Custom settingspage, also a hyperlink in the site settings page

Question

I would like to create my own custom setting asp page with 3 fields and a save button:

FirstName LastName EmailAddress

If I click on the save button I would like to save these 3 fields to the propertybag of sharepoint.

On the default site settings page I would like to add a hyperlink to my custom setting asp page.

I would like to implement this in VS to deploy only a wsp file to my SharePoint environment.

Where to begin??

Answer 1

I would just develop a custom application page (I belive a page in the _layout folder may be enough) and then use a custom action to display the link on the site setting page in the desidered position.

So, assuming you have a page called "EmailSettingPage.aspx" you would do something similar to:

<CustomAction
    Id="............"
    Title="Email Settings"
    Description="Sets the email related settings for the current site."
    GroupId="SiteTasks"
    Location="Microsoft.SharePoint.SiteSettings"
    Sequence="10">
    <UrlAction Url="_layouts/EmailSettingPage.aspx" />
</CustomAction>

This sample would add a new link in the "Site Tasks" section of the Site Settings page. You will have to change the name, title and such to match your requirements.

also you should decide the scope of your solution: should it be farm wide, specific to a single site collection or just a web site? There is no correct answer - it just depends on what you want to do.

This is just a basic idea of how to start. If you need some more specific guidance, feel free to ask for further details.

Edit: Some more accurate notes.

Start out by defining the "scope" of your solution. You need to point out who will use it and where. This info will help you to decide which "scope" your features should have. In your case the most important detail is defining the scope for the custom action... most appropiate seem site-collection level (the new link will be available on all site) or web-site level (only on specified webs). Cannot really help here - it depends on what you need to do, there isn't a silver bullet.

As I told you before, the link in the setting page can be added with a custom action. You asked "where I should put it?"... A custom action is a declarative element that you can add to a feature. Providing full details here would be a little too long.. anyway you have some templates that you can use depending on the SP version (2007 has the SPVisualDev pluging, for 2010 there is the CKSDev one). I suggest that you read some of the MSDN docs before starting - it isn't hard after you get it, the only difficulty is selecting the correct group and location ids. Some links: tutorial on Rafelo blog, msdn page.

Some quick point about the action. The url action represents the uri of the page you intend to use. In the above sample it is "_layouts/...". No one is blocking you from using a different url, but take notice that some url may bring headaches if you will need to used the "pretty pinky unicorns dancing on the rainbow" MUI support. Trad: if you use an url that referes to a "localized" folder (==Pages) you are... in bad waters.

When you have the link it is time to develop the page. You have some option here: module, application page ecc... but I would just go for a page in the _layout folder. That way you can just add a mapped folder in your visual studio solution (assuming you are on sp2010 + vs2010) and develop a standard page. Just a last warning: first, you said that you will save the setting in the property bag. Ok, that can do, just remember to chose a bag appropiate to the scope of the settings. If they should different for each web, do not chose a site-collection bag. And please, always ensure you store serializable objects in the bag... I have heared scarry tales of corrupted farms, and it seems that SharePoint will accept dangerous items without much concern...