Summary

Requirements:

• SharePoint MOSS 2007
• Must be using a Publishing Site

This post will create the SharePoint Current Navigation control that only shows the 2^nd level site when browsing, and supports highlighting. The datasource comes from SharePoint as well, so everything is security trimmed, and editable in the browser.

This post is for users who are using SharePoint MOSS 2007 navigation on their website. If you want your current navigation to display the sites and pages under a subsite, but always keep the second level subsite on top, then this post is for you. It’s hard to explain, so reference the screenshot below:

Figure 1 – Our Firm is a subsite under the root of the website. Even if I navigate to Board of Directors above, Our Firm remains at the top of the Current Navigation.

Sitemap data for my screenshot above:

• Company
  • Our Firm
    • Leadership
      • Management Team
      • Board of Directors
    • Contact Us
    • Locations
  • Investment Banking
  • Sales & Training
  • Research

Sitemap levels:

• Top Level (root)
  • Second Level site
    • Third Level Site
      • Fourth Level site
      • Fourth Level site
    • Third Level Site
    • Third Level Site
  • Second Level site
  • Second Level site
  • Second Level site

The key is that I want only each second level navigation block to appear when a user is anywhere on or under that second level site. So in my screenshot, you see Our Firm, even if you navigate to Board of Directors.

This navigation also supports highlighting and pages.

Preparing the subsite (our Firm)

• Check Show Subsites and Show Pages
• Under Current Navigation, select Display current, below, and siblings. (the middle radio button)

Now you need to adjust your current navigation code in the MASTERPAGE to only show the site you are under.

Adjusting the masterpage Current Navigation

Find your PlaceHolderLeftNavBar and replace the contents with this, or you can just mimic it. Take note of the highlighted parts. These are important for this post.

Placeholders are content buckets in your masterpages, the content inside them is what is important. Just make sure you don’t have multiple of the same ID’s on the same masterpage.

Here is the code:

<asp:ContentPlaceHolder id=”PlaceHolderLeftNavBar” runat=”server”>

    <!– Current Navigation –>

    <!– Current Navigation –>

    <SharePoint:AspMenu ID=”CurrentNav” runat=”server” datasourceID=”SiteMapDS” orientation=”Vertical”

    StaticDisplayLevels=”4″ MaximumDynamicDisplayLevels=”1″ StaticSubMenuIndent=”1″ ItemWrap=”true”

    AccessKey=”3″ CssClass=”leftNav” SkipLinkText=”<%$Resources:cms,masterpages_skiplinktext%>”>

        <StaticHoverStyle CssClass=”LeftStaticHover” Font-Bold=”False” Font-Italic=”False” Font-Overline=”False” Font-Strikeout=”False” Font-Underline=”False” />

        <StaticSelectedStyle CssClass=”LeftStaticSelected” Font-Bold=”False” Font-Italic=”False” Font-Overline=”False” Font-Strikeout=”False” Font-Underline=”False” />

        <DynamicMenuStyle CssClass=”LeftDynamicMenu” Font-Bold=”False” Font-Italic=”False” Font-Overline=”False” Font-Strikeout=”False” Font-Underline=”False” />

        <DynamicMenuItemStyle CssClass=”LeftDynamicMenuItem” Font-Bold=”False” Font-Italic=”False” Font-Overline=”False” Font-Strikeout=”False” Font-Underline=”False” />

            <LevelMenuItemStyles>

                <asp:menuitemstyle CssClass=”parent” Font-Underline=”False” />

                <asp:menuitemstyle CssClass=”child” Font-Underline=”False” />

                <asp:menuitemstyle CssClass=”leftNav3″ Font-Underline=”False” />

                <asp:menuitemstyle CssClass=”leftNav4″ Font-Underline=”False” />

                <asp:menuitemstyle CssClass=”leftNav5″ Font-Underline=”False” />

            </LevelMenuItemStyles>

        <StaticMenuStyle CssClass=”LeftStaticMenu” Font-Bold=”False” Font-Italic=”False” Font-Overline=”False” Font-Strikeout=”False” Font-Underline=”False” />

        <DynamicSelectedStyle CssClass=”LeftDynamicSelected” Font-Bold=”False” Font-Italic=”False” Font-Overline=”False” Font-Strikeout=”False” Font-Underline=”False” />

        <StaticMenuItemStyle CssClass=”LeftStaticMenuItem” Font-Bold=”False” Font-Italic=”False” Font-Overline=”False” Font-Strikeout=”False” Font-Underline=”False” />

        <DynamicHoverStyle CssClass=”LeftDynamicHover” Font-Bold=”False” Font-Italic=”False” Font-Overline=”False” Font-Strikeout=”False” Font-Underline=”False”/>

    </SharePoint:AspMenu>

    <PublishingNavigation:PortalSiteMapDataSource ID=”SiteMapDS” Runat=”server”

    SiteMapProvider=”CombinedNavSiteMapProvider”

    StartFromCurrentNode=”True”

    StartingNodeOffset=”1″ TrimNonCurrentTypes=”Page”/>

</asp:ContentPlaceHolder>

Here is an explanation of the above code:

Datasource properties

See this same table (and ALL OTHER PROPERTIES!) here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb897657.aspx

Basically, just play around with the code. You can learn a lot just modifying the above properties. I basically wanted this blog post to show a neat configuration of SharePoint navigation 🙂

Good luck!