HowTo: Customize Community Server Navigation
By Eric Hartwell - last updated
March 19, 2006
Community Server 2.0 was designed
to be customized and extended, so it's extremely easy to add links to other site
components to the navigation tab bar.
Tab Bar
The site's addresses are specified in
SiteUrls.config,
and XML text file at the root of the Community Server installation. The
navigation links are specified in the <navigation> section, or the format:
<link name="name" resourceUrl="url"
resourceName="text" roles="roles" />
<link name="name" navigateUrl="url"
text="tabtext" />
- name: look up value (identifier)
- resourceUrl: maps to url name in SiteUrls/Urls
or
navigateUrl: fixed, absolute URL
- resourceName: Text for link/tab. Maps to the language resource
files
or
text: Text for link/tab, single language
- roles: Which users can view this link. If no roles attribute is
given, it will assume it is for Everyone. You can specify multiple roles by
separating them with a comma
The Siteurls.config for my site looks like this:
| Siteurls.config (changes/additions
in white) |
<navigation>
<!--
name: look up value
resourceUrl: maps to url name in SiteUrls/Urls
resourceName: text
for link. Maps to the language resource files
roles: Which users
can view this link.
You can also specify actual links here like the following:
<link name="mylink" navigateUrl="http://www.mysite.com/" text="My
Link" />
If no roles attribute is given, it will assume it is for
Everyone. You can
specify multiple roles by separating them with
a comma (,).
-->
<!-- link name="home" resourceUrl="home"
resourceName="home" roles="Everyone" / -->
<link name="home" navigateUrl="http://www.ehartwell.com/"
resourceName="home" roles="Everyone" />
<link name="mywiki" navigateUrl="http://www.ehartwell.com/wiki"
text="Wiki />
<link name="blog" navigateUrl="http://ehartwell.com/cs2/blogs/infodabble/default.aspx"
text="Blog" />
<link name="myarchive" navigateUrl="http://www.ehartwell.com/BlogArchive/index.htm"
text="Archive" /> |
<link name="blogs" resourceUrl="webloghome"
resourceName="weblogs" roles="Everyone" applicationType = "Weblog"
/>
<link name="forums" resourceUrl="forumshome"
resourceName="forums" roles="Everyone" applicationType = "Forum" />
<link name="gallery" resourceUrl="galleryhome" resourceName="photos"
roles="Everyone" applicationType = "Gallery" />
<link name="files" resourceUrl="fileshome" resourceName="files"
roles="Everyone" applicationType = "FileGallery" />
<link name="reader" resourceUrl="readerhome" resourceName="reader"
applicationType = "FeedReader"
type ="CommunityServer.Reader.Controls.ReaderMenuValidator,
CommunityServer.Reader" />
<link name="roller" resourceUrl="rollerhome" resourceName="roller"
applicationType = "BlogRoller" />
<link name="controlpanel" resourceUrl="controlpanel" resourceName="controlpanel"
roles="SystemAdministrator,BlogAdministrator,ForumsAdministrator,Moderator,GalleryAdministrator,
FileAdministrator,ReaderAdministrator,MembershipAdministrator" />
<link name="mytechnotes" navigateUrl="http://www.ehartwell.com/TechNotes/index.htm"
text="Tech Notes" />
<link name="myapollo17" navigateUrl="http://www.ehartwell.com/Apollo17/index.htm"
text="Apollo 17" />
<link name="myabout" navigateUrl="http://www.ehartwell.com/About/index.htm"
text="About me" /> |
</navigation> |
Footer
Unlike most other parts of the application, the Community Server footer is
not designed to be easily customized. This is largely a licensing issue:
The Express Edition of Community Server is recommended for organizations
or individuals that want to quickly and easily (on a budget) create a
community site. It includes fully functional blogs, forums, and photo
gallery tools. However, it is limited in that add-ons cannot be used and it
has a required “Power By” advertisement in the footer of every page.
However, provided you don't violate the license agreement, you can customize
the footer by editing the theme's Master.ascx file. Comment out Community
Server's <CS:Footer> code, and replace it with the HTML from the
bottom.htm shared border
we already built for the FrontPage part of the site - plus the "Powered By
Community Server" advertisement, of course.
| Master.ascx (changes/additions
in white) |
<div id="CommonBody">
<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" width="100%" id="CommonBodyTable">
...
...
</table>
</div><div id="CommonFooter">
<CS:MPRegion id="BodyFooterRegion" runat="server" >
<CS:Footer runat="server"
id="Footer1"/>
</CS:MPRegion>
</div>
| --> |
<div id="CommonFooter" style="font-size: 9px">
<table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0"
width="100%">
<tr>
<td nowrap width="108">
<a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/">
<img alt="Creative Commons License" border="0" src="/images/somerights20.png"
hspace="10" width="88" height="31"></a>
</td>
<td nowrap align="left">
Unless otherwise noted, all material by
<a href="http://www.ehartwell.com/">Eric Hartwell</a> is
licensed under <br>
the
<a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/">
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5
License</a>
</td>
<td width="90%">
</td>
<td>
<a href="http://communityserver.org/r.ashx?1"><img
border=0 hspace="10" width="114" height="40" src="/cs2/images/EULA.gif"
/></a>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</div> |
</div>
</CS:MPRegion>
</CS:MPForm>
</body>
</html> |
Revision History
- 20060319 - Added footer
- 20060316 - Initial version
