SharePoint 2010 custom masterpage with code behind file – Part 2

In part 2 I will tell how I eventually got a code-behind file working on the custom master-page that I deployed trough Visual Studio. To be clear I don’t use SharePoint Designer to customize my master pages so I cannot guarantee that those pages will work.
To completely understand this information I recommend you to read Part 1 first.
The story continues….

 

Add Reference…

The next thing to do is adding a Reference to the SharePoint 2010 project.
This can be done by right-click on References in the Solution Explorer and then –> Add Reference

A new Window will popup arise that look like this:

As far as I know there 2 References that there need to be added:

• Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing
  
  • First select the Browse tab
  • then go to following directory: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office Servers\14.0\Bin
  • Select Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.dll
  • Press the OK button

System.Web

• Repeat the Add reference step
• Now select the .NET tab
• Find the System.Web
• Select it and press the OK button

Add object(s) for the code-behind file

In this how-to I will add 2 objects that I will manipulate with the code-behind file.

asp:LabelFirst I added an asp:Label to the masterpage. I put this above the ribbon section so it will be noticed when it works.

"Label1" runat="server" Text="">

div
I put a simple div around the ribbon so that I can disable the complete ribbon.

<div id="divRibbonContainer" runat="server">







div>

The id’s of these objects will be needed for the code-behind file.

The code-behind file

To create a code behind file right-click on the Module in the solution, –> Add –> New Item…




In the following window select on the left Code –> Class and I called the file _starter.master.cs, just like a normal code-behind file.








There are some things that need to be added

• Add using statements of:
  
  
  
  • System.Web;
    
  • System.Web.UI;
    
  • System.Web.UI.WebControls;

Make the class public and let it inherit from Masterpage

Declare protected objects from the masterpage

Add a page_load method

If you’ve done all that your class should look something like this:

using System;

using System.Collections.Generic;

using System.Linq;

using System.Text;

using System.Web;

using System.Web.UI;

using System.Web.UI.WebControls;



namespace MasterPageWithCodeBehind.MasterPageModule

{

public class _starter : MasterPage

{

protected System.Web.UI.HtmlControls.HtmlGenericControl divRibbonContainer;

protected Label Label1;



protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)

{

divRibbonContainer.Visible = false;

Label1.Text = "Hello World!";

}

}

}

Retrieving Public Key Token/PublicKeyToken

This is a little bit tricky, this token is needed in the next step when we need to apply the Inherits attribute.

• First build the project
  
• Right-click on the SharePoint 2010 project in the Solution Explorer
  
  
  
  • Click --> Open Folder in Windows Explorer
    
  • Next open: bin
    
  • Open: Debug
    
  • Copy the directory path and paste it into a text editor or something like that
    
  • Next copy the filename of the .dll file en past it behind the path you just pasted in the text editor
    
  • The result should be something like this:
    D:\administrator\documents\visual studio 2010\Projects\MasterPageWithCodeBehind\MasterPageWithCodeBehind\bin\Debug\MasterPageWithCodeBehind.dll

Next go to Start (Windows start menu)

• Programs/All programs
  
  
  
  • Microsoft Visual Studio 2010
    
    
    
    • Visual Studio Tools
      
      
      
      • Visual Studio Command Prompt (2010)

You’ll get a dos prompt.
Do the following things:

• Enter the following command: cd\
  
• Next copy your complete directory path including the *.dll from your texteditor
  
• Type the following:
  - sn.exe –Tp “”Don’t forget the quotes around the directory and filename
  It should look something like this:
  sn.exe -Tp "D:\administrator\documents\visual studio 2010\Projects\MasterPageWithCodeBehind\MasterPageWithCodeBehind\bin\Debug\MasterPageWithCodeBehind.dll"

The output should be something like this:




Copy the Public key token.

Inherits

To combine the code-behind file with the masterpage there need to be an attribute added to the masterpage directive.
The following data is needed:

• Namespace of the class & Type/Class name (these need to be seperated by a dot) (MasterPageWithCodeBehind.MasterPageModule._starter)
  
• Strongname/Assembly in my case was this the same as the projectname (MasterPageWithCodeBehind)
  
• Version (Version=1.0.0.0)
  
• Culture (Culture=neutral)
  
• PublicKeyToken (PublicKeyToken=f8a88530fbc7b81b)In the masterpage navigate to the following:

Add the following Inherits attribute:




Now the 5 dots above need to be combined, in my situation it looks like this:
MasterPageWithCodeBehind.MasterPageModule._starter, MasterPageWithCodeBehind, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=f8a88530fbc7b81b



Place this as value from the Inherits attribute.

Result

Deploy your SharePoint 2010 project and load the default site.
Your ribbon should be gone and a text like Hello World! should be visible.



The left top corner of my SharePoint 2010 looks like this now:

4:25 PM