Ribbon customization - Part 1

From this post, I am going to start on the series of customizing ribbon. And for this, we will start with understanding the ribbon architecture and the basics of ribbon.

We all know CustomActions feature element which helps us putting different functionalities at various places in SharePoint. We can use this to enable different options on different menu places.

Same CustomActions is used to enable customize the ribbon through the features. In ribbon architecture, first comes the Ribbon, then comes the Tab, then comes the Group and then comes the controls within the group.

Individual controls inside the group can be disabled or enabled. They cannot be hidden or shown.

But yes, individual Tab can be hidden and shown. If you like to see this, then go to document library, then go to documents tab without selecting any document. You would see all options disabled not hidden. Once you select any document, then they become enable.



These are called context sensitive controls and tabs. We will cover each one of these in details as we progress through the series.

There are built in controls that you can use inside group. You cannot use custom controls inside it. List of controls permitted inside group are button, Checkbox, Color Picker, Combo Box, Dropdown, Textbox, Toggle Button, split button, spinner, fly out anchor.

It is the java scripts which is performed on the client side when any of the controls is being clicked or actions performed on any of the controls inside it. So we will also investigate more in JavaScript as well in coming series.

Below is an example of ribbon. (Covered with green rectangle)



Below is an example of Tabs. (Covered with green rectangle)



Below is an example of Groups (Covered with green rectangle)



And inside Groups we have the respective controls.

Continue reading Part2