SharePoint: Hiding Menus (not using HideCustomAction)

Hiding SharePoint List and Library Menus

For a recent project I needed to hide several menu items in the document library toolbar, and I wanted to do it as a Feature. The obvious choice from the SDK was HideCustomAction. But... it does not seem to work. A search of the web finds lots of discussion about HideCustomAction and how it only works on a few places, such as those listed in the MSDN article here. There is either not enough info in the table in that article, or that is the complete list of the only items that can be touched with HideCustomAction.

So what else can we do? Fall back to the old tricks, that's what! A little JavaScript routine can find and change what we need. For example, this will find and hide the Explorer View menu:

<script language="JavaScript">

 var doc = document.getElementsByTagName('ie:menuitem'); 

 for (var i = 0; i < doc.length; i++)

  {

    itm = doc[i];

    if (itm.id.match('OpenInExplorer')!=null)

      { itm.hidden=true; }

  } 

</script> 

 

The trick here is to find the menu tags on the page. What we are looking for is this:

      <ie:menuitem id="zz23_OpenInExplorer" ... hidden= ... />

The JavaScript starts by finding all tags named "ie:menuitem" and then looping through those to find the one we need. The hidden attribute is pretty obvious, so we set it to false.

For just one library:

Where do you put this JavaScript? For just one library use SharePoint Designer add this to the bottom of the allitems.aspx for that library. The best place is just before the end tag (</asp:Content>) tag of the "<asp:Content ContentPlaceHolderId="PlaceHolderMain" runat="server">" tag.

 

For all libraries:

To impact all libraries with a single edit you will need to use SharePoint Designer to add this JavaScript at the end of the Master Page (default.master), just before the "</BODY>" tag.

 

What about a Feature?

If you want to control the hiding of the menus by using a Feature so you can turn them on and off at will, and at the farm, application, site collection or site level the you have a little more work to do, but not too much.

I will return here later and add a full step by step, but here's the code you will need:

- A SharePoint Delegate control:

Add this to the bottom of your Master Page just before the </body> tag (The ControlId is up to you, but needs to match the Id used in the elements file):

  <SharePoint:DelegateControl runat="server" ControlId="MiscControls" AllowMultipleControls="true"/>

- A .Net User Control:

HideMenus.ascx

<%@ Control Language="C#" ClassName="HideMenus" %> 

<script language="JavaScript">

  var doc = document.getElementsByTagName('ie:menuitem'); 

  for (var i = 0; i < doc.length; i++)

  {

    itm = doc[i]; 

    if (itm.id.match('MultipleUpload')!=null | itm.id.match('OpenInExplorer')!=null) 

    { itm.hidden=true; }

  } 

</script>

 

- A feature file:

Feature.xml

<Feature

  Id="531F15CD-A646-45e5-AB61-4F8DF89C29D9"

  Title="Hide Menus"

  Description="Sample feature to hide selected menus (from TechTrainingNotes)"

  Scope="Web"

  Hidden="FALSE"

  xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/"> 

  <ElementManifests>

    <ElementManifest Location="elements.xml" /> 

  </ElementManifests> 

</Feature>

- An elements file:

Elements.xml

<Elements xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">

  <Control 

    ControlSrc="~/_controltemplates/HideMenus.ascx"

    Sequence="100"

    Id="MiscControls">

  </Control>  

</Elements>  

The is a list of items created by a typical WSS Master Page:

Menu item name	Menu	Menu text
PersonalInformation	The Welcome menu	My Settings
LoginAsDifferentUser	The Welcome menu	Sign in as Different User
RequestAccess	The Welcome menu	Request Access
Logout	The Welcome menu	Sign Out
MenuItem_Create	Site Actions	Create
MenuItem_Settings	Site Actions Site Settings

This is a list of items created by a typical document library allitems.aspx page:

(all of the above table plus the following)

New0 (zero, not O)	New	New Document (default click)
NewFolder	New	New Folder
Upload	Upload	Upload Document
MultipleUpload	Upload	Upload Multiple Documents
EditInGridButton	Actions	Edit in Datasheet
OpenInExplorer	Actions	Open with Windows Explorer
OfflineButton	Actions	Connect to Outlook
ExportToSpreadsheet	Actions	Export to Spreadsheet
ViewRSS	Actions	View RSS Feed
SubscribeButton	Actions	Alert Me
AddColumn	Settings	Create Column
AddView	Settings	Create View
ListSettings	Settings	Document Library Settings
DefaultView	View	All Documents (in typical library)
View1	View	Explorer View
ModifyView	View	Modify this view
CreateView	View	Create view