{"id":58,"date":"2008-08-18T08:39:00","date_gmt":"2008-08-18T12:39:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dontpapanic.com\/blog\/?p=58"},"modified":"2011-04-01T08:40:19","modified_gmt":"2011-04-01T12:40:19","slug":"adding-custom-web-part-page-templates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dontpapanic.com\/blog\/?p=58","title":{"rendered":"Adding Custom Web Part Page Templates"},"content":{"rendered":"
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I was recently asked whether it was possible to add custom Web Part Page templates to the Create page in SharePoint 2007 or whether the interface was limited to the eight existing Web Part Pages and required you to replace one of those.  I knew this was possible in SharePoint 2003 and that there was an MSDN article entitled Creating Custom Web Part Page Templates for Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies<\/font> <\/a>that explained how to do it.  But since I had never tried it in 2007 I decided to investigate.<\/p>\n

It turns out that the answer isn’t a simple yes or no.  The link on the Create page uses a page called  spcf.aspx<\/em> to list out the web part templates.  Although you can easily add a ninth template to the list the page uses owssvr.dll<\/em> to instantiate the new web part page and it seems to be hard coded to only accept templates numbered 1 through 8.  So you can’t simply create a custom copy of spcf.aspx<\/em> with a modified list of Web Part Page templates.  But there is still a way to implement a set of Custom Web Part Page templates.<\/p>\n

Interestingly enough if you follow the directions in the SharePoint 2003 MSDN article mentioned above and use the files downloaded from the article you can make this work.  The spcf.aspx file in the article download does not use owssvr.dll<\/em> and is not limited to only 8 templates.  The problem is that this file was designed for SharePoint 2003 and continues the look and feel of that product.  You also have to make allowances for some path changes since the 2003 product.  So I decided to update the custom page to use a SharePoint 2007 Master Page and relist the steps in the article with modifications for the SharePoint 2007 environment. <\/p>\n

NOTE: In addition to updating the custom creation page for a Master Page environment certain code changes were also required.  You must use the custspcf.aspx code available for download from this BLOG as a starting point to make this work.<\/font><\/strong><\/p>\n

Steps to add Custom Web Part Page Templates<\/font><\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

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