Branding in SharePoint Technologies
With SharePoint Technologies (Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007 and Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) 3.0 collectively referred to as) entering the mainstream development arena on the Microsoft platform, it is imperative for decision-makers to decide upon a strategy for adopting this technology.
SharePoint Technologies is based on the following theme: Connecting People, Processes, Tools and Information. This new version of SharePoint Technologies offers significant enhancements to the existing features and also introduces many new features like Collaboration, automation of simple Business Processes involving documents, Enterprise Search, and Business Intelligence. Thus it acts as a sort of default choice for the organizations for a variety of requirements from Intranet/Internet Portal, Content Management System, etc. With all of this Branding all the applications gains greater importance.
I will have a 3 part series on this explaining the various options available for branding and which one suits better in what scenario. Before that we will get into the details of what branding is all about? Branding as a concept has been there for years since the beginning days of Web Application development. Earlier it was done using basic rudimentary things like Header, Footer include files (*.inc), Frames, standard Navigation, etc. However, with ASP.Net 2.0, the way this is implemented has been changed to the usage of Master Pages, css class, themes, etc.
Branding, is the identity of an organization (or department) applied to an application (portal is also a type of application). This is generally done for various reasons - to ensure consistent look-and-feel, for better user experience, or to enforce standards of the organization/department, etc. It includes things like the top banner, footer, various navigations like the left navigation, global navigation, basic search, page layout, etc.
Branding, which is also regarded as an artifact-based development since it does not involve assembly based coding (involving VS.Net), is conceptualized in the early stage of the development cycle as it can potentially impact the look-and-feel and UI experience of the entire site.
Though MOSS 2007 provides flexible options for branding it requires careful selection of the option choice based on the needs. A clear understanding of the options and their relevance needs to be understood. These options and guidance are not easily available in the public documentation. This blog provides overview of branding options available in MOSS 2007 and selection criteria
With this we will get into the details on Master Pages in the next part.
