Re-organising site layouts and structures

Question

Hi
I have a requirement where an organisation wants to re-organise their
existing site structure. They have a number of site collections (1 per department) each SC has a number of sub-sites (team sites).
All SC need to to have a new layout with new webparts on the landing pages. All subsites need to have layout changes and maybe navigation changes also. (I'm still looking at the requirements)
Originally, I was under the impression that I was to build all from scratch, this would have been easier. My idea was to create a feature that would build and configure everthing in new site collections. As existing site collections exist with sub-sites,
how can I achieve the requirements ? All changes need to be mirrored across all existing site collections.
Will this need to be a manual alteration or can it be automated with some sort of template?
Thanks

Answer 1

Hi, I will do my best to answer each question in order.
In terms of order is it best to build a custom page adding and testing jquery slideshow and then after debug somehow copy this to the VS project?
Yes, I suggest you create a working site collection with sample sub sites and demo pages. Create your custom branding (custom master pages, page layouts, content pages, etc) as well as build custom controls or components such as jQuery sliders. Debug and
get working, then package into VS. Many developers would complain as say always build in VS from the beginning but I find debugging takes significantly longer as you have to recompile/redeploy with every change.
Can VS create branded sub-sites upon activation?
Yes, you will want to use an event receiver or feature stapling. The actual technique you will us will depend on how automated you want the process. If you want everything wrapped up into a large site template, then you can add a root web, sub webs, all
with prefilled content and branding applied when a new site collection is added. This is an advanced VS solution though.
Once the VS project is ready the solution needs to be deployed and activated in other departments. To activate in other departments do I need to create a site collection and then activate the feature?
I suggest you package this all as a site template, thus when a site collection is added, you will select your custom site template. That will mean all sub sites and branding is auto applied for you depending on your custom site template configuration.
Using multiple SC’s can I use a single master page and page layout or will I need to have a master page and page layout for each SC?
Each Site Collection will need its own set of master pages and page layouts. You can have a central repository for css, images, js, etc, though. I good reason why to package branding into a feature so it is more easy to maintain. If you need to update master
pages / page layouts, simply update the feature, redeploy to the server, then deactivate/activate the feature on each site collection using powershell.
Are there any alternatives other than using VS to build this (I thought of simply exporting site as template- though this only exports current site not subsites)
Not that I know of, I recommend the power of a custom site template built in VS.
Eric Overfield - PixelMill -
blog.pixelmill.com/ericoverfield -
@EricOverfield