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I have a site which I am planning to expose to out customers.

I will start branding the site for customer site. Is that possible to show different branded site to customers, but normal sharepoint interface to internal users?

Am I talking about 2 different masterpages which needing to be set based on the requested user?

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You could do small changes, like loading different stylesheets and images via js/css but the only way to flip master pages like you describe would be by using a custom httpModule but that brings its own issues with it.

You can change master pages on different child sites though so /site1/ could appear different than /site2/

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but the data and content should exactly be identical. Child site is not an ideal solution I guess. So is using child sites best practice this this scenario? – AnarchistGeek Feb 9 '12 at 16:54
Honestly, this is the first time I've heard of this scenario. Most implementations use the same UI for customers and internal users. The only difference typically is authentication where internal users use NTLM/Kerberos but customers might use Forms Auth. – Dave Wise Feb 9 '12 at 17:03
It is also worth mentioning that nearly all UI elements are security trimmed so it is possible to give internal users more power than customers simply by granting them different permissions on the site. – Dave Wise Feb 9 '12 at 17:05
You could also use web parts combined with defined Audiences to provide different UI elements to the two different groups. – Dave Wise Feb 9 '12 at 17:07
I want to come to custom web interface discussion back... we have discussed this on the site. but wondered your thoughts.. Customer will only create tickets(a custom list item), track them, and download the documents or files which they are granted. writing our custom interface for only customer site by using Sharepoint API is an option on the table. I was told that it is stupid idea, but still an option as needs less development than branding and implementing complex scenarios in Sharepoint. Internal users can use Sharepoint but it needs to very custom to customers/ What is your view? – AnarchistGeek Feb 9 '12 at 17:13
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I posted a blog post a while back that shows how to change the master page dynamically from a user control. It is possible, though your application is maybe less practical. I've seen separate branding for extranet users, but this is typically accomplished through a separate web application. If the user set is that drastically different that the users should see different branding, then maybe the content should be separate.

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So, separate web site and custom webparts are the way to do it properly(or commonly used way). I am still a strong advocator of custom interface by APIS, for simple scenarios. interestingly there are not many people to think that way.. – AnarchistGeek Feb 10 '12 at 10:38

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