Include in SharePoint 2010

Question

I have a custom HTML menu in my MasterPage. I would like to have it in a separate file so it can be easier to update. Is it possible to do an Include?

Answer 1

You can add a static Content Editor Web Part to your master page and then set it to load that content from an external file.

Here's some steps based off of a quick experiment I just did - I used SharePoint designer for this.

1. Add a ContentPlaceHolder to your master page where you want this content to go.
2. Insert a Content Editor Web Part into this content placeholder.
3. Set the CEWP's ChromeType to None and set it to load its content from /Documents/menu.html (or wherever your HTML is located).

After that, you should be set. Here's the code that these steps generated in my master page:

<asp:ContentPlaceHolder ID="PlaceHolderCopyright" runat="server">
<WebPartPages:ContentEditorWebPart webpart="true" runat="server" __webpartid="{3762918C-2C41-41CD-8531-C8834D56C256}">
<WebPart xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WebPart/v2">
  <Title>Content Editor</Title>
  <FrameType>None</FrameType>
  <Description>Allows authors to enter rich text content.</Description>
  <IsIncluded>true</IsIncluded>
  <PartOrder>0</PartOrder>
  <FrameState>Normal</FrameState>
  <Height />
  <Width />
  <AllowRemove>true</AllowRemove>
  <AllowZoneChange>true</AllowZoneChange>
  <AllowMinimize>true</AllowMinimize>
  <AllowConnect>true</AllowConnect>
  <AllowEdit>true</AllowEdit>
  <AllowHide>true</AllowHide>
  <IsVisible>true</IsVisible>
  <DetailLink />
  <HelpLink />
  <HelpMode>Modeless</HelpMode>
  <Dir>Default</Dir>
  <PartImageSmall />
  <MissingAssembly>Cannot import this Web Part.</MissingAssembly>
  <PartImageLarge>/_layouts/images/mscontl.gif</PartImageLarge>
  <IsIncludedFilter />
  <ExportControlledProperties>true</ExportControlledProperties>
  <ConnectionID>00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000</ConnectionID>
  <ID>g_3762918c_2c41_41cd_8531_c8834d56c256</ID>
  <ContentLink xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WebPart/v2/ContentEditor">/SiteAssets/test.html</ContentLink>
  <Content xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WebPart/v2/ContentEditor" />
  <PartStorage xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WebPart/v2/ContentEditor" />
</WebPart></WebPartPages:ContentEditorWebPart>

</asp:ContentPlaceHolder>
<asp:ContentPlaceHolder ID="PlaceHolderCopyright" runat="server">

<p></p>
<WebPartPages:ContentEditorWebPart webpart="true" runat="server" __webpartid="{3762918C-2C41-41CD-8531-C8834D56C256}">
<WebPart xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WebPart/v2">
  <Title>Content Editor</Title>
  <FrameType>None</FrameType>
  <Description>Allows authors to enter rich text content.</Description>
  <IsIncluded>true</IsIncluded>
  <PartOrder>0</PartOrder>
  <FrameState>Normal</FrameState>
  <Height />
  <Width />
  <AllowRemove>true</AllowRemove>
  <AllowZoneChange>true</AllowZoneChange>
  <AllowMinimize>true</AllowMinimize>
  <AllowConnect>true</AllowConnect>
  <AllowEdit>true</AllowEdit>
  <AllowHide>true</AllowHide>
  <IsVisible>true</IsVisible>
  <DetailLink />
  <HelpLink />
  <HelpMode>Modeless</HelpMode>
  <Dir>Default</Dir>
  <PartImageSmall />
  <MissingAssembly>Cannot import this Web Part.</MissingAssembly>
  <PartImageLarge>/_layouts/images/mscontl.gif</PartImageLarge>
  <IsIncludedFilter />
  <ExportControlledProperties>true</ExportControlledProperties>
  <ConnectionID>00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000</ConnectionID>
  <ID>g_3762918c_2c41_41cd_8531_c8834d56c256</ID>
  <ContentLink xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WebPart/v2/ContentEditor">/SiteAssets/test.html</ContentLink>
  <Content xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WebPart/v2/ContentEditor" />
  <PartStorage xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WebPart/v2/ContentEditor" />
</WebPart></WebPartPages:ContentEditorWebPart>

</asp:ContentPlaceHolder>

Hope this helps! You could also use JavaScript to dynamically load in content if the above approach isn't what you're looking for.