Pawel Ciucias: Nicely Branded 40* Page

In my previous post I talked about how to create a http handler to redirect your 401 error to a custom html error page. which is still kind of limited Ideally we would want a branded error page that includes search capabilities, now this page cannot sit in the layouts folder so it has to be a site page.

So go ahead and create a site page with a code behind follow this post to create one. The code behind is essential to change the status code of the page from 200 to 403. Now once that's created add the following onload code to change the status code to 403:

using System;

using System.Runtime.InteropServices;

using Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing;

using System.Net;

using Microsoft.SharePoint;

namespace CustomErrorPage.Custom401

{

[Guid("f255e09b-bc71-479a-b1d5-2c720e492748")]

public class CustomError401 : PublishingLayoutPage

{

protected override void OnLoad(EventArgs e)

{

base.OnLoad(e);

Response.StatusCode = (int)HttpStatusCode.Forbidden;

}

with that complete, make sure that once your Custom error page is deployed that you check it in and approve it, either through your event receiver or manually through your SharePoint Ribbon.

Now we also have to make a slight change in our http module from before. We where previously writing to the response our content but now we are just going to redirect to our new page.

private void WebApp_PreSendRequestContent(object sender, EventArgs e)

{

HttpResponse response = _webApp.Response;

string message = string.Empty;

switch (response.StatusCode)

{

case 401:

_webApp.Server.TransferRequest(@"/pages/CustomError403.aspx");

break;

}

Now SharePoint uses the 401 status code for it's own purposes so try and stay away from it, which is why I use the 403, in essence the same thing but it'll work.

A Better Approach

An alternative approach to the above, which I much prefer, is to set up your http handler to do both, swap in your custom error page, and also change it's status code.

using System;

using System.Net;

using System.Text.RegularExpressions;

using System.Web;

namespace ErrorRedirect

{

public class ErrorSwapModule : IHttpModule

{

#region IHttpModule Members

public void Dispose()

{

//throw new NotImplementedException();

}

public void Init(HttpApplication context)

{

//Before Contenet is sent, transfer Page based on status code

context.PreSendRequestContent += (s, e) =>

{

var webApp = s as HttpApplication;

if (webApp != null || webApp.Request != null || webApp != null)

{

var res = webApp.Response;

var req = webApp.Request;

var usr = webApp.User;

var reg = new Regex("Custom40[1,4].aspx$");

if (!reg.IsMatch(req.Url.AbsolutePath))

if (res.StatusCode == 404)

webApp.Server.TransferRequest(@"/pages/Custom404.aspx");

else if (res.StatusCode == 401 && usr != null && !usr.Identity.IsAuthenticated)

webApp.Server.TransferRequest(@"/pages/Custom401.aspx");

}

};

//after request, switch page status

context.PostRequestHandlerExecute += (s, e) => {

var webApp = s as HttpApplication;

if(webApp != null)

if (webApp.Request.Url.AbsolutePath.Contains("Custom401"))

webApp.Response.StatusCode = (int)HttpStatusCode.Unauthorized;

else if (webApp.Request.Url.AbsolutePath.Contains("Custom404"))

webApp.Response.StatusCode = (int)HttpStatusCode.NotFound;

};

}

#endregion

}

this transfers the page on the start of the request, and then at the end of it changes the status code to whatever you would like it to be. This eliminates the need to create a custom error site pages with code behinds. you can alternatively create your pages declaratively, programmatically or even manually, just make sure that the url's line up appropriately.

Now if you want to set up your Custom Error pages, add a module to your original project, that's the one that doesn't contain your http handler.

with that done expand your module in you solution explorer.

Notice that you have two files:

Elemetns.xml
Sample.txt

Basically the elements file is a set of instructions on how and where to deploy your sample.txt file, and yes that's silly why on earth would you want to deploy a text file? the answer is odds are you wouldn't instead we are going to deploy two site pages: Custom401 and Custom404. Now you can go through the pain of trying to change your Sample.txt file into an asp site page, or you can download the cks dev kit and make your life a lot less painful. In VS2012 go to tools and click Extensions and Updates:

next make sure you have Online selected in the left hand pane, in the right hand pane type in cks and hit enter, then pick the appropriate cks version (server or foundation, 2010 or 2012/201) and hit download

Once downloaded it'll prompt you for an install, just walk through it to completion. You'll have to restart visual studio for the changes to take effect, go ahead and do so.

Strangly enough i had to install the Cks - Development Tool Edition (server) for vs2010 to get my templates to show up, why i'm not sure but that's what i did.

now that you have your kit(s) installed, delete the sample.txt file and add two cks dev site pages.

Make one for 401 and one for 404 (make sure your running Visual Studio as an administrator)

now if you would like you can open those two up and modify them however you please, one thing that you definitely will want to do is change the master page from default.master to custom.master.

From

<%@ Page language="C#" MasterPageFile="~masterurl/default.master" Inherits="Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages.WebPartPage,Microsoft.SharePoint,Version=14.0.0.0,Culture=neutral,PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" %>

<%@ Page language="C#" MasterPageFile="~masterurl/custom.master" Inherits="Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages.WebPartPage,Microsoft.SharePoint,Version=14.0.0.0,Culture=neutral,PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" %>

this will give your site pages the same look and feel provided by your masterpage instead of the admin one

but right now lets open up the elements file and actually deploy these pages to our web application.

out of the box you should see the above, we're going to change it to

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>

<Property Name="ContentType"

Value="$Resources:cmscore,contenttype_pagelayout_name;" />

<Property Name="PublishingPreviewImage"

Value="~SiteCollection/_catalogs/masterpage/$Resources:core,Culture;/Preview Images/DefaultPageLayout.png, ~SiteCollection/_catalogs/masterpage/$Resources:core,Culture;/Preview Images/DefaultPageLayout.png" />

<Property Name="PublishingAssociatedContentType"

Value=";#$Resources:cmscore,contenttype_articlepage_name;;#0x010100C568DB52D9D0A14D9B2FDCC96666E9F2007948130EC3DB064584E219954237AF3900242457EFB8B24247815D688C526CD44D;#"/>

<![CDATA[

<Title>Content Editor</Title>

<Description>Allows authors to enter rich text content.</Description>

<FrameState>Normal</FrameState>

<HelpMode>Modeless</HelpMode>

<Dir>Default</Dir>

<MissingAssembly>Cannot import this Web Part.</MissingAssembly>

<PartImageLarge>/_layouts/images/mscontl.gif</PartImageLarge>

<Assembly>Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c</Assembly>

<TypeName>Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages.ContentEditorWebPart</TypeName>

</WebPart>

]]>

</AllUsersWebPart>

</File>

<Property Name="ContentType"

Value="$Resources:cmscore,contenttype_pagelayout_name;" />

<Property Name="PublishingPreviewImage"

<Property Name="PublishingAssociatedContentType"

Value=";#$Resources:cmscore,contenttype_articlepage_name;;#0x010100C568DB52D9D0A14D9B2FDCC96666E9F2007948130EC3DB064584E219954237AF3900242457EFB8B24247815D688C526CD44D;#"/>

<![CDATA[

<Title>Content Editor</Title>

<Description>Allows authors to enter rich text content.</Description>

<FrameState>Normal</FrameState>

<HelpMode>Modeless</HelpMode>

<Dir>Default</Dir>

<MissingAssembly>Cannot import this Web Part.</MissingAssembly>

<PartImageLarge>/_layouts/images/mscontl.gif</PartImageLarge>

<Assembly>Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c</Assembly>

<TypeName>Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages.ContentEditorWebPart</TypeName>

</WebPart>

]]>

</AllUsersWebPart>

</File>

</Module>

</Elements>

seems like a lot eh? basically our module element has two file child elements:

those represent the two site pages we made, now if you expand one of the file elements and collapse the AllUserWebPart element you're looking at the properties required for your site page.

now in the web part zone we just include the Content Editor web part that allows authors to enter rich text content on the page, thus letting some sort of publisher to customize the content of your custom error pages, letting you not worry about wording.

Next What we are going to do is add a feature receiver, because we declaratively add a content editor webpart every time we deploy our solution we are going to get an extra content editor webpart, kind of annoying, so what we are going to do is remove it in the event receiver. right click on the feature and click the add event receiver button.

you should see something like

replace the commented out FeatureActivated Method with the following

public override void FeatureActivated(SPFeatureReceiverProperties properties)

{

//Grab the site we are deploying to

var site = properties.Feature.Parent as SPSite;

//Make sure its actually a site

if (site != null)

{

//get the sites root web

var web = site.RootWeb;

//Grab the root webs pages gallery

var pages = web.GetList("Pages");

//Itterate through all pages

foreach (SPListItem li in pages.Items)

{

//create a check for pages that end in 401.aspx or 404.aspx

var r = new Regex(@".40[1,4]\.aspx$");

//Check if page url matches above regex

if (r.IsMatch(li.Url))

{

SPFile page = li.File;

try

{

//Check out the page if need be

if (page.RequiresCheckout)

page.CheckOut();

//move through all webparts on page, remove all but the first one(declared by us)

//but only if it's a COntent Editor webpart

using (var mgr = page.GetLimitedWebPartManager(PersonalizationScope.Shared))

if (mgr.WebParts.Count > 1)

for (int i = mgr.WebParts.Count - 1; i > 0; i--)

{

var wp = mgr.WebParts[i];

if (wp.Title.Equals("Content Editor"))

mgr.DeleteWebPart(mgr.WebParts[i]);

}

page.CheckIn("Checked in by feature reciever");

page.Approve("Approved By Feature Reciever");

}

catch (Exception)

{

page.UndoCheckOut();

}

your also going to have to include the following using statements.

using System.Text.RegularExpressions;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts;

now open up your feature and you should have something along the lines of

Ok, now deploy your project and your two Custom error pages should show up in the pages library of your root web.

To sum up your doing the following

Create custom error pages, can be through Code, the Ribbon or Designer
Create an http Module that ties into the asp.net pipeline and redirects based on errorcodes

Thursday, 20 March 2014

Nicely Branded 40* Page

A Better Approach