Comments on: The Pains of Altering the SharePoint UI http://www.siolon.com/blog/the-pains-of-altering-the-sharepoint-ui/ Musings on SharePoint, User Experience, and More Thu, 22 Jul 2010 06:57:45 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: Chris Poteet http://www.siolon.com/blog/the-pains-of-altering-the-sharepoint-ui/comment-page-1/#comment-9048 Chris Poteet Wed, 20 Jan 2010 20:47:54 +0000 http://www.siolon.com/?p=192#comment-9048 @Josh: Thanks for your comments. I just posted <a href="http://www.siolon.com/blog/sharepoint-2010-and-xhtml-validation/" rel="nofollow">another post</a> on my feelings regarding the markup in 2010. Thanks also for your clarification on delegate controls. I'm no ASP.NET master! I tried to load your site, but it's not resolving. @Josh: Thanks for your comments. I just posted another post on my feelings regarding the markup in 2010. Thanks also for your clarification on delegate controls. I’m no ASP.NET master!

I tried to load your site, but it’s not resolving.

]]> By: Josh Carlisle http://www.siolon.com/blog/the-pains-of-altering-the-sharepoint-ui/comment-page-1/#comment-9047 Josh Carlisle Wed, 20 Jan 2010 15:03:35 +0000 http://www.siolon.com/?p=192#comment-9047 Absolutely valid comments. Branding in SharePoint can be a royal pain in the a$$, luckly vnext is much much better on pretty much all points that your hoping for (MS got the message lol). I always thought they ran out of resources and had the intern take care of branding functionality :) . Saying that the one thing I thought worth noting is your comment on delegate controls. Typically Delegate controls are actually standard asp.net controls at run time. Delegate controls are just a way for SharePoint to designate what goes inside the delegate "bucket" that can be changed easily without updating the masterpage. For example if your using WSS you get the "basic" search control, if you're in MOSS then you get the advanced workflow without having to update your masterpage but its all in the search delegate control. If you want to ditch the delegate control and "hard code" whichever version you want to get more control you can do that. Good luck on your new role :) Absolutely valid comments. Branding in SharePoint can be a royal pain in the a$$, luckly vnext is much much better on pretty much all points that your hoping for (MS got the message lol). I always thought they ran out of resources and had the intern take care of branding functionality :) .

Saying that the one thing I thought worth noting is your comment on delegate controls. Typically Delegate controls are actually standard asp.net controls at run time. Delegate controls are just a way for SharePoint to designate what goes inside the delegate “bucket” that can be changed easily without updating the masterpage. For example if your using WSS you get the “basic” search control, if you’re in MOSS then you get the advanced workflow without having to update your masterpage but its all in the search delegate control. If you want to ditch the delegate control and “hard code” whichever version you want to get more control you can do that. Good luck on your new role :)

]]> By: the rasx() context » Blog Archive » In Spite of Its ASP.NET 2.0 Window Dressing, SharePoint Still Suffering from the Worst of the 1990s Web http://www.siolon.com/blog/the-pains-of-altering-the-sharepoint-ui/comment-page-1/#comment-8538 the rasx() context » Blog Archive » In Spite of Its ASP.NET 2.0 Window Dressing, SharePoint Still Suffering from the Worst of the 1990s Web Wed, 26 Nov 2008 16:35:52 +0000 http://www.siolon.com/?p=192#comment-8538 [...] Okay. Okay. Let’s assume you are having no problems customizing SharePoint to your satisfaction. Let’s go further and grant you the super-power of customizing SharePoint files on disk without fear of Microsoft corrupting your changes with a Service Pack or simply by running the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard. Let me direct you to the bottom line as described by a SharePoint consultant in “The Pains of Altering the SharePoint UI”: [...] […] Okay. Okay. Let’s assume you are having no problems customizing SharePoint to your satisfaction. Let’s go further and grant you the super-power of customizing SharePoint files on disk without fear of Microsoft corrupting your changes with a Service Pack or simply by running the SharePoint Products and Technologies Configuration Wizard. Let me direct you to the bottom line as described by a SharePoint consultant in “The Pains of Altering the SharePoint UI”: […]

]]> By: Chris Poteet http://www.siolon.com/blog/the-pains-of-altering-the-sharepoint-ui/comment-page-1/#comment-8513 Chris Poteet Thu, 16 Oct 2008 15:34:39 +0000 http://www.siolon.com/?p=192#comment-8513 Thanks guys for stopping by. @Danny: You are right that the fact they use different master pages is baffling, but you can specify to use the same master page for both layout and regular pages when you specify and alternate master page. @Woody: From my experience of using a minimal master page I would agree that it is more pain than it is worth. Thanks guys for stopping by.

@Danny: You are right that the fact they use different master pages is baffling, but you can specify to use the same master page for both layout and regular pages when you specify and alternate master page.

@Woody: From my experience of using a minimal master page I would agree that it is more pain than it is worth.

]]> By: Woody http://www.siolon.com/blog/the-pains-of-altering-the-sharepoint-ui/comment-page-1/#comment-8512 Woody Thu, 16 Oct 2008 13:06:55 +0000 http://www.siolon.com/?p=192#comment-8512 @Danny, That's why I always reocommend going to CSS and Themes first, then just tweaking the master where needed, rather than going straight to building a master page from scratch. @Danny, That’s why I always reocommend going to CSS and Themes first, then just tweaking the master where needed, rather than going straight to building a master page from scratch.

]]> By: Danny http://www.siolon.com/blog/the-pains-of-altering-the-sharepoint-ui/comment-page-1/#comment-8511 Danny Thu, 16 Oct 2008 12:47:27 +0000 http://www.siolon.com/?p=192#comment-8511 In total agreement with you. Heather's "minimal" master page and the themes Woody linked are great resources. Another major point of "pain" has been the fact that the application pages ("_layouts") do not use the same master page as the default pages. So searches and list views and such clunk back and forth in terms of design. There are tools in codeplex to address this issue but I've not had any success with them to date. In total agreement with you. Heather’s “minimal” master page and the themes Woody linked are great resources. Another major point of “pain” has been the fact that the application pages (“_layouts”) do not use the same master page as the default pages. So searches and list views and such clunk back and forth in terms of design. There are tools in codeplex to address this issue but I’ve not had any success with them to date.

]]> By: Woody http://www.siolon.com/blog/the-pains-of-altering-the-sharepoint-ui/comment-page-1/#comment-8510 Woody Thu, 16 Oct 2008 09:57:01 +0000 http://www.siolon.com/?p=192#comment-8510 I agree, the default master pages and themes (core.css et al) are far more complicatd than they need to be. MS did release some alternate master pages. While looking like minor variations on the stock WSS, they actually completely rebuild the UI with CSS layout: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=7C05CA44-869A-463B-84D7-57B053711A96&displaylang=en I agree, the default master pages and themes (core.css et al) are far more complicatd than they need to be. MS did release some alternate master pages. While looking like minor variations on the stock WSS, they actually completely rebuild the UI with CSS layout: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=7C05CA44-869A-463B-84D7-57B053711A96&displaylang=en

]]>