Skip to main content

SharePoint 2010 Web Content Management (WCM) Custom Page Layouts






For content publishing we need define how the content should look like. Otherwise each author would start adding content in his own way. And that would look very messy. For this we need to create layouts where we define what all information can be added. In our reference implementation, we will put Product Cover, Category, Price, Description and image. So the author will be able to add information only related to these fields.


1. Branding – Master Page & Custom Style Sheet
2. Metadata – Site Columns & Content Types
3. Page Layouts
4. Setting up deployment Paths & Jobs


Below I have mentioned steps for creating custom page layout in VS 2010, associating custom content types and finally adding custom site columns to it.


Step 1. Create a new module in the project. Rename the text file to ProductDetailsLayout.aspx.


Step 2. Since we are creating publishing site, we will take blank web part page as base for this page layout. Open ~\ 14\TEMPLATE\FEATURES\PublishingLayouts\PageLayouts\ BlankWebPartPage.aspx and copy all the contents from it. Now paste the contents into the newly created layout page.


Step 3. Now you have to associate the custom content type with the page layout. Open Elements.xml file and add value to some of the properties. We need to put values to  Title, ContentType, PublishingPreviewImage & PublishingAssociatedContentType. Define preview image that you are going to use. If you want to have your own image, then add the image to the module. And in the elements.xml file mention where you want to deploy it. The value for PublishingAssociatedContentType  is the ID of the custom content type found in Elements.xml file. See below sample Elements.xml file.


    
      
      
      
      
    
  

Step 4. The next step is to add those custom site columns we had created earlier. But before that we will deploy the solution. Once this is done, open SharePoint designer and open the site. Now go to the custom page layout created just now. Go to view-> task panes ->Tool box. In the tool box under SharePoint controls you can see content fields. Here you will be able to see the custom site columns you had created. Drag and drop each field on to the designer. Rearrange the page as per your needs, remove web part zones if you don’t require them.
Step 5. After rearranging the page in SPD copy the mark up and paste it in the page layout created in VS 2010.
Your page layout creating and deployment is ready now. From the publishing site now you can create a new publishing page and select your custom page layout.
The last piece in the jigsaw is publishing content from authoring portal to production portal.

- Vighnesh Bendre

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Working with large xml files in c# .net

Working with large (huge) xml files is always a pain in the … The reason? These files can’t be loaded in to memory. On my desktop, where I have 2 gigs memory, I can’t open the file in even notepad. I was presented with a challenge recently to manipulate one such large xml file. The xml file was of 550+ MB. I know many would say I have seen bigger xml files than this. But the heart of the matter is if I can’t open 550+ MB file in notepad or in xmldocument in c#, then I can’t open any file bigger than this. And hence the logic to play with these files would remain same. The scenario: We have an xml file from which we want to remove a single node without removing its children. In the below sample xml fragment, the node has to be removed. The children nodes, must then be attached to ( node’s parent) node. One Two 100.22 GoodDay 3 4 Five 200.09 Cra

Create list view - Conditional Formatting in SharePoint Designer 2010

In this example, we are going to format a column based on certain condition. Here I already have a list called Projects. I also have workflow associated with it. So whenever I create a new item in the list, workflow status column shows ‘In Progress’. Subsequently when the workflow in completed, the workflow status column shows ‘Completed’. For demonstration purpose, I will set the background color of workflow status column to yellow when the status is ‘In Progress’ and to green when the status is ‘Completed’. In SharePoint Designer open the site on which you are working. Click on ‘Lists and Libraries’ link. Choose the ‘Projects’ list. In SharePoint Designer Navigation, choose ‘Lists and Libraries’. In the list settings page, click on ‘New’ in ‘Views’ section. Provide appropriate name for the view and click OK. After choosing list, click on ‘New’ in the Views section. Give appropriate name to the list. Now click on any column, then in the ribbon, click on List View Tools-&g

Upgrade and Migration for SharePoint Foundation 2010

      1.1 Introduction Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010 has been designed for scale and performance and as such requires new hardware and software requirements. There are 3 major steps while upgrading. 1. Plan and Prepare 2. Perform a database attach upgrade 3. Verify upgrade 1.2 Plan and Prepare   Before we run any process to upgrade from Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 to Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010, we have to determine which upgrade approach to take. In our scenario, Database Attach Upgrade seems to be appropriate approach to follow. We can upgrade the content for the environment on a separate farm. The result is that you do not upgrade any of the services or farm settings. You can upgrade the databases in any order and upgrade several databases at the same time. While each database is being upgraded, the content in that database is not available to users. 1.2.1 Upgrade Approach A database attach upgrade enables you to move to new hardware or a