Working with Search Page Layouts : Adding Navigation to the Search Center (part 2)

2. Adding Navigation to Search Center Master Page

Although the master page minimal.master has no navigation, it is possible to add it. This is recommended for most corporations. Assume a user executes a search, gets some search results, and then wants to jump back to the root site. The only way is for the user to modify the URL manually, which is not really a feasible option.

To add navigation to the minimal.master, first locate this section in the master page.

<div>
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderTitleBreadcrumb" runat="server" />
</div>

Add the following markup from Listing 2 just before the foregoing markup. This places the navigation in the correct location for it to show properly.

Example 2. Navigation in minimal.master Master Page Markup

<div id="s4-topheader2" class="s4-pr s4-notdlg">
<div class="s4-lp s4-toplinks">
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderTopNavBar" runat="server">
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderHorizontalNav" runat="server">
<SharePoint:AspMenu
   ID="TopNavigationMenuV4"
   Runat="server"
   EnableViewState="false"
   DataSourceID="topSiteMap"
   AccessKey="<%$Resources:wss,navigation_accesskey%>"
   UseSimpleRendering="true"
   UseSeparateCss="false"
   Orientation="Horizontal"
   StaticDisplayLevels="2"
   MaximumDynamicDisplayLevels="1"
   SkipLinkText=""
   CssClass="s4-tn"/>
<SharePoint:DelegateControl runat="server"
   ControlId="TopNavigationDataSource" Id="topNavigationDelegate">
<Template_Controls>
<asp:SiteMapDataSource
   ShowStartingNode="False"
   SiteMapProvider="SPNavigationProvider"
   id="topSiteMap"
   runat="server"
   StartingNodeUrl="sid:1002"/>
</Template_Controls>
</SharePoint:DelegateControl>
</asp:ContentPlaceHolder>
</asp:ContentPlaceHolder>
</div>
</div>

					  

Then locate this section in the minimal.master.

<SharePoint:CssRegistration Name="layouts.css" runat="server"/>

Add this just before the foregoing.

<SharePoint:CssRegistration Name="corev4.css" runat="server"/>

After these changes, the minimal.master now includes navigation as seen in Figure 5. As it is only the search center that uses the minimal.master, it is suggested that this master page is deployed throughout the farm to solve the missing navigation issue for all search centers, both current and the ones created later.

Figure 5. Navigation added to minimal.master screen dump

3. Adding Navigation to the SearchMain.aspx Page

Instead of changing the master page named minimal.master, it is also possible to add the top navigation bar directly to the layout of the page. This can be done by adding the following code to the SearchMain.aspx page layout.

Begin to edit the page by selecting Edit in Advanced Mode (using SPD 2010). Then locate this section in the SearchMain.aspx page. Also do the same for SearchResults.aspx.

</ContentTemplate>
</SharePoint:UIVersionedContent>
<SharePoint:UIVersionedContent UIVersion="4" runat="server">
<ContentTemplate>

Add the markup shown in Listing 3 just after the markup shown previously. This way the navigation is added in the right place to make it show exactly as if it were added to the master page using the previously described method.

Example 3. Navigation Markup Added to SearchMain.aspx Page

<div class="s4-lp s4-toplinks" style="background-image:url(/_layouts/images/selbg.png);

background-repeat:no-repeat;
 repeat-x:left top; background-color:#f6f6f6; vertical-align:middle; min-height:25px;

border-top:1px solid #e0e0e0;
 border-bottom:1px solid #b8babd">
        <SharePoint:AspMenu
          ID="TopNavigationMenuV4"
          Runat="server"
          EnableViewState="false"
          DataSourceID="topSiteMap"

					  

AccessKey="<%$Resources:wss,navigation_accesskey%>"
           UseSimpleRendering="true"
           UseSeparateCss="false"
           Orientation="Horizontal"
           StaticDisplayLevels="2"
           MaximumDynamicDisplayLevels="1"
           SkipLinkText=""
           CssClass="s4-tn"/>
         <SharePoint:DelegateControl runat="server" ControlId="TopNavigationDataSource"

Id="topNavigationDelegate">
         <Template_Controls>
          <asp:SiteMapDataSource
            ShowStartingNode="False"
            SiteMapProvider="SPNavigationProvider"
            id="topSiteMap"
            runat="server"
            StartingNodeUrl="sid:1002"/>
         </Template_Controls>
        </SharePoint:DelegateControl>
    </div>

					  

In the foregoing sample, all the CSS styles come from the SharePoint CSS file named corev4.css. These can be changed to fit other requirements for the look of the page. After these changes, the SearchMain.aspx and SearchResults.aspx pages now include navigation as seen in Figure 6. As it is only the search center that uses SearchMain.aspx and SearchResults.aspx, it is suggested that this page is deployed throughout the farm to solve the missing navigation issue once and for all.

Also notice that the end result from a user's perspective is exactly the same as when adding navigation directly to the master page.

Figure 6. Navigation added to SearchMain.aspx screen dump