SharePoint master page css styles not showing for users other than site administrator- SharePoint 2010

Today I face one tricky problem in SharePoint 2010.

When I login through site administrator then CSS which I apply on master page work fine,

But when I login through other users CSS effects are not visible on master page.

Error Message:

SharePoint master page css styles not showing for users other than site administrator.

Problem Description:

        This usually happens when the CSS file or master page is not published or approved yet or it may be Check-In.

•  After system administrator login, Menu Bar from Master page look like this.

•  After normal user login, Menu Bar from Master page look like this.
•  Here CSS is not apply.

Resolution:

To Approve Master page Follow below steps:

1.             Open the SharePoint Designer using System Administrator Account.

2.             From Site Object select Master Page

3.             Select your default Master page. (E.g. V4.master)

4.             On “Site Page Gallery”, see “View” section and that click on “Approve/reject. Items” view.

5.             You will see the view is “Group By” by “Approval Status. (E.g. Draft, Approved) 

        Basically Approval Status is divided into 4 different status like Draft, Pending, Approved,Reject

6.             Then Search your default Master page in Draft section select it and send for Approval.

7.             Refresh your page, your default Master page will shown in Pending status section, Select and Approve it.

8.             Finally default master page get approved by System Administrator,

          means it get publish for all user on site.

Product Applies To:         SharePoint Server 2010

Feel free to revert in-case of any query... 

Mystery of save site as template in SharePoint 2010

Whenever this word “mystery” comes into the picture then lot of questions arises as what exactly it is, How exactly it works, is it really same as SP2007 and so many things…

Today I want to share some issues that I have experienced and want to help you if you come across the same. By doing this, I want to save your time as well as the headache while troubleshooting the issue. Okay, let starts…

First of all-new things to highlight first:

SharePoint 2007 V/S SharePoint 2010
Site Templates	Solutions
/_catalogs/wt/Forms/Common.aspx	_catalogs/solutions/Forms/AllItems.aspx
saved as .STP	Saved as .WSP
No activation	Activation exist

In SharePoint 2010, when we save any site as template then it will get stored under solution gallery (site actions-site settings-Galleries-solutions)

Now suppose the requirement is:

You want to transfer any site/subsite from one site collection to another then how we will do/How exactly we will proceed ?

It’s very easy:

§  Open the source site on which you are working on/ that you want to transfer

§  Site actions

§  Site settings

§  Save site as template (site settings-site actions-Save site as Template)

§  It will provide you a box in which you provide the template name details

§  Once you click OK then it will save the template in solution gallery

§  Go to the solution gallery (http://Your_site_name/_catalogs/solutions/Forms/AllItems.aspx)

§  Click on the template name and it will give you the option to save it to desktop

§  Now go to the destination site (site actions-site settings-galleries-solutions)

§  Upload the solution that you have saved in previous steps

§  That’s it-Done!!

Not able to see the uploaded site under custom tab

Here the mystery arises J

We have executed each and every step in correct order but still not able to see the uploaded template under custom tab/how we can create a subsite if we can see that saved template?

Don’t worry guys-here is the solution:

§  Open the site where you have uploaded that .WSP file/Template

§  Site actions

§  Site settings

§  Galleries

§  Solutions

§  Hover your mouse to the dropdown of that template

§  You will see the option of ‘Activate’

§  That’s it-as soon as you activates the solution, it will be ready to use and you can see the template name under ‘Custom Tab’.

Now suppose the requirement is:

After deploying the solution, I still cannot see the template when I create new site collection via Sharepoint Central Administration

Here is the answer for this: If you want to have the template available in the default templates list when creating a site collection it has to be installed as a farm solution.  That means creating a Web Template or a custom site definition.  You can take the sandbox solution template and import it into Visual Studio as the basis for a Web Template.

I think most of doubts has already been clear after reading the above mentioned information…but please don’t worry, if you have any queries/questions/confusion then please let me know. I would be more than happy to help you as well as resolves your issues.

Thank you

Saving a site as a template

You can save a site as a template at any time using the template option (Save site as template) on the Site Settings page in SharePoint. SharePoint Designer 2010 make it easy by providing a Save as Template option in the ribbon, which takes you to this page in SharePoint. Once you save the template, a solution file is created and stored in the Solution Gallery where you can download or activate the solution.

To save your site as a template using SharePoint Designer 2010, perform the following steps:

1. Open your site in SharePoint Designer 2010.

2. On the Site tab, in the Manage group, click Save as Template

 3.This takes you to the Save as Template page in SharePoint.

4. Specify a name to use for the template file in the File name field.

5. Specify a name and description for the template in the Template name and Template description fields.

6. To include the content of the site in the site template, check the Include Content box.

Note: Including the content of the site can increase the size of the template significantly. Keep in mind that the default size limit for a site template is 50 MB but may be less in your organization.

7. Click OK to save the template.

8. If all of the components on the site are valid, the template is built, and you see a message that says Operation Completed Successfully.

9. To download or activate the solution from the solution gallery, click the user solution gallery link and follow the steps in the procedure below.

10. Or, to return to your site, click OK.

 

Activating the site template in the solution gallery

Once you’ve saved your site as a template, a solution file (.wsp) is created and stored in the Solution Gallery for the site collection. From here, you can download or activate the solution.

To activate your site template, perform the following steps:

1. Browse to the top level site of your site collection in SharePoint.

2. Click Site Actions and choose Site Settings.

3. Under Galleries, click Solutions.

4. To activate your solution, click the pull-down menu beside your solution, and choose Activate

5. On the activate solution confirmation screen, click Activate.

Your solution now has an activated status in the Solution Gallery.

6. To download the solution, just click its name in the Solution Gallery.

7. In the File Download dialog box, click Save, and browse to the location where you want to save the solution.