Ghosted and Unghosted Pages in SharePoint

SharePoint web sites can contain two kinds of pages: Ghosted and Unghosted

Ghosted Page in SharePoint
A ghosted page is a page in SharePoint website which is not stored in the database instead it reference to a file which exists in the server’s file system. These reference files are common for all the website/site collection within that SharePoint server, i.e., if you modify a reference file then that change will reflect in all the websites/site collections within that SharePoint server automatically. So we can say these reference files are used as template.

The default master page of SharePoint “default.master” is a well known example of ghosted page. “default.master” page is located in the directory "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\Global". If you do some changes in the “default.master” then this change will automatically reflect in all the websites within that SharePoint server.

To create a new site in SharePoint, a site template is used. Site template contains description of all the pages, webparts within the pages, master page used, custom lists, etc. for the web site to be created. You can define a page ghostable in the “onet.xml” file of the site template.

Unghosted Page in SharePoint
All the pages in a SharePoint website which are stored in the content database are referred as unghosted pages. All the unghosted pages are specific to that SharePoint website only, i.e., changes done in an unghosted pages will not reflect in other websites within that SharePoint server.

If a new website is created with a site template which contains a page defined as “unghostable” in the “onet.xml”, then that page will be stored in the content database of new website created and will not reference to the page available in the site template folder.

If a ghosted page is modified in the SharePoint designer, it will become unghosted. For example if a master page is customized in SharePoint Designer, SharePoint stores a modified version of the master page in the content database and also it breaks the reference to the “default.master” file on the “C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\12\TEMPLATE\Global“.

Dynamically changing the master page in SharePoint 2007

http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/43377/SharePoint-Dynamically-Change-Master-Page.aspx

Creating and Deploying Custom aspx Page as Feature and Solution Package

There are two ways to deploy a custom aspx page in SharePoint.

1. Using VseWss extensions project. Here you won't need to create a solution package manually. All the files need to create a solution package are created by the VS extensions itself. See the related Post Deploy Custom Css file in 12 hive. You can use same method to deploy your Custom aspx page.

2. The second way is creating a solution package around your asp.net webapplication so that the pages in the webapplictaion can be deployed in sharepoint. This requires you to manually create all the solution related files (I mean manifest.xml, feature.xml, elements.xml and .ddf file).

In this Post, we will create a solution package manually for a asp.net webapplication project, so that the custom aspx page created in asp.net web application can be deployed in SharePoint's Layouts folder.

Below are the Steps that you can follow :

1. Create a New WebApplication Project.

2. Create a new folder "MyCustomFolder" in the solution explorer and Add your custom aspx page (along with cs file) under it.

3. Add two more xml files in the same folder with names as elements.xml and feature.xml.

The Elements.xml File should look like below -

http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">

Using External Javascript, CSS or Image File in a WebPart

Button Testbutton;
Image img;
string imagePath;

// Referring External Javascript
ClientScriptManager cs = Page.ClientScript;
// Include the required javascript file.
if (!cs.IsClientScriptIncludeRegistered("jsfile"))
cs.RegisterClientScriptInclude(this.GetType(), "jsfile", "/_wpresources/MyWP/1.0.0.0_9f4da00116c38ec5/jsfile.js");

Test :
Testbutton= new Button();
Testbutton.Text = "Click me";
Testbutton.OnClientClick = "jsfile_Function()"; // specify function name here
this.Controls.Add(Testbutton);

// Refering External CSS
Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls.CssLink cssLink = new Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls.CssLink();
cssLink.DefaultUrl = "/_wpresources/MyWP/1.0.0.0_9f4da00116c38ec5/styles.css";
this.Page.Header.Controls.Add(cssLink);

// Using External Image
imagePath = "/_wpresources/MyWP/1.0.0.0_9f4da00116c38ec5/Image.jpg";
img.ImageUrl = imagePath;
img.ID = "image1";

this.Controls.Add(mybutton);
this.Controls.Add(img);

Impersonation in Sharepoint (RunWithElevatedPrivileges)

Although not recommended, there may be times when you need your code to perform certain functions that the current user does not have the necessary permissions to perform.

The SPSecurity class provides a method (RunWithElevatedPrivileges) that allows you to run a subset of code in the context of an account with higher privileges than the current user.
The premise is that you wrap the RunWithElevatedPrivileges method around your code. And also In certain circumstances, such as when working with Web forms, you may also need to set the AllowSafeUpdates method to true to temporarily turn off security validation within your code. If you use this technique, it is imperative that you set the AllowSafeUpdates method back to false to avoid any potential security risks.

Code example

{
SPSite mySite = SPContext.Current.Site;
SPWeb myWeb = mySite.OpenWeb();

//Using RunWithElevatedPrivileges

SPSecurity.RunWithElevatedPrivileges(delegate()
{
// Get references to the site collection and site for the current context.
// The using statement makes sures these references are disposed properly.

using (SPSite siteCollection = new SPSite(mySite.ID))
{

using (SPWeb web = siteCollection.OpenWeb(myWeb.ID))
{

web.AllowUnsafeUpdates = true;

try
{
//Your code
}

web.AllowUnsafeUpdates = false;

//siteCollection = null;
//web = null;

}

Retrieving large number of Items from sharepoint list

If you have to reterive a large number of Items and also need a better performance then you should use one of the methods below :

1. Using SPQuery

2. Using PortalSiteMapProvider Class

Lets see the examples for both the methods :

Our Query - Query to get all the Items in a list where Category is "Sp2007"

SPQuery -

// Get SiteColl
SPSite curSite = new SPSite("http://myPortal");

//Get Web Application
SPWeb curWeb = curSite.OpenWeb();

// Create a SPQuery Object
SPQuery curQry = new SPQuery();

// Write the query
curQry.Query = "
SP2007 ";

// Set the Row Limit
curQry.RowLimit = 100;

//Get the List
SPList curList = curWeb.Lists(new Guid("myListGUID"));

//Get the Items using Query
SPListItemCollection curItems = curList.GetItems(curQry);

// Enumerate the resulting items
foreach (SPListItem curItem in curItems)
{

string ResultItemTitle = curItem["Title"].ToString();

}

PortalSiteMapProvider class -

The class includes a method called GetCachedListItemsByQuery that retrieves data from a list based on an SPQuery object that is provided as a parameter to the method call.
The method then looks in its cache to see if the items already exist. If they do, the method returns the cached results, and if not, it queries the list, stores the results in cache and returns them from the method call.


// Get Current Web
SPWeb curWeb = SPControl.GetContextWeb(HttpContext.Current);

//Create the Query
SPQuery curQry = new SPQuery();
curQry.Query = "SP2007";

// Get Portal Map Provider
PortalSiteMapProvider ps = PortalSiteMapProvider.WebSiteMapProvider;

PortalWebSiteMapNode pNode = TryCast (ps.FindSiteMapNode (curWeb.ServerRelativeUrl), PortalWebSiteMapNode);

// Get the items
pItems = ps.GetCachedListItemsByQuery(pNode, "myListName_NotID", curQry, curWeb);

// Enumerate all resulting Items
foreach (PortalListItemSiteMapNode curItem in pItems)
{
string ResultItemTitle = curItem["Title"].ToString();
}