quick launch

Using Different Term Sets for Global and Current Navigation

theChrisKent Client Settings, SharePoint , , , , , , , , , , ,
Applies to SharePoint 2013

Managed Navigation allows you to build navigation using managed metadata. It’s a cool feature but can get pretty confusing (and frustrating). One of the best features is setting up global navigation for your publishing site collection and having each subsite inherit the settings.

When it comes to navigation in SharePoint, the primary areas we are talking about are Global Navigation (Top Bar) and Current Navigation (Quick Launch). You can use Managed Navigation for both or either and choose to inherit both or either at the subsite level as well. Wowee!

The Problem

One of the frustrations, however, is trying to use separate termsets for your Global and Current navigation. The UI only allows you to select a single termset when you choose managed navigation for either area. The same termset is then used for both:

navigationsettings

The Almost Solution

On a subsite you can choose to inherit from the parent site one or both of your navigations. Then you can choose a different termset for that site. Rejoice!

For instance, if you wanted to share Global navigation across all your sites but wanted to have an independent Current navigation on your subsite, you would inherit the Global and choose Managed Navigation with your own termset for the Current. However, by using the termset on the subsite you cannot use it on any other site. So now, if you want to have a shared Global navigation as well as a shared Current navigation, you’re out of luck using the OOTB UI. Even if that wasn’t the case, you couldn’t have separate termsets on the root site.

This gives me a sad. If you do a quick search you’ll find all sorts of people struggling with this. In fact, maybe you came here from one of your own sad searches. Well be sad no longer!

The Solution

CSOM (or more specifically in the following examples, JSOM) to the rescue! Within the SP.Publishing.Navigation namespace there is an object called WebNavigationSettings that can be used to set the termsets independently of each other.

The bad news is you have to use code to do this. The good news is that it’s pretty simple code. The even better news is that you can easily undo the settings with the UI and the code is only needed to set the setting (it doesn’t have to stick around).

So, here’s the JSOM (this can be done with PowerShell or .NET using CSOM as well):

'use strict'
var NavSwitcher = NavSwitcher || {};

jQuery(function ($) {

    NavSwitcher.SafeLog = function (message) {
        if (window.console && window.console.log) {
            window.console.log(message);
        }
    };

    NavSwitcher.SiteConfig = function () {
        var safeLog = NavSwitcher.SafeLog;
        var ctx, wns, nav, tsId, tsGlobal;

        return {
            Configure: configure
        };

        function configure() {
        	tsId= $('#tsId').val();
			tsGlobal = $('#tsTypeG').prop('checked');

			if(tsId){
        		SP.SOD.executeFunc('sp.js', 'SP.ClientContext', function(){
		            //Load up SP.Publishing
		            SP.SOD.registerSod('sp.publishing.js', SP.Utilities.Utility.getLayoutsPageUrl('sp.publishing.js'));
		            SP.SOD.executeFunc('sp.publishing.js','SP.Publishing.Navigation.NavigationTermSet',function(){

						safeLog('Setting Navigation...');
						ctx = SP.ClientContext.get_current();
						wns = new SP.Publishing.Navigation.WebNavigationSettings(ctx,ctx.get_web());
						ctx.load(wns);
						if(tsGlobal){
							nav = wns.get_globalNavigation();
						} else {
							nav = wns.get_currentNavigation();
						}
						ctx.load(nav);

						//load em up!
		                ctx.executeQueryAsync(
							Function.createDelegate(this, switchNavigation),
		    				Function.createDelegate(this, function(s, a){
		    					safeLog(a.get_message());
		    				}));
		            }); //end publishing sod
		    	}); //end clientcontext sod
	    	} else {
	    		safeLog('Provide an Id, yo!');
	    	}
        }

        function switchNavigation() {
        	try{
	        	safeLog('Initial nav object load complete');
	        	nav.set_termSetId(new SP.Guid(tsId));
	        	wns.update();
	        	ctx.load(wns);
	        	ctx.executeQueryAsync(
					Function.createDelegate(this, function(){
    					safeLog('Navigation Successfully Updated!');
    				}),
    				Function.createDelegate(this, function(s, a){
    					safeLog('**Navigation Update Failure!');
    					safeLog(a.get_message());
    				}));
	        }catch(e){
	        	safeLog('**Navigation Setting Failure!');
	        	safeLog(e);
	        }
        }

    }();

    $('#configButton').click(NavSwitcher.SiteConfig.Configure);
});

In the code above I’m using jQuery to pull the values from a simple HTML page I’ve got loaded in a Content Editor Web Part (see below). This is totally not necessary. This is just some Proof of Concept code you can strip out and learn from. It’s really just the configure and switchNavigation functions above that matter, but we’ll cover it all.

Lines 1-4 are just boiler plate code to establish a namespace and grab that jQuery ready event. Lines 6-10 establish a SafeLog function that lets me write to the console without worrying about crashing IE. Sheesh. None of this is required for this specific solution.

Lines 12-18 are just me using the Module Pattern. The important thing to note is my “private” variables in line 14. I set them up here so that I can access them when I’m doing all the CSOM load calls and then also in the Callback function.

In lines 21 and 22, I pull the values from my HTML form. The Id (tsId) is expected to be the termset GUID (as a string). The tsGlobal variable just indicates if we are setting the global navigation termset or the current navigation termset. These could be replaced with a hardcoded string and boolean if you wanted.

Gathering the Objects

Now for some SODs (Script on Demand)! SODs let you delay your code until the proper scripts have been loaded. In addition, you can request SharePoint to load some it might not otherwise load on a particular page. In this case, we have 2 script files we need to have loaded before our code runs: sp.js and sp.publishing.js.

The sp.js script file is going to load on the page so we can just use the executeFunc method to call our code once it does. This is needed so that we can use CSOM (The SP.ClientContext namespace is essential for that). We do this in line 25.

The sp.publishing.js script file may or may not load on a given page. So in line 27 we use the registerSod method to ensure it will get loaded. This is immediately followed by another executeFunc call in line 28 that will call our function once SP.Publishing.Navigation.NavigationTermSet has loaded.

Now that all the objects are available to us, it’s time to run our actual logic. We grab the current context in line 31. Then we grab the WebNavigationSettings for the current web in line 32. We of course have to load that up in line 33.

Since I’ve made which navigation (Global vs Current) configurable, I do a check to see which one was requested in line 34 and load the corresponding StandardNavigationSettings object in lines 35 or 37 respectively. Then of course we load it up too in line 39.

Now that we’ve got our shell objects, it’s time to fill them with a call to executeQueryAsync in lines 42-46. On successful load we’ll go the switchNavigation function and on failure we’ll write a sad message to the console.

Making the Change

The switchNavigation function in lines 54-72 is where the “magic” happens (we change a setting, wow)! Since the Id I’m working with is a string, I create an SP.Guid from it when setting the StandardNavigationSettings termSetId property in line 57. However, if you already had that guid (say from pulling directly from the TaxonomySession) you could use that directly.

Now that we’ve set the value, time to tell SharePoint. So line 58 updates the WebNavigationSettings object (there is no update method on the StandardNavigationSettings object), loads it up in line 59, and sets up another call to the executeQueryAsync method in lines 60-67.

That’s it. Once that code runs, the navigation settings will be updated. You might have to wait a minute or refresh a couple of times (caching), but there you go!

results

Other Stuff

Getting the TermSetId

I used a string for the TermSetId which I then used as a GUID. This works great. A better option, however, might be to pull this directly from the Term Store blah blah blah. But, if you’re just looking to set this up quickly, you can get the GUID as a string from the Term Store Management Tool (The link is in Site Settings). Just click on the Term Set you want and copy that Unique Identifier in the General tab:

termsetguid

The HTML

Here’s the HTML I used. I just put it inside a content editor web part then clicked the configButton. Feel free to use this, but more likely you’ll be writing this as part of a larger solution.

<!DOCTYPE html>

<html lang="en" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
    <meta charset="utf-8" />
    <title></title>
</head>
<body>
<table>
<tr>
<td><strong>TermSetId:</strong></td>
<td><input type="text" id="tsId" value=""/></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><input type="radio" value="C" name="tsType" checked="checked"/><label for="C">Current</label></td>
<td><input type="radio" id="tsTypeG" value="G" name="tsType" /><label for="G">Global</label></td>
</tr>
</table>
<input type="button" id="configButton" value="Set Nav TermSet" />

    <script type="text/javascript" src="/sites/navpin/Style%20Library/ns/jquery-2.2.0.min.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="/sites/navpin/Style%20Library/ns/navswitcher.js"></script>
</body>
</html>

Wowsers!

Hide “All Site Content” Link Based on Permission

theChrisKent Branding, SharePoint , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Applies To: SharePoint

By default in SharePoint 2010 nearly every visitor to your site automatically gets an “All Site Content” link added to their quick launch. In addition, there’s a “View All Site Content” option in the Site Actions menu. Here’s a default team site as seen by a user with only Read permission:

For team sites and basic work areas this is a great idea. However, there are several cases where it would be better if this wasn’t shown to the average user – for instance, a Business Intelligence Center. A Business Intelligence Center site is where you’re probably hosting PerformancePoint content and/or reports, etc. Anyone using your dashboards must have read permission to all the content and datasources. But generally you don’t want general users browsing this content. It’s better to provide good navigation either through the quicklaunch or a nice home page. However, you want your designers to still have this link.

Fortunately, Microsoft built the quicklaunch link with a ClusteredSPLinkButton and the Site Actions link with a MenuItemTemplate both of which have the PermissionMode and PermissionsString properties. These controls allow you to perform simple permission trimming.

SPSecurityTrimmedControl Permission Trimming

The controls both inherit from SPSecurityTrimmedControl which is where the permission trimming properties and methods come from.

The first property, PermissionsString, defines the permission(s) a user must have in order to view the control. You can find a list of permissions here. By default both of the All Site Content link controls use the ViewFormPages permission (Basically, anyone who can get to the site).

You can use multiple permissions in your PermissionsString by separating them with a comma. How those are used is determined by the PermissionMode property which can have two values: Any or All. When set to “Any” the control will show if a user has at least one of the permissions in your PermissionString. When set to “All” the control will only show if a user has every permission listed in your PermissionString.

We wanted the All Site Content links to only show for users with Full Control over a site. So our PermissionsString needs to be ManageWeb, and since we’re only using one permission our PermissionMode can be either Any or All or even not included.

Hiding the Quicklaunch Link

To change the permission trimming attributes for our controls, we have to edit the MasterPage. If you’re developing a custom branding solution then this should be easy enough to do directly in Visual Studio. If you’re just customizing on the fly, then you’ll use SharePoint Designer (Choose Edit in SharePoint Designer from the Site Actions menu).

In the default master page (v4.master) the Quicklaunch All Site Content link can be found around line 573 and is included in the PlaceHolderQuickLaunchBottomV4 UIVersionedContent control. Here’s what it looks like by default:

<SharePoint:ClusteredSPLinkButton
	id="idNavLinkViewAllV4"
	runat="server"
	PermissionsString="ViewFormPages"
	NavigateUrl="~site/_layouts/viewlsts.aspx"
	ImageClass="s4-specialNavIcon"
	ImageUrl="/_layouts/images/fgimg.png"
	ImageWidth=16
	ImageHeight=16
	OffsetX=0
	OffsetY=0
	Text="<%$Resources:wss,quiklnch_allcontent_short%>"
	accesskey="<%$Resources:wss,quiklnch_allcontent_AK%>"/>

So all we have to do is change line 576 to read PermissionsString=”ManageWeb” and save.

Hiding the Site Actions Link

The Site Actions menu is just as easy to edit. The View All Site Content link can be found around line 137 inside the SiteActions FeatureMenuTemplate control. Here’s what it looks like by default:

<SharePoint:MenuItemTemplate runat="server" id="MenuItem_ViewAllSiteContents"
	Text="<%$Resources:wss,quiklnch_allcontent%>"
	Description="<%$Resources:wss,siteactions_allcontentdescription%>"
	ImageUrl="/_layouts/images/allcontent32.png"
	MenuGroupId="300"
	Sequence="302"
	UseShortId="true"
	ClientOnClickNavigateUrl="~site/_layouts/viewlsts.aspx"
	PermissionsString="ViewFormPages"
	PermissionMode="Any" />

Again, just change line 145 to PermissionsString=”ManageWeb” and save.

That’s it! Here’s what the same Team Site now looks like to a user with Read permission:

Hiding the Recently Modified Section in SharePoint 2010

theChrisKent Branding, List/Library Settings, SharePoint , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Applies To: SharePoint 2010, CSS

I recently added a Wiki Pages Library to a site for some end users and they really like it. However, they had a seemingly straight forward request to hide the Recently Modified section that was showing up above the Quick Launch:

This may come up as a requirement when using some of the default templates that automatically include a Site Pages library or if a user adds a new page and is prompted to create the Site Pages library automatically.

I assumed there was a setting somewhere either for the library or the site in order to turn off this “feature”. Nope. Somebody decided that this was not only a feature everyone would want, but it was so great they put it in the left actions content place holder (PlaceHolderLeftActions) of the master page – which puts it on top of the quick launch.

Some quick searching turned up “solutions” that suggested setting the contentplaceholder’s visible property to false within the master page. This works; however, it also hides anything that uses that contentplaceholder such as some of the Blog tools. This makes it a very poor candidate for a farm wide branding solution.

The other option is to use some CSS (cascading style sheets). If you’re pushing this as part of a branding solution, just add this to one of your style sheets:

.s4-recentchanges{
	display:none;
}

That’s it. Microsoft provided a very handy class just for this section and some quick use of the CSS Display property takes care of it.

So what if this is just a one off thing – You aren’t currently using any custom branding or just want it to affect one site? For a single site you can use SharePoint Designer 2010 to open the master page (v4.master – choose edit in advanced mode). Then somewhere on the page add the following:

<style>
.s4-recentchanges{
	display:none;
}
</style>

If you just want to apply it page by page, you can put the style directly in the HTML of the page. Since this is a Wiki page, choose to edit the page (Under the Page Ribbon assuming you have the rights). Click anywhere on the page and choose the HTML drop down and pick Edit HTML Source:

Somewhere on the page add the following:

<style>
.s4-recentchanges{
	display:none;
}
</style>
You can also do this in a content editor web part using the same Edit HTML Source option.

If you don’t hide this thing, I would suggest editing the master page to at least move that contentplaceholder below the quicklaunch so your navigation doesn’t get all wonky or at least displaced by a relatively unused feature.