Go to page: 1 2 3   Printer Friendly Version

They're a simple CAB file with a WSP extension that includes a manifest.xml file that tells SharePoint how to use the files that are in the file. The beauty of the SharePoint Solution is that SharePoint includes an infrastructure to deploy these WSP files to all of the servers on the farm. This means the hassle of deploying files manually to multiple servers can be eliminated.

(You can find out more about building solutions in the article: "Using SharePoint Solutions to Deliver Server-Side Solution")

Theme

With all of the other options we've seen we've been able to do a lot of customization. SharePoint Designer or directly editing the master page, page layouts, or pages themselves allows you to control not only the colors and images -- it allows you to control every aspect of how the page looks. As a result you can change the number of web part zones on the page, their location, or even how they operate. However, most of the time, all you are really seeking is an opportunity to get the site's colors and images -- particularly the logo - to match the company standards -- that's something that's well within the reach of a Theme. The limitation of a Theme is that it can't change the layout of the page. (Technically CSS can influence layout but in the hardcoded HTML that some of SharePoint's controls emit layout isn't as easy to change with CSS as it should be.) However, what it can do, that the other techniques can't do is that it can change the application pages. A theme is applied across all of the pages in the site - including the application pages. Thus a Theme is the only way to customize a site such that all of the pages reflect the new colors and logo.

The one remaining hitch to Themes is that deployment isn't perfect. Although they can be modified within a site with SharePoint Designer, to make them accessible to every site they should be saved to disk and deployed to all of the front end web servers. Of course, SharePoint Solution packages (WSP files) should be able to handle that task -- and they do except for the XML file you have to modify to tell SharePoint to use the Theme files you've created. The problem is solvable -- you can write a feature receiver to handle this. However, no one has publically released a feature receiver to help with the installation of a Theme -- yet.

(You can find out more about themes in the SDK article "How to: Customize Themes.")

Conclusion

If you want to really have a customized site that covers all of the pages in a site including the application pages, you'll need a theme. In most cases you'll also want a custom site definition to handle additional layouts. That site definition will use custom features. If it seems like a tall order to get it all together, it can feel that way. But when you're all done, clients won't be able to realize that they're even on a SharePoint site -- unless they see all of the functionality they have.

Go to page: 1 2 3   Printer Friendly Version