaseItemsRead Item">

      <TypeDescriptor TypeName="System.Data.IDataReader, System.Data, Version=2.0.0.0,

Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" IsCollection="true" Name="BaseItemsRead Item">

        <TypeDescriptors>

          <TypeDescriptor TypeName="System.Data.IDataRecord, System.Data, Version=2.0.0.0,

Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" Name="BaseItemsRead ItemElement">

            <TypeDescriptors>

              <TypeDescriptor TypeName="System.Int32" IdentifierName="Identifier" Name="Identifier"/>

              <TypeDescriptor TypeName="System.Byte[], mscorlib, Version=2.0.0.0,

Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b77a5c561934e089" IsCollection="true" Name="SecurityDescriptor">

                <TypeDescriptors>

                  <TypeDescriptor TypeName="System.Byte" Name="SecurityDescriptorElement" />

                </TypeDescriptors>

              </TypeDescriptor>

            </TypeDescriptors>

          </TypeDescriptor>

        </TypeDescriptors>

      </TypeDescriptor>

    </Parameter>

  </Parameters>

  <MethodInstances>

    <MethodInstance Type="SpecificFinder" ReturnParameterName="BaseItemsRead Item"

ReturnTypeDescriptorName="BaseItemsRead ItemElement" Name="BaseItemsRead Item"

DefaultDisplayName="ReadSecurity">

      <Properties>

        <Property Name="WindowsSecurityDescriptorField" Type="System.String">

          SecurityDescriptor

        </Property>

      </Properties>

    </MethodInstance>

  </MethodInstances>

</Method>

Steps to implement CRAWL time security trimming in .NET assembly connector

Implementing CRAWL time security trimmer in the .NET assembly connector requires the definition of a “BinarySecurityDescriptorAccessor” method. A “BinarySecurityDescriptorAccessor” method accepts at least an identifier and returns a BYTE array which represents a set of security principals and their associated permissions for the entity instance. . If your .NET assembly is connected with external system then you can get the Security descriptor value by passing the identifier to the external system provided the external should have the security descriptor value stored for every item. The security descriptor returned from the method becomes part of the search index and can be used to trim search results. For ex : if your BCS .NET assembly connector is connected with SQL external system then you can get the security descriptor value stored in the SQL table for every row and can built the ACL in the .NET assembly method and can return it.

NOTE : If you are adding any new set of permission then you need run the FULL CRAWL again since the ACL will be built during the Crawl and will be part of the index

For sample purpose, You can consider the following XML file, Which defines security policy associated with your external system. (This is to show you the sample considering to grant and deny access to set of users for the complete external system items, If you want to grant and deny access to set of users for different items then it’s always better to store the set of users in the external system, retrieve the row based on the identifier and retract the value of the security descriptor field and grant access to the user)

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<Policy>

  <Grant>

    <Account Name="domain\syedi" />

  </Grant>

  <Deny>

    <Account Name="domain\ibrahim" />

  </Deny>

</Policy>

You first need to define a “BinarySecurityDescriptorAccessor” in the .NET assembly connector at a Minimum an “In” parameter which must be defined as the “Identifier” and a “Return” parameter as the ‘Byte’ array. You need to define a Filter Descriptor to pass in the user name of the current user who is Crawling the BCS content source (“DefaultContentAccess” account), This account will be used to build the ACL for each instance during the crawl. So you need to have two input (‘In’) parameter, an Identifier and the current logged on user who is crawling the content. Use the VS designer to create “BinarySecurityDescriptorAccessor” method instance with above told input and return parameters along with the Filter Descriptor.

After the method “BinarySecurityDescriptorAccessor” is defined in the VS designer, Visual Studio automatically stub out the implementation. In addition to the “BinarySecurityDescriptorAccessor” method you can also map the Security descriptor field using the “WindowsSecurityDescriptorField” property. If the “WindowsSecurityDescriptorField” property is not present, the “BinarySecurityDescriptorAccessor” method will be called whenever the security descriptor of the entity instance is needed.  The BDCM for “BinarySecurityDescriptorAccessor” method instance will look like follows once you designed it in VS :

<Method Name="ReadSecurityDescriptor">

  <FilterDescriptors>

    <FilterDescriptor Name="UserFilter" Type="UserContext" />

  </FilterDescriptors>

  <Parameters>

    <Parameter Name="Id" Direction="In">

      <TypeDescriptor Name="IdTypeDescriptor" TypeName="System.String" IdentifierName="Identifier1" />

    </Parameter>

    <Parameter Name="User" Direction="In">

      <TypeDescriptor Name="CurrentUser" TypeName="System.String" AssociatedFilter="UserFilter" />

    </Parameter>

    <Parameter Name="Acl" Direction="Return">

      <TypeDescriptor Name="MySecurityDescriptor" TypeName="System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerable`1[System.Byte]" IsCollection="true">

        <TypeDescriptors>

          <TypeDescriptor Name="SecurityDescriptorByte" TypeName="System.Byte" IsCollection="false" />

        </TypeDescriptors>

      </TypeDescriptor>

    </Parameter>

  </Parameters>

  <MethodInstances>

    <MethodInstance Name="ReadSecurityDescriptorInstance" Type="BinarySecurityDescriptorAccessor" ReturnParameterName="Acl" ReturnTypeDescriptorPath="MySecurityDescriptor">

      <Property Name="WindowsSecurityDescriptorField" Type="System.String">

        MySecurityDescriptor

      </Property>

    </MethodInstance>

  </MethodInstances>

</Method>

Now once the Method is defined in BDCM, You need to implement the code in the .NET assembly for the BinarySecurityDescriptorAccessor method instance. In this case, You need to create a ACL based on the policy provided in the XML file, The following code shows the complete implementation of this method in .NET assembly connector

        public static byte[] ReadSecurityDescriptor(string Id, stringUser)

        {

            Uri uri = new Uri("C:/BCSSecurity/policy.xml");

            XDocument policyfile = XDocument.Load(uri.AbsoluteUri);

            NTAccount oAcc = new NTAccount(User.Split('\\')[0], User.Split('\\')[1]);

            SecurityIdentifier workerSid = (SecurityIdentifier)oAcc.Translate(typeof(SecurityIdentifier)); // Creates a Security Identifier for the currently logged on user who is crawling ; DefaultContentAccess account

            CommonSecurityDescriptor csd = new CommonSecurityDescriptor(false, false, ControlFlags.None, workerSid, null, null,null); // Creates a Security descriptor to build the ACL by keeping the Crawling user as Owner (SecurityIdentifier) of the ACL

            //populating the Common Security descriptor (ACL) with the set of user to whom to GRANT the access by reading it from the policy file

            var grant = from account in policyfile.Descendants("Grant").First().Descendants("Account") selectaccount;

            foreach (var acc ingrant)

            {

                NTAccount ntAcc = new NTAccount(acc.Attribute("Name").Value.Split('\\')[0], acc.Attribute("Name").Value.Split('\\')[1]);

                SecurityIdentifier Sid = (SecurityIdentifier)ntAcc.Translate(typeof(SecurityIdentifier));

                csd.DiscretionaryAcl.AddAccess(AccessControlType.Allow,Sid, unchecked((int)0xffffffffL), InheritanceFlags.None, PropagationFlags.None); // Add the user read from policy file to the Coomon Security Desciptor object with Allow Access Control type

            }

            //populating the Common Security descriptor (ACL) with the set of user to whom to DENY the access by reading it from the policy file

            var deny = from account in policyfile.Descendants("Deny").First().Descendants("Account") selectaccount;

            foreach (var acc indeny)

            {

                NTAccount ntAcc = new NTAccount(acc.Attribute("Name").Value.Split('\\')[0], acc.Attribute("Name").Value.Split('\\')[1]);

                SecurityIdentifier Sid = (SecurityIdentifier)ntAcc.Translate(typeof(SecurityIdentifier));

                csd.DiscretionaryAcl.AddAccess(AccessControlType.Deny, Sid, unchecked((int)0xffffffffL), InheritanceFlags.None, PropagationFlags.None); // Add the user read from policy file to the Coomon Security Desciptor object with Allow Access Control type

            }

            byte[] secDesc = new byte[csd.BinaryLength];

            csd.GetBinaryForm(secDesc, 0);

            returnsecDesc;

        }

Code flow for Creation of ACL in the above method implementation :

The first thing happens in the BinarySecurityDescriptorAccessor method implementation is that the XML policy file is loaded and a new “NTAccount” object is created based on the identity of the current user. During Crawl time, The identity of the user will be the account used to crawl the external system content source (DefaultContentAccess account). The implementation code will make this account as the owner of the security descriptor for the entity instance. It will do this by creating a “SecurityIdentifier” and setting that as the owner for the CommonSecurityDescriptor. The CommonSecurityDescriptor is the object that will hold the Access Control List.

The next step is to run a LINQ query on the policy file loaded and return all the account that will be granted access (If you have stored the set of user permission information in external system as afield in the table then you can retrieve it from the back end, In the sample its retrieved from the policy file). For each of this account an entry is made in the access control list to grant access. Similarly, entries are made in the access control list to deny access for designated accounts in the policy file. Finally the CommonSecurityDescriptor object is transformed into a byte array and returned from the Method.

Once the method implementation is complete along with the “Finder” method instance with Root Finder Property or “IDEnumerator” Method instance, the .NET assembly connector may be deployed to SharePoint. From here it can be used to as a Content Source in the Search. The Finder or IDEnumerator method instance (In MOSS 2007, IDEnumerator method instance is mandatory for crawling, But in SPS 2010 either you can have IDEnumerator method instance or you can have a Finder method instance with Root Finder property description) will take care of Crawling and the BinarySecurityDescriptorAccessormethod instance will take care of Item level security trimming during crawling.

You can find the complete Project in the attachment.

BDCSecurity.rar

You can find the following MSDN article which walk through you on adding a new link to the mobile view page https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms457259.aspx 

The above given article will give you a clear idea about customizing the Mobile view pages and the role played by “MobileDefaultTemplates.ascx” control. In this blog post i am going to walk through about customizing the mobile ITEM FORM PAGES to customize their navigation control. Consider my requirement is to customize the navigation of Save, Cancel and Home links to different pages and would like to wipe out the “Go back to List” link.

 The rendering controls for the Mobile item form pages are rendered through rendering templates registered in the OOB “MobileDefaultTemplates.ascx” control. There are several rendering templates available in the “MobileDefaultTemplates.ascx” to render the View, Title, Content and Navigation of the item form pages.

Here our requirement is to customize the behavior of “Save”, “Cancel” and “Home” links which are navigation control for the item form pages. These controls are rendered through the Navigation rendering template in the “MobileDefaultTemplates.ascx”. Following are the rendering template for Navigation controls in New, Edit and Disp forms.

New Form :

<SharePoint:RenderingTemplate RunAt="Server" ID="Mobile_Default_NewForm_Navigation">

      <Template>

            <SPMobile:SPMobileComponent RunAt="Server" TemplateName="Mobile_Default_EditForm_Navigation" />

      </Template>

</SharePoint:RenderingTemplate>

Edit Form :

                <SharePoint:RenderingTemplate RunAt="Server" ID="Mobile_Default_EditForm_Navigation">

      <Template>

            <SPMobile:SPMobileFormDigest         RunAt="Server" />

            <SPMobile:SPMobileSaveNavigation     RunAt="Server" Text="<%$Resources:wss, mobile_button_save_text%>" BreakAfter="false" />

            <SPMobile:SPMobileCancelNavigation   RunAt="Server" Text="<%$Resources:wss, mobile_button_cancel_text%>" />

            <SPMobile:SPMobileListViewNavigation RunAt="Server" Text="<%$Resources:wss, mobile_navigation_backlist_text%>" AccessKey="#" />

            <SPMobile:SPMobileHomePageNavigation  RunAt="Server" Text="<%$Resources:wss, mobile_navigation_home_text%>" AccessKey="0" />

      </Template>

</SharePoint:RenderingTemplate>

Disp Form:

                <SharePoint:RenderingTemplate RunAt="Server" ID="Mobile_Default_DispForm_Navigation">

      <Template>

            <SPMobile:SPMobileEditFormNavigation RunAt="Server" Text="<%$Resources:wss, mobile_navigation_edit_text%>"     AccessKey="8" />

            <SPMobile:SPMobileListViewNavigation RunAt="Server" Text="<%$Resources:wss, mobile_navigation_backlist_text%>" AccessKey="#" />

            <SPMobile:SPMobileHomePageNavigation RunAt="Server" Text="<%$Resources:wss, mobile_navigation_home_text%>"     AccessKey="0" />

      </Template>

</SharePoint:RenderingTemplate>

      With this said now we had a clear understanding that the Navigation controls in mobile item form pages are rendered through rendering template and we have to customize this rendering template to render your own custom control to implement the requirement. We cannot make changes to the OOB MobileDefaultTemplates.ascx which is not supported. So you have to override the templates through a custom MobileDefaultTemplates.ascx. But overriding with the same rendering template ID will apply the changes globally but you require the customization specific to a list instance. We cannot directly apply the rendering templates to a specific list instance but we can apply it to the specific lists getting created from a specific list template. So the first step is to create your custom list template and install and activate it in the SharePoint farm.

        Create a custom list template based on a OOB template by copying the OOB list definition feature. In this sample, I have created a custom List template based on the OOB “CustomList” definition which you can find under 12/Template/Features folder. Copy the OOB “CustomList” folder and paste it under the features folder with custom name. Change the feature ID, List Template type and install and activate the feature. In the sample here for further walkthrough consider List template type as “1786” (You can provide any template type rather than OOB template Type ID’s). [Refer the attachment for the custom list template feature]

          So now the custom list template is available to create the list instances. Now let’s look into customizing the rendering template for your requirement.

You can easily find from the above rendering template that each navigation control is rendered through the class from Microsoft.SharePoint.MobileControls namespace. you have to create a class inheriting from the specific class and need to override the methods to implement your requirement for Save, Cancel and Home navigation respectively. Following are the classes i created for custom SAVE, CANCEL and HOME navigation control respectively from SPMobileSaveNavigation, SPMobileCancelNavigation and SPMobileHomeNavigation. I just wanted to Navigate to “hhstart.html” which i placed under the “Layouts/Mobile” folder when clicking on Home and to “quit.html” while clicking on Cancel and for Save button i would like to save the item and be on the same page. It’s just a sample :)

namespace MobileControlForNew

{

    public class MymobileHome:SPMobileHomePageNavigation // HOME

    {

          protected override string PageFileName

        {

            get

            {

                return "hhstart.html";

            }

        }

    }

    public class MymobileSave : SPMobileSaveNavigation // SAVE

    {

        protected override void OnClick(object sender, EventArgs e)

        {

            //base.OnClick(sender, e);

            base.MobilePage.Validate();

            if (base.MobilePage.IsValid)

            {

                this.SaveItem(this.MobileContext);

                this.Redirect();

            }

        }

        protected override void Redirect()

        {

            //base.Redirect();

            this.Context.Response.RedirectLocation = this.RedirectUrl;

        }

        public override string RedirectUrl

        {

            get

            {

                return base.RedirectUrl;

            }

            set

            {

                base.RedirectUrl = this.MobileContext.CurrentFolderUrl;

            }

        }

    }

    public class MymobileCancel : SPMobileCancelNavigation  // CANCEL

    {

        public override string RedirectUrl

        {

            get

            {

                return base.RedirectUrl = this.Web.Url + "/_layouts/mobile/quit.html";

            }

            set

            {

                base.RedirectUrl = value;

            }

        }

    }

}

Compile the project and place the DLL into GAC. [Find the attachment for the reference of the class library project]

          Now with the custom control ready, you need to render this control for your custom list templates mobile item form pages. Create a custom “MobileDefaultTemplates.ascx” control and place it under the 12/Template/Control Templates folder. We have to render the Navigation rendering template for New, Edit and Disp form along with the custom controls and different ID. The ID has a format to be followed i.e. Mobile_<List template type>_<Form Name>_Navigation ( This format is same for other templates like View, Contents etc.). Following is the entry for the custom MobileDefaultTemplates.ascx

<%@ Control Language="C#"   %> <%@ Assembly Name="Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" %> <%@ Register TagPrefix="mobile" Namespace="System.Web.UI.MobileControls" Assembly="System.Web.Mobile, Version=1.0.3300.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a" %> <%@ Register TagPrefix="SharePoint" Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls" Assembly="Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" %> <%@ Register TagPrefix="SPMobile" Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint.MobileControls" Assembly="Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" %>

<%@ Assembly Name="MobileControlForNew, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=a98d75670103c16e" %>

<%@ Register TagPrefix="Mymobile" Namespace="MobileControlForNew" Assembly="MobileControlForNew, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=a98d75670103c16e" %>

<SharePoint:RenderingTemplate RunAt="Server" ID="Mobile_1786_NewForm_Navigation">

   <Template>

         <SPMobile:SPMobileComponent RunAt="Server" TemplateName="Mobile_1786_EditForm_Navigation" />

   </Template>

</SharePoint:RenderingTemplate>

<SharePoint:RenderingTemplate RunAt="Server" ID="Mobile_1786_EditForm_Navigation">

   <Template>

         <SPMobile:SPMobileFormDigest ID="SPMobileFormDigest1"         RunAt="Server" />

         <Mymobile:MymobileSave  RunAt="Server" Text="<%$Resources:wss, mobile_button_save_text%>" BreakAfter="false" />

         <Mymobile:MymobileCancel   RunAt="Server" Text="<%$Resources:wss, mobile_button_cancel_text%>" />

         <Mymobile:MymobileHome RunAt="Server" Text="<%$Resources:wss, mobile_navigation_home_text%>" AccessKey="0" />

   </Template>

</SharePoint:RenderingTemplate>

<SharePoint:RenderingTemplate RunAt="Server" ID="Mobile_1786_DispForm_Navigation">

   <Template>

         <SPMobile:SPMobileEditFormNavigation RunAt="Server" Text="<%$Resources:wss, mobile_navigation_edit_text%>"     AccessKey="8" />

         <Mymobile:MymobileHome RunAt="Server" Text="<%$Resources:wss, mobile_navigation_home_text%>" AccessKey="0" />

   </Template>

</SharePoint:RenderingTemplate>

                 Save the custom MobileDefaultTemplates.ascx and do an IISRESET. Now create a list instance based on your custom list template and check the mobile item form pages for your requirement. This changes will be only available to the list created from this list template.

                                 HAPPY CUSTOMIZING

LeeMobileItems.zip

One of my customer came up with a requirement that he would like to add the “Thumbnail” computed field to other lists as well, where it is by default only available with picture library. Customer checked the site column gallery for “Thumbnail” field but he couldn’t able to find it to add it to the list. Now his requirement is to know how to add the “Thumbnail” field to other list.

Before getting into the work around in detail, First I would like to give some insight about Thumbnail field and then the description of the solution.

We are already aware that “Thumbnail” is the registered COMPUTED site column and the reason why they are available in the “Picture” library is because the “thumbnail” field has been included in the “Picture Library” schema definition. So whenever you creates a picture library from OOB “Picture Library” template then the thumbnail field gets created along with the picture library instance. The reason why the Thumbnail field is not available in the site column is because it is placed under the Hidden group and it’s hidden by default. With this said and explained, now we already knows that “Thumbnail” is a computed field and hence it has several other field references defined inside it. They are “ ImageWidth”,”ImageHeight”,”FSObjType”,”EncodedAbsThumbnailUrl” and “Description”. So if you want to include the “Thumbnail” field into a list then you need to ensure that these field references should be already existing in the list. So in short, before adding the Thumbnail field one need to add these fields to the list else the Thumbnail field won’t work and will throw an error.

Again if you would like to add these fields individually from site column gallery, None of these fields which used as field references for thumbnail field will be available in the Site column gallery to add. If you are thinking about making these hidden fields to visible through SharePoint API’s using script then there is another hurdle that you can’t add “EncodedAbsThumbnailUrl” to other lists as it is very specific to picture library and it holds the thumbnail images in a web folder which will be only available with picture library. So only adding these fields individually to the list and then adding OOB thumbnail field will not help to achieve your requirement.

So the work around comes in the following format, From SharePoint architectural point of view instead of adding the individual field references required for “Thumbnail” field you can add the OOB “Picture” content type to the list thus we can get the required field references for “Thumbnail” field. One can think that adding the “Picture” content type would be sufficient enough as it contains all the required field and as well the “Thumbnail” field. But as I already told, the “EncodedAbsThumbnailUrl”,”Thumbnail” and some other computed fields in the picture content type are very specific to Picture library and they won’t be included to other lists. But it’s mandatory to add the “Picture” content type to get the picture schema and some other supported fields.

With the so far details, we understand that to add the “thumbnail” computed field to the list we need following 5 field references to be included first in the list :

       1.       “ImageWidth” – Gets included when you add the picture content type

       2.       “ImageHeight”  - Gets included when you add the picture content type

       3.       “FSObjType” – This field is available in the BASE TYPE and will be available to all the lists  so no need to include.

       4.       “EncodedAbsThumbnailUrl” – This field is very specific to Picture library and will not be included to other list just by adding the Picture content type.

       5.       “Description” – Gets included when you add the picture content type.

So now we have been without “EncodedAbsThumbnailUrl” field which is very important to compute the “Thumbnail” field as it holds the “URL” of the image. So we need to find a way to render the thumbnail image… We have a Global field called “EncodedAbsUrl” which is available as a BASE TYPE field and will be included to all the lists by default. We can use this field instead of “EncodedAbsThumbnailUrl” which is only specific to picture library.

So we need to create a “Thumbnail” field in the list which is going to be computed from “ ImageWidth”,”ImageHeight”,”FSObjType”,”EncodedAbsUrl” and “Description”. If you add “Picture” content type to the list then “ImageWidth”, “ImageHeight” and “Description” will be available. “FSObjType” and “ EncodedAbsUrl” fields will be available to all the lists by default as they are coming from Base type.

Now, how to create the “thumbnail” field in the list. We can’t simply include the OOB “Thumbnail” Site column through code as the OOB “Thumbnail” column is going to be computed using “EncodedAbsThumbnailUrl” which will not work except Picture library. So we need to define our “Thumbnail” field in such a way that it can be calculated using “EncodedAbsUrl”. Thus we can make use of “AddFieldAsXml” method of SPList object to create the Thumbnail field from the definition.

Following are the steps for the work around :

1.       Enable the content type in the list and add the “Picture” content type to the list. Make the picture content type as default content type to the list, If you don’t want the picture content type as default content type then you can change it once you added the Thumbnail field to the list. (Note : The picture content type cannot be added to all the list types)

2.       Now define the “Thumbnail” field definition as follows (Note : The only change from the OOB Thumbnail Site column definition and the given definition is that we replaced the “EncodedAbsThumbnailUrl” with “EncodedAbsUrl” ). Create this field definition and save it as a .txt file.

<Field ID="{ac7bb138-02dc-40eb-b07a-84c15575b6e9}" ReadOnly="TRUE" Type="Computed" Name="Thumbnail" ShowInNewForm="FALSE" ShowInFileDlg="FALSE" ShowInEditForm="FALSE" DisplayName="Thumbnail;" Sealed="TRUE" Sortable="FALSE" Filterable="FALSE" SourceID="https://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/v3" StaticName="Thumbnail">

            <FieldRefs>

                  <FieldRef Name="ImageWidth" />

                  <FieldRef Name="ImageHeight" />

                  <FieldRef Name="FSObjType" />

                  <FieldRef Name="EncodedAbsUrl" />

                  <FieldRef Name="Description" />

            </FieldRefs>

            <DisplayPattern>

                  <IfEqual>

                        <Expr1>

                              <LookupColumn Name="FSObjType" />

                        </Expr1>

                        <Expr2>0</Expr2>

                        <Then>

                              <IfEqual>

                                    <Expr1>

                                          <LookupColumn Name="ImageWidth" />

                                    </Expr1>

                                    <Expr2>

                                    </Expr2>

                                    <Then>

                                    </Then>

                                    <Else>

                                          <IfEqual>

                                                <Expr1>

                                                      <LookupColumn Name="ImageWidth" />

                                                </Expr1>

                                                <Expr2>0</Expr2>

                                                <Then>

                                                </Then>

                                                <Else>

                                                      <HTML><![CDATA[<a href="]]></HTML>

                                                      <URL Cmd="Display" />

                                                      <HTML><![CDATA["><img border=0 ALT="]]></HTML>

                                                      <IfEqual>

                                                            <Expr1>

                                                                  <Column Name="Description" />

                                                            </Expr1>

                                                            <Expr2>

                                                            </Expr2>

                                                            <Then>

                                                                  <HTML><![CDATA[$Resources:core,Thumbnail;]]></HTML>

                                                            </Then>

                                                            <Else>

                                                                  <Column Name="Description" HTMLEncode="TRUE" />

                                                            </Else>

                                                      </IfEqual>

                                                      <HTML><![CDATA[" SRC="]]></HTML>

                                                      <Field Name="EncodedAbsUrl" />

                                                      <HTML>

                                                            <![CDATA[">

                                        </a>

                                        ]]>

                                                      </HTML>

                                                </Else>

                                          </IfEqual>

                                    </Else>

                              </IfEqual>

                        </Then>

                  </IfEqual>

            </DisplayPattern>

   </Field>

3.       Create a Visual Studio Console or Windows application and compile the following code and execute it to add the “Thumbnail” field defined in the above step in the list.

using (SPSite osite = new SPSite("URL of your SharePoint Site”)

            {

                using (SPWeb oweb = osite.OpenWeb())

                {

                    SPList olist = oweb.Lists["YourListName"];

                    StreamReader rdr = new StreamReader("Definition text file path which has the field definition");

                    string fld = rdr.ReadToEnd();

                    olist.Fields.AddFieldAsXml(fld, true, SPAddFieldOptions.AddToDefaultContentType);

                    olist.Update();

                }

            }

4.       Now upload a picture using “Picture” content type in the list and you can find the Thumbnail rendered in the view.

It’s SharePoint’s OOB by design behavior that the “Thumbnail” should be available only to the picture library and it makes sense too. So the work around provided is a sample steps to achieve the requirement of bringing the thumbnail field to other document library when the picture content type is enabled with it.

                          HAPPY CUSTOMIZING :) 

SPSite oSite = new SPSite(textBox1.Text);

            SPWeb oWeb = oSite.OpenWeb();

            SPList oList = oWeb.Lists[textBox3.Text];

            // Adding the Custom field to the List. Here the OOB SPFieldText has been selected as the “FieldType”

            string OfieldName = oList.Fields.Add("ProgramField",SPFieldType.Text,false); // There are three overloaded methods available on adding the field

            oList.Update();

            oWeb.Update();

            // End of adding field to the List

            // Adding the Custom Field to the Web as Site Column. Here the OOB SPFieldText has been selected as the “FieldType”

            string OSiteColumnName = oWeb.Fields.Add("ProgramSiteColumn", SPFieldType.Text, false);

            oWeb.Update();

            // End of adding field to the Site

Pretty Easy !!

Now consider that you have created a custom field type called “SPCustomFieldText” by inheriting the OOB “SPFieldText”. You have successfully registered it as a Custom Field type though the “FldTypes*.xml” file. You can find the article here that how can you create and register your custom field type in the SharePoint.

So the custom field type is successfully created and register in your SharePoint and now you want to create a field programmatically based on the custom field type using the above code snippet.

BOOOOOM !!!                                                 

Yes, the “SPFieldType” enumerator doesn’t consist your Custom field type name, It only consists the OOB field type name. UFFF !! So you cannot use the above shown code snippet to create fields from the custom field type.

Just a few glance in the SDK and hurray I found it. Yes, SharePoint provides another way (method) to create the fields using the XML format J where you can specify your custom field type name without using the SPFieldType enumerator.

The following code snippet shows that how to create fields from the custom field type using the “AddFieldAsXml()” method. The type and the name of the field type should be the name you registered in the custom “Fldtypes*.xml” file.

For your conveneint I have pasted the partial code snippet of the “FldTypes*.xml” file where you can find the entry of the Typename of your custom field type

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<FieldTypes>

  <FieldType>

    <Field Name="TypeName">CustomFieldType</Field>

    <Field Name="ParentType">Text</Field>

    <Field Name="TypeDisplayName">Cascading Drop Down List</Field>

    <Field Name="TypeShortDescription">Cascading Drop Down List</Field>

    <Field Name="UserCreatable">TRUE</Field>

.

.

.

.

.

.

(For example, for the OOB SPFieldText (Single line of text) the type and the field name is “Text” which was registered in the OOB Fldtypes.xml file)

SPSite oSite = new SPSite(textBox1.Text);

            SPWeb oWeb = oSite.OpenWeb();

            SPList oList = oWeb.Lists[textBox3.Text];

            string strFieldasXML = GetCreateFieldAsXml(Guid.NewGuid(), "ProgrammaticField1", false, "CustomFieldType", "CustomFieldType");

            oList.Fields.AddFieldAsXml(strFieldasXML);

            oList.Update();

            oWeb.Update();

internal string GetCreateFieldAsXml(Guid oId, string strDisplayName, bool Required, string strFieldType, string strFieldName)

        {

            XmlElement element = new XmlDocument().CreateElement("Field"); // Creating the “Field” element for the Inner XML schema

            element.SetAttribute("ID", oId.ToString()); // Setting the GUID of the field from value passed

            element.SetAttribute("Type", strFieldType); // Setting the Type name registered in the “Fldtypes*.xml” file

            element.SetAttribute("Name", strFieldName); // Setting the Field name registered in the “Fldtypes*.xml” file

            element.SetAttribute("DisplayName", strDisplayName); // Any unique Display Name 

            element.SetAttribute("Required", Required.ToString());

            return element.OuterXml; // Returning the OuterXML to create the field as XML

        }

The only important thing you need to be carefull is on setting the “Type” and “Name” of the field type. Again I am iterating to make sure that you enter the “Type” and “Name” value as it is in the “FldTypes*.xml” file.

Hope it helps someone and save their time J

The "Site Action" menu items in the SharePoint are rendered by the "CustomAction" feature framework. The story remains same untill the "Publishing Infrastructure Feature" is activated... When the publishing feature is activated and the site becomes SharePoint Publishing site then the datasource for the "SiteAction" menu items are rendered from the XML file which resides in 12 \ Template \ Layouts \ EditingMenu \ SiteAction.xml.

You cannot modify this "SiteAction.xml" file as it is OOB file and as well changing this file will affect the behavior in the total farm. SharePoint provides you a way to override the menu items rendered through the "SiteAction.xml" file. You can find the "Editing Menu" folder in the Master page gallery of the SharePoint publishing site, In this folder you can find the "CustomSiteAction.xml" file without the entries.

You can render your custom "Console Node" in this "CustomSiteAction.xml" to Add, Delete or replace the OOB console node links in the "Site Action" menu. Every menu item in the SiteAction.xml file has been rendered as a "ConsoleNode" class. Copy the references and the structure from the OOB "SiteAction.xml" and place it in the "CustomSiteAction.xml" file in the master page gallery. In the "ConsoleNode", you need to mention the "ConfigMenu" property to mention whether you are adding or deleting or replacing the console node in the "Site Action" menu. The enumerator value for Adding, Deleting and replacing the node are Add,Delete and Replace respectively.

Open the "CustomSiteAction.xml" file from the master page gallery. To add a console node you just need to add a "ConsoleNode" with the "ConfigMenu=Add"  entry under the structure tag of the "CustomSiteAction.xml" file. To delete and replace the existing console node from the "Site Action" menu you need to mention another property called "ChangedNodeID" to mention the node id of the OOB file which need to be deleted or replaced.

The following "CustomSiteAction.xml" file is the sample to replace the "Create Page" console node link with the custom "Create Page" link where the custom link will navigate you to the "CustomCreatePage.aspx".

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<Console>
<references>
  <reference TagPrefix="cms" assembly="Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.WebControls.EditingMenuActions" />
  </references>
  <structure>
  <ConsoleNode ConfigMenu="Replace" ChangedNodeID="wsaCreatePage" />
  <ConsoleNode Action="cms:CreateNewPublishingPageAction" DisplayText="cms,siteactions_createpage_displaytext" Description="cms,siteactions_createpage_description" HideIfDisabled="true" UseResourceFile="true" MenuGroupId="100" Sequence="6000" IsSiteRelative="true" PermissionContext="CurrentList" ImageUrl="/_layouts/images/crtpage.gif" NavigateUrl="/_layouts/Customcreatepage.aspx" ID="wsaCreatePage1" />
  </structure>
</Console>

In the above example , "ConfigeMenu" intimates that this "ConsoleNode" is replacing the OOB node "wsaCreatePage" with the new node "wsaCreatePage1" which redirects to the customcreatepage.aspx to create new publishing pages. Apart from this there are several other properties which can be set through the XML file itself such as "userRights" for permission mask etc. You can find more details about other properties here.

Save the "CustomSiteAction.xml" file in the master page gallery. Do an IISRESET and you can find your custom "Create Page" link which replaced teh OOB link and will navigate you to the "CustomCreatePage.aspx" to create the publishing pages.

You can refer more about the "ConsoleNode" and "SiteAction.xml" file in the following MSDN article.

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa674506.aspx

You can find my another blog on how to create the "CustomCreatePage.aspx" application page to store the publishing pages in various lists rather than only in Pages list.

                                                                          HAPPY CUSTOMIZING

SharePoint Rendering Templates

All the rendering Templates for the List are defined in the defaulttemplates.ascx in the C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\CONTROLTEMPLATES folder.

This defaulttemplates.ascx control defines the toolbar controls and the form controls for every list template.

The following table explains the rendering template Id and the respective List templates it associated with. Few examples of rendering template have been taken in this table:

These rendering templates have been associated with the List template through the schema.xml file of the list definition.

All the OOB SharePoint List definitions are created as a feature. Each definition has a schema.xml file which defines the Fields and Views of the list. In the Views you can set the “ToolbarTemplate” property to select the template from the defaulttemplates.ascx.

In this blog will walk through you on customizing the toolbar of the document library.

Customizing the toolbar of the document library template

So far it’s clear that the rendering template in the defaulttemplates.ascx renders the controls for the toolbar for every list in the SharePoint. For document library the rendering template is “DocumnetLibraryViewToolbar”. Following is the snippet of “DocumentLibraryViewToolbar” from the defaulttemplates.ascx.

<SharePoint:RenderingTemplate ID="DocumentLibraryViewToolBar" runat="server">

      <Template>

            <wssuc:ToolBar CssClass="ms-menutoolbar" EnableViewState="false" id="toolBarTbl" ButtonSeparator="<img src='/_layouts/images/blank.gif' alt=''>" RightButtonSeparator="&nbsp;&nbsp;" runat="server">

                  <Template_Buttons>

                        <SharePoint:NewMenu AccessKey="<%$Resources:wss,tb_NewMenu_AK%>" runat="server"/>

                        <SharePoint:UploadMenu AccessKey="<%$Resources:wss,tb_UploadMenu_AK%>" runat="server"/>

                        <SharePoint:ActionsMenu AccessKey="<%$Resources:wss,tb_ActionsMenu_AK%>" runat="server"/>

                        <SharePoint:SettingsMenu AccessKey="<%$Resources:wss,tb_SettingsMenu_AK%>" runat="server"/>

                  </Template_Buttons>

                  <Template_RightButtons>

                          <SharePoint:PagingButton runat="server"/>

                          <SharePoint:ListViewSelector runat="server"/>

                  </Template_RightButtons>

            </wssuc:ToolBar>

      </Template>

</SharePoint:RenderingTemplate>

The gray shaded part in the above code shows the SharePoint controls rendered for the toolbar through this template. The New, Upload, Action and Settings are the menu control rendered in the left part of the toolbar. The ListViewSelector is the view selector control rendered in the right of the toolbar.

If you want to customize this toolbar then you need to create your custom rendering template in the defaulttemplates.ascx control. Consider you want to customize toolbar in such a way that you want to restrict the user from uploading document and just want them to create the document from the SharePoint server. To achieve this you need to create a rendering template without upload menu in the defaulttemplates.ascx and need to associate this template with the schema.xml of the list definition by setting the “ToolbarTemplate” view property.

Modifying the OOB files are not supported so you need to create a customdefaulttemplates.ascx to add the rendering template without upload menu and you need to create a custom document library definition to associate the toolbar template with the definition.

Following are the steps to customize the toolbar template in the supported way.

1.   Copy the defaulttemplates.ascx and place it in the same location C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft      Shared\webserverextensions\12\TEMPLATE\CONTROLTEMPLATES. You can give any custom name to the ascx file.

2.   Remove all the rendering templates from the custom defaulttemplates.ascx except the “DocumentLibraryViewToolbar”. Change the ID to any custom name say “CustomDocumentLibraryViewToolbar”.

3.   Remove the “SharePoint: UploadMenu” control rendering from the template and save the custom defaulttemplates.ascx. The resultant rendering template looks like follows:

<SharePoint:RenderingTemplate ID="CustomDocumentLibraryViewToolBar" runat="server">

      <Template>

            <wssuc:ToolBar CssClass="ms-menutoolbar" EnableViewState="false" id="toolBarTbl" ButtonSeparator="<img src='/_layouts/images/blank.gif' alt=''>" RightButtonSeparator="&nbsp;&nbsp;" runat="server">

                  <Template_Buttons>

                        <SharePoint:NewMenu AccessKey="<%$Resources:wss,tb_NewMenu_AK%>" runat="server"/>                                      <SharePoint:ActionsMenu AccessKey="<%$Resources:wss,tb_ActionsMenu_AK%>" runat="server"/>

                        <SharePoint:SettingsMenu AccessKey="<%$Resources:wss,tb_SettingsMenu_AK%>" runat="server"/>

                  </Template_Buttons>

                  <Template_RightButtons>

                          <SharePoint:PagingButton runat="server"/>

                          <SharePoint:ListViewSelector runat="server"/>

                  </Template_RightButtons>

            </wssuc:ToolBar>

      </Template>

</SharePoint:RenderingTemplate>

4.  Create a custom document library definition. To create a custom document library definition copy the “DocumentLibrary” folder from C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\FEATURES and paste in the same location with a custom name.

5.  Change the feature Id of the custom document library definition in the feature.xml file. Change the Title, Description and other property you want to modify.

6.  Open the schema.xml file of your custom document library definition and in the default view (BaseViewId=1) add the “ToolbarTemplate” attribute which mentions your custom rendering template created without the upload menu. The code snippet looks like follows :

<View BaseViewID="1" Type="HTML" WebPartZoneID="Main" ToolbarTemplate="CustomDocumentLibraryViewToolBar"  DisplayName="$Resources:core,All_Documents;" DefaultView="TRUE" MobileView="True" MobileDefaultView="True" SetupPath="pages\viewpage.aspx" ImageUrl="/_layouts/images/dlicon.png" Url="Forms/AllItems.aspx"><!-- _locID@DisplayName="camlidDc1" _locComment=" " -->

7.  Save the schema.xml file. Do an IISRESET. Install and activate the custom document library definition feature through stsadm command.

8.  Now the custom document library definition will be available in the gallery while you create a dcumnet library. Select the custom document library and create the document library in the sharepoint site.

9.  Now you can notice that the document library toolbar doesn’t have the “Upload Menu” in it.

Further, If you want to override any of the functionality of this control. Then you can create a class library inheriting this control and ovverride the property you are looking for. Then add your DLL reference in the custom defaulttemplates.ascx and render the custom control instead of the OOB controls in the toolbar rendering template.

                             HAPPY CUSTOMIZING.

Hey I knew how to create custom site definition and created custom site definitions for a top level team site and a custom site definitions for Custom Serach Centre and the documents centre. Hurray !!! But how can i integrate all these three definitions into a single portal template so that one can choose the template and create a top level site along with the custom search centre and the documents centre as a sub site.

Oh yeah !! This feature has been given as collaboration portal template in the OOb sharepoint site definition. But they uses the OOb site definitions to create any sub sites and the collaboration portal what if i want to create a custom portal collaboration portal definition ?....

This blog post will walk you through creating custom site definition and creating custom site definition for collaboration portal template.

What is Site Definition?

A set of predefined components needs to be included when a site was created in the SharePoint server. The site definition contains the information of Web parts, Lists, Features, and Navigation Bars to be included in the site.

OOB Site Definition:

By default SharePoint comes with several OOB site definitions which you can select to create your site. In the file system these definitions are available in C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\SiteTemplates.

Each of this site definition consists a XML folder and a Home page (default.aspx). Some of the site definition will be having some more details about the definition which we will walkthrough in more detail later.

The XML folder of the site definition contains the ONET.XML (Office .NET) file. This file contains the information about all the web parts, Lists, Features and Navigation Bars.

The configuration of this site definitions are defined in another XML file which is available in C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\1033\XML folder.

Following is the detail of the XML configuration file and the respective site definitions

How to create custom site definition:

When you want to mention your own site definition to include some more web parts, Lists, features on creation of the site you need to create your custom site definition. You should not make changes in the OOB site definition files and it is not supported.

Based on the architecture of OOB site definition you need to create your custom site definition.

1.    Create a site definition folder under C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\SiteTemplates. You can copy any of the existing site definition folder based on which OOB site definition you are going to extend the definition. Consider if you are going to extend the definition of Team Site then you need to copy the “sts” folder and paste it with your custom site definition name.

2.    Create a configuration XML file under C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\1033\XML folder. You can copy the existing configuration file which configures the site definition based on which you are extending the custom site definition. Consider if you are going to extend the definition of Team Site then you need to copy the WEBTEMP.XML file. The naming convention is mandatory here and you need to name your custom webtemp.xml file in the following format WEBTEMP*.xml. (The SharePoint looks for the configuration inside the files which starts with WEBTEMP)

3.    In custom WEBTEMP*.xml file you need to mention the custom site definition template folder name and need to mention the ID for it. The ID should be greater than 10000

4.    You can mention any number of configuration per template provided you need to mention the contents for every configuration in the ONET.XML file.

5.    The following snippet shows the sample custom WEBTEMP*.xml file :

<Templates xmlns: ows="Microsoft SharePoint">

<Template Name="<Your Custom Site definition Folder name>" ID="<The ID should be greater than 10000(from 1-10000 it was reserved by Microsoft for the OOB site definitions">

    <Configuration ID="0" Title="Team Site" Hidden="FALSE" ImageUrl="/_layouts/images/stsprev.png" Description="A site for teams to quickly organize, author, and share information. It provides a document library, and lists for managing announcements, calendar items, tasks, and discussions." Display Category="Collaboration" >    </Configuration>

    <Configuration ID="1" Title="Blank Site" Hidden="FALSE" ImageUrl="/_layouts/images/blankprev.png" Description="A blank site for you to customize based on your requirements." DisplayCategory="Collaboration" AllowGlobalFeatureAssociations="False" >    </Configuration>

    <Configuration ID="2" Title="Document Workspace" Hidden="FALSE" ImageUrl="/_layouts/images/dwsprev.png" Description="A site for colleagues to work together on a document. It provides a document library for storing the primary document and supporting files, a tasks list for assigning to-do items, and a links list for resources related to the document." DisplayCategory="Collaboration" >    </Configuration>

 </Template>

</Templates>

Site Definition of collaboration portal Template

=========================================

The process of the Collaboration portal site definition is different from the process and the flow of other site definition.

1. Consider you have created some custom site definition for team site, search center and document centre individually.

2. Now you want to provide  such a template so that while creating a top level site using the template a collaboration sites for document center and the search center should be created based on your custom site definition.

3. In more detail, You have Custom Site definition "A" for team site, Custom Site definition "B" for document center, Custom site definition "C" for Search Center. You want to provide a template such that a collaboration site should be created along with the search center and document centre by default.

The portal site definition uses the portalprovisioningprovider class in the Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing Assembly. This class parses through a XML file and builds the Hierarchy defined in the file. This file is available under 12\Template\Site Templates\WebManifest. This PORTALWEBMANIFEST. Xml file defines the web templates to be used for the sites under the portal site.

The Basic Site definitions for portal site are available in 12\Template\Site templates\SPS. Making any changes in this template is not recommended or supported by Microsoft (the future updates will overwrite the custom definition as this templates are owned by Microsoft).

1.    To create a custom site definition for portal Site, Create a copy of this SPS folder and name it as SPS*

2.    Create a copy of WEBTEMPSPS.xml file and name it as WEBTEMP*.xml. In this WEBTEMP*.xml file define your custom site definitions including the portal site

3.    The Template for the SPS is defined in WEBTEMPSPS. Xml under the configurationid = 20. Copy this template definition and paste it in your WEBTEMP*.xml. Set the ConfigurationID greater than 10000(Unique). Change the Template name as SPS* (the folder name which you created by copying the SPS folder) and change the title with your custom title if you want.

4.    The template for the portal site is defined in WEBTEMPSPS. Xml under the configurationid=47 with portalprovisioningprovider class. Copy this template definition and paste it in your WEBTEMP*.xml. Set the ConfigurationID as greater than 10000(Unique). Change the template name and title with your custom name (say SPSTEST) and title. You can erase the remaining template definition. Refer the following example to create WEBTEMP*. xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<!-- _lcid="1033" _version="12.0.4518" _dal="1" -->

<!-- _LocalBinding -->

<Templates>

<Template Name="SPS*" ID="10001">

<Configuration ID="0" Title="My Site Definition" Hidden="FALSE" ImageUrl="/_layouts/images/blogprev.png"

Description="A Software Corporation site for a person or team to post ideas, observations, and expertise that site visitors can comment on."

              DisplayCategory="Custom" >

              </Configuration>

       </Template>

<Template Name="SPSTEST" ID="10002">

    <Configuration ID="0"

                             Title="My Collaboration Portal"

                             Type="0" Hidden="FALSE"

                             ImageUrl="/_layouts/1033/images/template_corp_intranet.png"

                             Description="A starter site hierarchy for an intranet divisional portal. It includes a home page, a News site, a Site Directory, a Document Center, and a Search Center with Tabs. Typically, this site has nearly as many contributors as readers and is used to host team sites."

                             ProvisionAssembly="Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" ProvisionClass="Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.PortalProvisioningProvider"

                             ProvisionData="sitetemplates//Webmanifest//portal*. xml"

                             RootWebOnly="FALSE"

DisplayCategory="Custom">

   </Configuration>

 </Template> 

5.    Create a copy of PORTALWEBMANIFEST. Xml in 12\Template\Site Templates\WebManifest and name it as PORTAL*. xml

6.     In PORTAL*. Xml, for the HOME(Portal)web, set the SiteDefinition as your Custom SPS* . For the remaining webs(sites under portal) set your custom site definition (if any) as shown below(See the commented lines for more)

<? xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<!-- _lcid="1033" _version="12.0.4518" _dal="1" -->

<!-- _LocalBinding -->

<portal xmlns="PortalTemplate.xsd">

    <!-- Here Define your portal site name and SiteDefinition name -->

    <web name="HomeNew" siteDefinition="SPS*" displayName="$Resources:cmscore,IPPT_Portal_Root_DisplayName;" description="$Resources:cmscore,IPPT_Portal_Root_Description;" >

        <webs>

        <!-- Here Define your Site name and site definition name which you want to create under the portal -->

            <web name="TEAM" siteDefinition="STS" displayName="My team" description="$Resources:spscore,PortalManifest_News_Description;" />

            <! -- Here the STS site definition is assigned to the Team Site. You can set your custom site definition for the sites -- >

        </webs>

    </web>

</portal>

7.    In WEBTEMP*.xml set the provisiondata path to the PORTAL*. xml path(Site Templates//Webmanifest//Portal*.xml)

8.    Save all the files and do an IISREST

9.    Now the Custom Site Definition will be available under Custom display category while creating a site. By using this template you can create your own Custom Portal Site.

So in the custom web pages where you would like to render the "CreatedBy" and "ModifiedBy" information then you just need to render the "Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls.CreatedModifiedInfo" web control in the custom web page rather than fetching these information using object model.