Multiple master pages or layouts?

Question

On a branding website, I placed header and footer in the master page. Then I created the layout for welcome page and another for sub-sites. Now, the footer in main page has an extra row (a div nested inside the footer) for search-bar, but the sub-sites won't have the search field there.

Having said that, what would be the best way to handle it.

• Should I create a separate master-page for sub-sites excluding the search row?

• [untidy way] Should I put the opening tag and the search-row in the layout of welcome page and just the opening tag in the sub-site's layout (while keeping the rest of footer in master-page)?

• Should I place a condition in master page, something like:
  <% if((new SiteTools()).getLayout(Request) == "WelcomeLayout") %>
  (by turning safe mode parser off -- bad idea that is)?

Or is there anything like SSI or render-partial in SharePoint?

Please suggest the better approach.

Update

This is the nested HTML inside the footer, which should only appear on the Home page:

<div class="search_wrapper">
    <div class="search_area">
        <div class="search_catrgories">
            <select class="categories_selection">
                <option value="1">All Categories</option>
                <option value="2">Product</option>
                <option value="3">Safety Data</option>
            </select>
        </div>
        <div class="search_fields">
            <asp:ContentPlaceHolder ID="PlaceHolderSearchArea" runat="server">
                <SharePoint:DelegateControl runat="server" ControlId="SmallSearchInputBox"
                     Version="4" />
            </asp:ContentPlaceHolder>
        </div>
    </div>
</div>

Answer 1

I'd rather avoid multiple masterpages and turning off the safe mode parser. Instead give your DIV an id and use simple CSS to hide it:

<div id="idFooter">your footer goes here</div>

Then add the below CSS to the subsite welcome page layout.

<style type="text/css">
#idFooter {display: none;}
</style>

If you want to avoid changing each subsite welcome page layout, just reverse the logic like this:

<div id="idFooter" style="display: none;">your footer goes here</div>

And put the following into your main welcome page layout:

<style type="text/css">
#idFooter {display: block;}
</style>

Since the CSS is only required on the main page all your subsites stay untouched and it is easier to maintain a single masterpage and page layout.

Answer 2

The "SharePoint" way to do this is to:

• insert an empty <Delegate> control in the Master page
• create a User control with the search bar
• create a Web scoped feature with a <Control> element inserting the User control in the delegate control
• activate that feature only on the root site

See Delegate Control

So to match your updated question you should change the master page to contain something like:

<SharePoint:DelegateControl runat="server" ControlId="MySearchBar" Version="4" />
<asp:Panel runat="server" Visible="false">
  <asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderSearchArea" runat="server">
  </asp:ContentPlaceHolder>
</asp:Panel>

Your UserControl should contain something like:

<%@ Assembly Name="$SharePoint.Project.AssemblyFullName$" %>
<%@ Assembly Name="Microsoft.Web.CommandUI, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" %>
<%@ Register Tagprefix="SharePoint" Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls" Assembly="Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" %>
<%@ Control Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeBehind="MySearchBar.ascx.cs" Inherits="NestedDelegates.ControlTemplates.NestedDelegates.MySearchBar" %>
<div class="search_wrapper">     
  <div class="search_area">     
    <div class="search_catrgories">     
      <select class="categories_selection">     
          <option value="1">All Categories</option>     
          <option value="2">Product</option>     
          <option value="3">Safety Data</option>     
      </select>     
    </div>     
    <div class="search_fields">     
       <SharePoint:DelegateControl runat="server" ControlId="SmallSearchInputBox" Version="4" />     
    </div>     
  </div>     
</div>  

And the elements.xml in the feature should contain:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Elements xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">
  <Control Id="MySearchBar" Sequence="10" ControlSrc="~/_controltemplates/NestedDelegates/MySearchBar.ascx" />
</Elements>