Search Center Master Page issue

Question

I am working with a SharePoint 2010 Publishing site and need some help on some issues I am having as it relates to Search. First, we are directing search results to a standard Sharepoint Search Center. I have worked through the known issue that if you are using a custom master page you need to go through a series of steps to get it working with the Search Center layout and use a master specific for Search Center. This is the article that I referenced from Randy Drisgill.

I am using a standard sharepoint search delegate control in my site custom masterpage. I want this to appear in the master page of the search center but it doesn't. ALthough the article above will get us a search box in the layout, my original search control in the master page is not present. It is gone. In fact, I do not even want search appearing in the layout. Just as it should look in the master page. How do I get this back? What other options do I have? The end goal is to get the same look and feel as other sites and be able to avoid contextual searching. We want results back from all sites.

Answer 1

The search delegate control is loaded into the standard v4 master in a placeholder called PlaceHolderSearchArea:

<asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderSearchArea" runat="server">
    <SharePoint:DelegateControl runat="server" ControlId="SmallSearchInputBox" />
</asp:ContentPlaceHolder>

In the minimal.master, this placeholder is hidden in a panel at the bottom of the page, and does not include the delegate control:

<div style="display:none;">
    <asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderLeftNavBar" runat="server" />
    <asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderNavSpacer" runat="server" />
    <asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderBodyLeftBorder" runat="server" />
    <asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderPageImage" runat="server" />
    <asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderTitleLeftBorder" runat="server" />
    <asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderSearchArea" runat="server" />
    <asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderTitleAreaClass" runat="server" />
    <asp:ContentPlaceHolder id="PlaceHolderTitleAreaSeparator" runat="server" />
</div>

To get the search box back into your search center, you are going to have to move the placeholder back into a visible place in your custom minimal.master, and you will need to include the delegate control.