Creating custom my site template

Here are some links to start creating a custom my site template:

• intro
• branding
• Sharepoint Designer and my site customizations

If you want to take the default templates take a look at **{SharepointRoot}\TEMPLATE\SiteTempates\SPMSITE **(the site template for “my content” - an individual site collection rootweb template, and first of all {SharepointRoot}\TEMPLATE\SiteTempates\SPMSITEHOST, the host site template for my sites. They include pages and onet.xml. Both use mysite.master which can be found at:

• {SharepointRoot}\TEMPLATE\FEATURES\MySiteLayouts\mysite.master
• {SharepointRoot}\TEMPLATE\FEATURES\PersonalizationSite\mysite.master

If you compare so you will see that they are identical, so I would like to know why there are two same files in different locations. MySite has actually two ribbons. The second, with additional links (my content, newsfeed…), is defined by:

<SharePoint:DelegateControl
    runat="server"
    ControlId="GlobalNavigation"/>

If you want to remove some links, remove the corresponding controls, such as:

<SPSWC:EditProfileButton
    runat="server"
    id="ddlEditProfile"/>

While creating a custom my site template I discovered many useful controls from Sharepoint WebControls namespace (often shortened as SPWC in xml namespace). Here is an example how we can get a string value from a localized resource:

<SPSWC:StringValueEx ResourceFile="spscore" LocId="SkipContactCard_Text" runat="server" />

Or this one:

<SPSWC:ProfilePropertyImage
	PropertyName="PictureUrl"
	RenderWrapTable="False"
	ShowPlaceholder="true"
	id="PictureUrlImage"
	ImageSize="Large"
	CenterVertically="true"
	runat="server"/>

Using profile controls outside My Site

These web controls can be used outside my site, actually in any other page. But don’t forget to add ProfilePropertyLoader:

<SPSWC:ProfilePropertyLoader
     id="m_objLoader"
     LoadFullProfileOfCurrentUser="true"
     runat="server" />
<SPSWC:EditProfileButton
     runat="server"
     id="ddlEditProfile" />

If there is no ProfilePropertyLoader, other controls won’t show up. So if you ask yourself: “OMG, I added EditProfileButton, but it doesn’t appear!” Well, just add ProfilePropertyLoader.

• Mysite
• SharePoint