Walkthrough: Replacing a Button on the Server Ribbon

Article
10/20/2016

Applies to: SharePoint Foundation 2010

This topic describes how to replace a button on the Server ribbon in Microsoft SharePoint Foundation.

Prerequisites

Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010

SharePoint development tools in Microsoft Visual Studio 2010

Creating a SharePoint Project

To customize the ribbon, you start by creating an empty SharePoint project.

To create a SharePoint project

Start Microsoft Visual Studio 2010.
On the File menu, point to New, and then click Project.
In Project Types, under Visual Basic or C#, select Empty SharePoint Project.
Type ReplaceARibbonButton as the project name, and then click OK.
In the SharePoint Customization Wizard, select Deploy as a sandboxed solution, and then click Finish.

Adding a new Feature

You customize the ribbon by using a Feature. The following steps add a new Feature to your solution.

To add a new Feature

In Solution Explorer, right-click Features and then click Add Feature.
Change the Title of the Feature to Replace a Ribbon Button.
In Solution Explorer, right-click Feature1, and then select Rename. Type ReplaceARibbonButton as the new name.
In Solution Explorer, right-click the ReplaceARibbonButton project, and point to Add, and then select New Item.
In the Add New Item dialog box, select the Empty Element template. Type ReplaceARibbonButton as the name.

Defining the Custom Action

You replace the ribbon button by using the Location attribute of the CommandUIDefinition element. The default values for ribbon buttons are listed in Default Server Ribbon Customization Locations. For an in-depth explanation of the ribbon XML, see Server Ribbon XML.

To define the custom action

Open the Elements.xml file.

Paste the following XML into the Elements.xml file. This XML replaces the Connect to Outlook button on the Library tab in the Connect & Export group for a document library.

Important

You must replace the Image32by32 and Image16by16 attributes with valid image URLs.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Elements xmlns="https://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">
  <CustomAction Id="Ribbon.Library.Actions.ReplacementButton"
    Location="CommandUI.Ribbon"
    RegistrationId="101"
    RegistrationType="List"
    Title="Replace a Ribbon Button">
    <CommandUIExtension>
      <CommandUIDefinitions>
        <CommandUIDefinition
          Location="Ribbon.Library.Actions.ConnectToClient">
             <Button Id="Ribbon.Library.Actions.ConnectToClient.ReplacementButton"
               Command="ReplacementButtonCommand"
               Image16by16="Insert an image URL here."
               Image32by32="Insert an image URL here."
               LabelText="Replaced Button"
               TemplateAlias="o2" />
        </CommandUIDefinition>
      </CommandUIDefinitions>
      <CommandUIHandlers>
        <CommandUIHandler
          Command="ReplacementButtonCommand"
          CommandAction="javascript:alert('This button has been replaced.');" />
      </CommandUIHandlers>
    </CommandUIExtension>
  </CustomAction>
</Elements>

Deploying the Customization

Because the project was set up as a sandboxed solution, it is deployed to the Solution Gallery.

To deploy the customization

Press F5. The SharePoint development tools in Visual Studio 2010 automatically build and deploy the Feature.
Navigate to a document library in your site or subsite.
Click the Library tab, look in the Connect & Export group, and observe the absence of the Connect to Outlook button.