Enterprise search bar in header (and remove default standard search)

Question

I have the Enterprise search sub site and it looks great compared to the standard search included on all default sites.

I would like to have the same functionality except instead of the enterprise search sub site that I currently have, and instead for all search features to be in the root site, according to the following:

1) For the Portal home page, I would like the enterprise search bar to be across the screen, as per screen mockup 1.

2) for all other pages and child sites, I would like the enterprise search bar to be in the header area, as per screen mockup 2.

3) Ideally I would like to remove the Enterprise Search child site as it takes up space in the menu bar!

Questions are how can I start to achieve the above requirements, and is there anything I need to be aware of with my site map?

Home page mockup 1 - http://s10.postimage.org/b4z5x0921/home.jpg

Search header mockup 2 - http://s14.postimage.org/3kakc2fn5/search.jpg

Answer 1

You are probably going to want to override the search box delegate control

Here is a nice overview of delegate controls

And here is someone overriding the search delegate control with a custom control

Instead of a creating the custom control like in the the second link, it sounds like you want to point your delegate control at the enterprise search bar control. As farm as getting it to look like your mockups, those will be masterpage changes. Your first mockup is probably using minimal.master and your second screenshot is probably using v4.master.