FaCSIA Intranet Redevelopment Design & Layout using MOSS Evan Grimmett Lead Developer Leon...

FaCSIA Intranet RedevelopmentDesign & Layout using MOSS

Evan GrimmettLead Developer

Leon AndersenGraphic Designer

FaCSIA Intranet (STAFFnet)

Where we've come from• Working for peak Indigenous Govt agency for 6+ years Evan: • Web developer (HTML/.NET/ASP/SharePoint etc) Leon: • Web/graphic designer. Perpetuated practice of tables based mostly

inaccessible websites. • Discovered wonderful world of Web Standards, XHTML (structure) & CSS

(presentation & layout) • Became interested in web accessibility & usability. • Realised the benefits to Australian Public web users. • Taming Visual Studio to render lean, clean standards compliant HTML. • Results: • Sites passed W3C validation & conformed to WCAG Priority 1, 2+ • Sites conformed to AGIMOs mandatory requirements for web accessibility. • The world was a better place.

The merging of two departments

• OIPC (Microsoft) & FaCS (Notes) • Executive direction: – to embrace MOSS 2007 (Beta) Strong themes

developed from existing OIPC Intranet– to SharePointize our existing intranet sites and

applications.

Purpose of new Intranet

• Move to MS Infrastructure• Move away from Lotus Notes Applications• Move off existing Intranet Aptrix CMS• Establish a strong corporate look’n’feel for

internal sites & apps– Recently redeveloped OIPC intranet used as

template

Original OIPC Intranet

Why MOSS?

• Utilise Microsoft Infrastructure• Content Management System• Organisational Search• Wide variety of collaboration functionality• Workflows• Existing .Net Development teams

Immediate realisations• Limited control over output HTML, more taming

to be done• Desired look'n'feel not achievable. • Standards compliance not achievable • Level of accessibility required not achievable• Lack of available online resources and

development community knowledge (during beta)– More blogs and resources now available, eg.

• Css adapters• Heather Solomon's blog• Coming soon: Accessibility Kit for SharePoint

Working with what you've got

• became intimate with HTML & CSS. – Firebug or IE developer toolbar a must…

• worked out what overall look'n'feel was possible.

• room for control over page content and layout– ideal HTML & CSS created. – developers to emulate in SP

FaCSIA intranet (STAFFnet)

3rd Level

3rd Level

3rd Level

3rd Level

3rd Level

Site Structure

• Based on Publishing Site• Created custom Site Definition

Content types

• Matched to different types of content and Page Layouts, eg:– General Content– News Article– Media Content– Organisation Information (Branch Info)– Job Vacancy

Design to Code

• Design had produced ‘ideal’ HTML for non-webpart areas– Header, footer, page layout

• Developers interpreted as best as possible to include SharePoint controls

Master Pages

Creating Master Pages• Started from copy of default.master– One Master Page for full page width– One Master Page with left navigation

• Modified SharePoint controls– Removed SP Controls not required– Modifed properties of controls (Search box, Navigation,

Breadcrumbs etc)• Referenced custom stylesheet to override default

styles with Staffnet specific styles• Modified layout HTML surrounding SharePoint controls

and placeholders• Added custom footer with contact person details

Master Pages

Master Page – Full Width

Master Page – Full Width

Master Page – with Navigation

Creating Page Layouts

• Started from existing Page Layout as template• Many types of Page Layouts, eg:– General Content– News Article– Online Staff Newsletter– Job Vacancy– Branch Page

• Type of SP controls related to Content Type

Page Layouts

• Embed required Publishing/SP Controls, eg:– HTML Content area (RichHtmlField)– Links (SummaryLinks)– Image (RichImageField)– WebPartZones

• Used Edit Mode Panel to display metadata field controls to authors while in edit mode

• Apply custom layout HTML– eg. Replaced tables with divs

Page Layouts - Home

Content Query Web Part

Content Query Web Part

Content Query Web Part

Content Query Web Part

Summary Link Web Part

Summary Link Web Part

Summary Link Web Part

People Search Web Part

Custom Web Part

Custom Web Part

Page Layouts – Category (Level 2)

Category - 2nd Level

Page Layouts

Page Layouts

Page Layouts

Page Layouts

Page Layouts

Page Layouts

Page Layouts

3rd Level

3rd Level

3rd Level

3rd Level

3rd Level

In Edit Mode

CSS we modified

• In the 12 hive (file system)– core.css– portal.css– controls.css– Other linked stylesheets

• In Style Library– StaffNet.css (new + override global classes)

CSS - Workarounds

• Used XSLT in webparts where possible to avoid nested tables

Themes

• We tried themes to apply styles• Work with temporary file to see immediate

results – then copy back• Useful to apply to individual sites• However subsites do not inherit parent site

theme

Using XSL Style Sheets

• Used for many webparts, eg: – Content Query WP– Summary Links WP

• Found in Style Library folder of publishing site• Can add new or modify existing XSL files to

change HTML source output of controls– Used XSLT where available to modify standard table-

based output to more semantic markup– Eg. Using <ul> rather than <table> for lists

• Be careful of Edit mode XSLT of Controls

Page Layout – web parts with custom XSL references

Exported WebPart with custom XSL references

Item.xsl template

Item.xsl template

Added Accessible links through XSL

Some ‘Challenges’ experienced

• Built-in inline styles within controls• WebParts and Zones always render a table• Some webparts don’t expose xsl– Some hard-coded html within control rendering– eg. Image Web Part has &nbsp;, acting like

placeholder when no image selected• Text resizing– However were able to implement relative font

sizes (em) for body content

Govt Standards/Accessibility Issues

• Table based• Javascript reliance• Large initial file downloads for css (~100 kb) &

js (~250+ kb)– Javascript mostly used for site admin functionality– Workaround available to download core.js after

initial page load

Tools used

• In-browser editing & config• SharePoint Designer• Visual Studio 2005• Notepad• IE Developer toolbar• FireBug (Firefox dev toolbar)

Deployment

• Install across environments– Developer local server– Test / Pre-Prod / Prod

• Provisioned files using Features, included:– Master Pages, Page Layouts, CSS, XSL, image files,

webpart definitions, site templates, content types

• Packaged and Deployed all features/DLLs in a WSP file (SharePoint Solution Package)

Future...

• Continue towards standards compliance as updates become available

• Collaboration sites for Groups Branches Sections Project teams Boards etc

Useful Links

• Accessibility Kit for SharePoint (AKS)– To assist meeting W3C WCAG Priorities 1 & 2– 1.0 in development, due November 27th

– http://www.codeplex.com/aks

• Heather Solomon’s Blog – SharePoint Design– http://www.heathersolomon.com/blog

Questions?