Customize SharePoint Blog

-
What I'm trying to do is to replace the default body field with one of custom HTML field for the blog post. Because the customization that we had already done on the HTML rich editor control.

In general, there are 2 things that can be done 1) site definition, and 2) feature

The first thing that I tried was creating a custom blog site definition from the OOTB site defintion, since modifying OOTB files is always against the best practice and can avoid warranty in some cases.

The MOSS OOTB blog site definition is located at C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\SiteTemplates\Blog.

Custom Blog Site Definision

  1. Make a copy of OOTB blog site definition and rename the folder to a unique name (i.e. CustomBlog)

  2. There are a few xml files that you can modified, onet.xml (in CustomBlog/Xml) and schema.xml in each list folder.

  3. After update the site definition xml files. You'll have to do an iisreset before the changes will take effect.

I have modified the following places for the schema.xml for the Posts list

  1. I added my custom field in the section
  2. I updated the element for and View BaseViewID="7" ...> to display my custom body field instead of the default Body field. (Notes: BaseViewID 0 is the default view used for the blog default page and BaseViewID 7 is the default view used for editing the blog)
  3. I also updated the element to include my custom field.

I also updated the onet.xml file so that when it created the first welcome blog, it puts the content into my custom body field instead.

This doesn't work .... My custom field does get added to the list and display correctly on all the views. However, the custom field does not show up in post edit form. I tried add the field manually through the web UI and it does show up in the edit form. I compared the field schema and I can't find any difference. And finally .... I gave up.

I moved on to use Feature and do everything in code when the feature is activated. I can either staple the feature or just activate the feature directly in the custom site definition. In the code, I basically did the following:

  1. Add the field to the Posts list
  2. Locate the views with BaseViewID "0" and "7".
  3. Update the ViewBody and ViewFields for those view.

The object model approach works and now I can use my custom field for the body of the blog post.

If anyone has any idea why the site definition approach doesn't work, I'll be glad to hear.

Thanks,

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

SharePoint 2013 App Details Page Error

-
Image
Out of no where, the app details page started throwing out error for all apps. ULS log entries System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException (0x80131904): The EXECUTE permission was denied on the object 'prc_CountAppInstanceData', database 'UsageAndHealth_Logging_DB', schema 'dbo'.     at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection.OnError(SqlException exception, Boolean breakConnection, Action`1 wrapCloseInAction)     at System.Data.SqlClient.TdsParser.ThrowExceptionAndWarning(TdsParserStateObject stateObj, Boolean callerHasConnectionLock, Boolean asyncClose)     at System.Data.SqlClient.TdsParser.TryRun(RunBehavior runBehavior, SqlCommand cmdHandler, SqlDataReader dataStream, BulkCopySimpleResultSet bulkCopyHandler, TdsParserStateObject stateObj, Boolean& dataReady)     at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlDataReader.TryConsumeMetaData()     at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlDataReader.get_MetaData()     at System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand.FinishExecuteReader(SqlDataReader ds, RunBe
Read more

SharePoint 2013 - Working with Display Template for Content Search Web Part

-
Image
To create a custom display template, the best approach is to copy an existing one from Out-Of-Box display templates.  You can try each one and find the one that is closest to what you want to do. All the display templates are in the master page gallery.  To access it, Site Settings -> Master pages and page layouts -> Display Templates The Content Web Parts folder contains the display templates for content search web part and Search folder contains the display templates for the search results web parts. The easiest way to take a look at the display templates is to open the list in windows explorer.  On the ribbon, click on Open with Explorer option. You'll see a lot of html and js files in Content Web Parts folder.  The HTML files are the ones that you'll need to take a look.  The .js files are auto-generated when you add a new HTML file or update an existing one. For every content search web part, you usually have to specify two display template, Control a
Read more

SharePoint 2013 Features Information List

-
I find this information is so useful.  I used to get my information from, http://blogs.msdn.com/b/razi/archive/2013/10/28/listing-all-sharepoint-2013-features-including-name-title-scope-id-and-description.aspx. But in case the site is down later, I retrieve them using server code (SPFeatureDefinition) on SharePoint 2013 environment.  You can get the feature ID and description below. There is some more information is you're interested. SharePoint Server 2013 Features Display Name (Title) Scope ID Description PublishingStapling(Publishing Features Stapling) Farm 001f4bd7-746d-403b-aa09-a6cc43de7942 Staple Publishing features SiteStatusBar(Site status bar) Farm 001f4bd7-746d-403b-aa09-a6cc43de7999 Creates a Microsoft OneNote 2010 notebook in the Shared Documents library and places a link to it on the Quick Launch. This feature requires a properly configured WOPI application server to create OneNote 2010 notebooks. BasicWebParts(Basic Web Parts) Site 00bfea71-1c
Read more