Selective enable ScriptManager presence in SharePoint Publishing Site

It is a well-known symptom of standard SharePoint Publishing that it renders bloathed HTML pages. The cause is that SharePoint publishing pages serve 2 modes: the end-user view, and the editorial view. To serve the latter, considerable extra html and SharePoint javascript files are included that are of no use for the end-user [view].

Approach to mitigate this effect is by separating the editorial from the end-user view. Examples of this approach are Macaw Dual Layout and Mavention Flex Layout. At high level the working is to have a distinct masterpage for end-user view, and another for the content editor. Only the latter must have the means to enable SharePoint WCM functionality; the former can be designed ‘clean’: no Form runat=”server”, ScriptManager, and include of SharePoint javascript files (init.js, core.js, …). Besides loading faster, additional advantage is that pure HTML sites are also more SEO-friendly.

However, there typically remain situations in a SharePoint publishing site in which you do need the presence of ScriptManager and the standard SharePoint client-side scripts. Multiple of the standard SharePoint controls are dependent on ScriptManager: CalendarView, TaskList, External List (XstlListView), Business Data / BCS webparts, to name some. Also custom developed controls might depend on presence of ScriptManager, e.g. rotating banner control using jQuery libraries for client-side user interface behaviour.

You have basically 2 options to enable ScriptManager et al for Publishing Pages on with controls are placed that need the ScriptManager:

1. Duplicate the ‘clean’ end-user masterpage; and augment it with the required entities.
2. Create an additional Publishing PageLayout; and augment that the required entities.

Option 1 suffers from the following disadvantages:

• As consequence that a SharePoint SPWeb can only have 1 masterpage, ‘clean’ content publishing pages and WebControls pages cannot be within the same SharePoint SPWeb. In fact, the type of pages now influences the site structure. This is visible for the end-user. And for the content manager it implies that (s)he is forced to locate new page a priori within the correct SPWeb given the intended type of page: content or control. Also, as standard SharePoint navigation is based on the site structure, it will require custom development to repair the logical site navigation.
• Double maintenance of the site look&feel in the 2 public masterpages.

As in the 2nd option both page types use the same public masterpage, all pages can be within the same SharePoint SPWeb. So with this approach it is non-visible for the end-user, and also the editing experience is far more transparent for the content editor. Not entirely, as (s)he must apply the correct PageLayout given the type of page. But the applied PageLayout is something that in SharePoint publishing can be modified / corrected after initial creation.

From SharePoint technical perspective, the 2nd option is more difficult / challenging to realize as the 1st (this is simple: just copy the public masterpage and add ScriptManager et al). Issues here are following:

• The extended PageLayout must function both in combination with the clean masterpage as with the content-editor enabled masterpage. But the latter also as Form runat=”server” and ScriptManager included; resulting in 2 occurences of them. And this is not allowed in ASP.NET plus SharePoint.
• SharePoint scriptmodel imposes hidden dependencies on the order of including + evaluating/loading SharePoint javascript files (through SOD framework).

You can deal with these issues via following approach and architecture:

• Include Form runat=”server” in the extended PageLayout; but default not visible.
• A server control included in the extended PageLayout to dynamically insert the ScriptManager plus ScriptLink for core.js; but only if no ScriptManager present yet (included from the content-editor masterpage). When runtime determined that the ScriptManager must be inserted, also the invisible server-side Form is made visible; and all siblings of the Form control are moved within the server-side HtmlForm control.
• A server control included in the public masterpage to dynamically insert WpzEmitControl (explanation why needed) if needed; the condition for this is whether the InsertScriptManager control is include in the page context.

Result

Regular content pages still render ‘clean’ html in public view, without the unneeded SharePoint html and javascript. Control pages render in public view including the required ScriptManager and Form runat=”server”; and in editing view also with only occurrence of ScriptManager and server-side HtmlForm.