Fix publishing pages with custom page layouts created from template

By Jan 29, 2017 Branding, Office 365, SharePoint 3 Comments

This article is a continuation of my previous article that explains how to save publishing sites as templates.

Per the feedback received some people was not able to access the sites created with the template, this happens with sites that include pages with custom page layouts.

Before getting into details about how to fix this please notice that the previous article is a hack to save the site as a template, save site as a template is disabled in all Publishing sites and other type of sites with publishing features active, this means that the hack may not work in all SharePoint scenarios.

Page layout template error

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How to fix 401 error after applying a custom master page to SharePoint

By Jan 24, 2017 Branding, SharePoint 0 Comments

This is a short article but it can save you precious time when you apply a custom banding to your SharePoint site.

After applying a custom master page to the site some pages or all of them may start displaying a 401 error, this happens on collaboration sites and system pages namely Team Sites where you have minimal download strategy feature activated.

Fix SharePoint 401 error

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Save publishing site as a template

By Oct 5, 2016 Branding, Office 365, SharePoint 16 Comments

Save your newly created SharePoint site as a template can save you a lot of time if you want to replicate it again in your environment.

Unfortunately if you used a Publishing Site or if you had to activate the Publishing Features in a Collaboration Site, save site as a template will not be available.

In this article I explain all the steps to bring back this feature to the publishing sites and also the extra steps you may need to activate all site features.

Save Site as Template - SharePoint

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Enable Sandbox solutions on SharePoint 2016

By Aug 14, 2016 SharePoint 6 Comments

Sandbox solutions and web parts are deprecated for a long time but due all the restrictions of the SharePoint app model caused the iframes this is still the best way to deliver rich web parts that fully integrate with the site and other solutions like custom themes.

Microsoft is pushing user’s way from this model by creating limitations to Sandbox solutions like removing sandbox solutions with managed code from Office 365 and deactivating the execution service by default on SharePoint 2016.

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Remove Faulty Web Parts from page

By May 29, 2016 Development, Office 365, SharePoint 0 Comments

If you are a SharePoint developer and the Web Part you are working on is causing so many errors that you can’t even edit the page this tip is for you.

Removing malfunction webparts is very easy all you have to do is access the Maintenance Web Part Page, in this article I’ll show you three different ways to open this page.

Remove SharePoint Web Part

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Be prepared to the SharePoint framework

By May 22, 2016 Development, Office 365, SharePoint 5 Comments

The SharePoint Framework was announced on 4th of May and it introduced a new model to develop SharePoint webparts that is radically different from its predecessors.

Over the years SharePoint development required a specific environment, with SandBox and Farm webparts is required at least one server with SharePoint and Visual Studio to develop and debug, with the App model introduced in 2013 the SharePoint server is no longer needed but it requires Visual Studio and a Developer site collection hosted on Office 365.

With the new framework you are absolutely free to choose your environment, the only requirement is a computer able to run the latest web technologies, you can even use Mac OS or a Linux distro.

SharePoint Framework

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SharePoint WSP Repackage

By May 19, 2016 Development, Office 365, SharePoint 2 Comments

A few years ago I wrote an article explaining how to manually modify a SharePoint WSP solution using a specific software, over the years I got feedback about adware being added to the computers during the installation process of the software.

I recently tried to install this particular software and my antivirus automatically pop up saying that the file was not safe, to get rid of all this issues I decided to build a specific application to repackage all the files inside of the WSP solution.

SharePoint WSP Repackage

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Metadata navigation is not visible to users with read permissions

By May 12, 2016 Office 365, SharePoint 9 Comments

This is a common issue when you start using the metadata navigation in your SharePoint 2013 site, let’s check how easily you can make it available to all the users.

By default, when you create a term in the navigation term set, SharePoint selects Term-Driven Page with Friendly URL, if you leave this option selected the term will be visible only to the users with write permissions.

SharePoint Managed Navigation

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Connect external services to SharePoint using Microsoft Flow

By May 10, 2016 Office 365, SharePoint 3 Comments

Connecting external services to SharePoint specially the ones that are not part of Microsoft ecosystem was incredibly hard but this is about to change with Microsoft Flow.

Microsoft Flow is an event-automation service developed to create automated workflows between your favorite apps and services to get notifications, synchronize files, collect data, and more.

SharePoint 2016 was officially announced last week and it will include a full integration of Microsoft Flow but you don’t need to wait to put your hands in the new version, if you have SharePoint online you can start using it today.

Microsoft Flow

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This is the start of something new

By May 4, 2016 Branding, Development, News, Office 365, SharePoint 0 Comments

Hello World! 🙂 My name is João Ferreira and I’m a SharePoint developer.

I’ve been collecting a series of tips and tricks over the last few years related with SharePoint and I’ve now decided to share it with you guys.

In this blog you will find articles about SharePoint development but also a lot of stuff related with the SharePoint branding, I’ll tell you everything about making SharePoint beautiful.

I have planned this blog for over a year and I think today is a good day to finally release it since it’s also the day of the official release of SharePoint 2016.

HANDS ON SharePoint

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Joao Ferreira

I've been working with Microsoft Technologies over the last ten years, mainly focused on creating collaboration and productivity solutions that drive the adoption of Microsoft Modern Workplace.