Life on Planet Groove » ASP.NET

Creating a Custom Welcome Menu for SharePoint Server 2010 – Part 3

Adam Toth — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 23:20:00 +0000

Part 3 – Sign Out/Sign in as a Different User

A project I am working on called for a custom implementation of the SharePoint Welcome menu control. The replacement control needed to provide the following:

Implement the look and behaviors that the designers created.
Exclude some default SharePoint menu items (such as My Regional Settings).
Reuse some existing SharePoint menu items (such as Sign Out/Sign in as a Different User).
Allow for the addition of other custom menu items in the future.
Display thumbnail of the user’s profile picture.

I had to create a control that looked and behaved like the following:

The designers came up with some clean, semantic markup married with some jquery, for me to start from:

<div class="header">
    <img class="header-logo" src="/images/header_logo.png" alt="" width="169" height="78" />
    <div class="header-bar">
        <div class="profile_menu">
            <a href="#" class="profile_btn">
                <span class="image"><img src="" style="width:20px;height:20px" />span>
                <span class="name">John Doespan>
                <span class="arrow">span>
            a>
            <div class="profile_dropdown">
                <div class="dropdown_bkgrd">
                    <ul>
                        <li>Edit Profileli> 
                        <li>My Siteli>
                        <li>Log Outli>                        
                        <li>Sign in as a Different Userli>
                    ul>
                div>
            div>
        div>
    div>
div>

This is part 3 of a three part series.

Building the Sign Out Links

The Sign Out and Sign in as a Different User menu items are rendered by the PersonalActions control, in two methods (from Reflector):

private void SetLoginAsDifferentUserMenuItemGoToPageUrl()
{
    MenuItemTemplate menuItem = base.GetMenuItem("ID_LoginAsDifferentUser");
    if (menuItem != null)
    {
        if (SPSecurity.AuthenticationMode == AuthenticationMode.None)
        {
            menuItem.Visible = false;
        }
        else
        {
            string serverRelativeUrlFromUrl = this.Web.GetServerRelativeUrlFromUrl("_layouts/closeConnection.aspx?loginasanotheruser=true");
            menuItem.ClientOnClickScript = "javascript:LoginAsAnother('" + SPHttpUtility.EcmaScriptStringLiteralEncode(serverRelativeUrlFromUrl) + "', 0)";
        }
    }
}
 
private void SetSignOutMenuItemGoToPageUrl()
{
    MenuItemTemplate menuItem = base.GetMenuItem("ID_Logout");
    if (menuItem != null)
    {
        if (SPSecurity.AuthenticationMode == AuthenticationMode.None)
        {
            menuItem.Visible = false;
        }
        else
        {
            menuItem.ClientOnClickNavigateUrl = this.Web.GetServerRelativeUrlFromUrl("_layouts/SignOut.aspx");
        }
    }
}
 
 
 

The “Sign Out” link points to “_layouts/SignOut.aspx”, and “Sign in as a Different User” points to “_layouts/closeConnection.aspx”.

To leverage this, I again adjusted the ASCX markup to include some PlaceHolder and LinkButton controls:

<div class="profile_dropdown">
<asp:PlaceHolder ID="placeHolderUserID" runat="server">asp:PlaceHolder>
    <div class="dropdown_bkgrd">
        <ul>
            <asp:PlaceHolder ID="placeHolderEditProfile" runat="server"><li><asp:LinkButton ID="linkButtonEditProfile" runat="server" EnableViewState="false" Text="Edit Profile">asp:LinkButton>li>asp:PlaceHolder> 
            <asp:PlaceHolder ID="placeHolderMySite" runat="server"><li><asp:LinkButton ID="linkButtonMySite" runat="server" EnableViewState="false" Text="My Site">asp:LinkButton>li>asp:PlaceHolder>
            <li><asp:LinkButton ID="linkButtonLogOut" runat="server" EnableViewState="false" Text="Sign Out">asp:LinkButton>li>                        
            <li><asp:LinkButton ID="linkButtonLoginAsDifferentUser" runat="server" EnableViewState="false" Text="Sign in as a Different User">asp:LinkButton>li>
        ul>
    div>
div>

And then here is some code-behind that re-creates the output from the PersonalActions control:

// Login as another user
string loginAsAnotherUserUrl = this.ResolveClientUrl("~/_layouts/closeConnection.aspx?loginasanotheruser=true");
linkButtonLoginAsDifferentUser.OnClientClick = string.Format("LoginAsAnother('{0}', 0);return false;", SPHttpUtility.EcmaScriptStringLiteralEncode(loginAsAnotherUserUrl));   
 
// Sign out
string signOutUrl = this.ResolveClientUrl("~/_layouts/SignOut.aspx");
linkButtonLogOut.OnClientClick = "GoToPage('" + SPHttpUtility.EcmaScriptStringLiteralEncode(signOutUrl) + "');return false;";

Summary

In this post, we deconstructed the PersonalActions control further to re-create the Sign Out and Sign in as a Different User menu items.

Our Final ASCX markup is:

<%@ Assembly Name="$SharePoint.Project.AssemblyFullName$" %>
<%@ Assembly Name="Microsoft.Web.CommandUI, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" %>
<%@ Register Tagprefix="SharePoint" Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls" Assembly="Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" %>
<%@ Register Tagprefix="Utilities" Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint.Utilities" Assembly="Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" %>
<%@ Register Tagprefix="asp" Namespace="System.Web.UI" Assembly="System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35" %>
<%@ Import Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint" %> 
<%@ Register Tagprefix="WebPartPages" Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages" Assembly="Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" %>
<%@ Control Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeBehind="CustomWelcomeMenuControl.ascx.cs" Inherits="CustomWelcomeMenu.ControlTemplates.CustomWelcomeMenu.CustomWelcomeMenuControl" %>
<div class="header">
    <img class="header-logo" src="/images/header_logo.png" alt="" width="169" height="78" />
    <div class="header-bar">
        <div class="profile_menu">
        <a href="#" class="profile_btn">
            <span class="image"><asp:Image ID="imageProfilePicture" runat="server" Width="20px" Height="20px" />span>
            <span class="name"><asp:PlaceHolder ID="placeHolderWelcomeName" runat="server">asp:PlaceHolder>span>
            <span class="arrow">span>
        a>
            <div class="profile_dropdown">
                <asp:PlaceHolder ID="placeHolderUserID" runat="server">asp:PlaceHolder>
                <div class="dropdown_bkgrd">
                    <ul>
                        <asp:PlaceHolder ID="placeHolderEditProfile" runat="server"><li><asp:LinkButton ID="linkButtonEditProfile" runat="server" EnableViewState="false" Text="Edit Profile">asp:LinkButton>li>asp:PlaceHolder> 
                        <asp:PlaceHolder ID="placeHolderMySite" runat="server"><li><asp:LinkButton ID="linkButtonMySite" runat="server" EnableViewState="false" Text="My Site">asp:LinkButton>li>asp:PlaceHolder>
                        <li><asp:LinkButton ID="linkButtonLogOut" runat="server" EnableViewState="false" Text="Sign Out">asp:LinkButton>li>                        
                        <li><asp:LinkButton ID="linkButtonLoginAsDifferentUser" runat="server" EnableViewState="false" Text="Sign in as a Different User">asp:LinkButton>li>
                    ul>
                div>
            div>
        div>
    div>
div>

Our Final ASCX code-behind is:

using System;
using System.Web.UI;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts;
using Microsoft.SharePoint;
using Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls;
using Microsoft.SharePoint.Utilities;
 
namespace CustomWelcomeMenu.ControlTemplates.CustomWelcomeMenu
{
    public partial class CustomWelcomeMenuControl : UserControl
    {
        protected void Page_PreRender(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {    
    
            // Username
            PostCacheSubstitutionText welcomeText = new PostCacheSubstitutionText();
            welcomeText.TextType = PostCacheSubstitutionTextType.UserName;
            placeHolderWelcomeName.Controls.Add(welcomeText);
 
            // Profile picture
            SPList userInfoList = SPContext.Current.Web.GetCatalog(SPListTemplateType.UserInformation);
            SPListItem userProfileItem = userInfoList.GetItemById(SPContext.Current.Web.CurrentUser.ID);
            if (userProfileItem["Picture"] == null || string.IsNullOrEmpty(userProfileItem["Picture"].ToString()))
            {
                // Use default picture (or replace with another)
                imageProfilePicture.ImageUrl = "/_layouts/images/PERSON.GIF";
            }
            else
            {
                SPFieldUrlValue value = new SPFieldUrlValue(userProfileItem["Picture"].ToString());
                imageProfilePicture.ImageUrl = value.Url;
            }
 
                string myProfileUrl = Context.Items["SocialData$ProfileURL"] as string;
            string mySiteHostUrl = Context.Items["SocialData$MySiteHostURL"] as string;
    
            if (!Page.IsPostBack)
            {
                myProfileUrl = Context.Items["SocialData$ProfileURL"] as string;
                ViewState[Constants.VIEWSTATE_PROFILE_URL] = myProfileUrl;
                mySiteHostUrl = Context.Items["SocialData$MySiteHostURL"] as string;
                ViewState[Constants.VIEWSTATE_MYSITE_URL] = mySiteHostUrl;
            }
            else
            {
                myProfileUrl = ViewState[Constants.VIEWSTATE_PROFILE_URL] as string;
                mySiteHostUrl = ViewState[Constants.VIEWSTATE_MYSITE_URL] as string;
            }
    
    
            if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(mySiteHostUrl))
            {
                // No MySite host, or user does not have rights to view profile page...
            placeHolderMySite.Visible = false;
 
            }
            else
            {
                // User has a MySite, show the link to it...
            placeHolderMySite.Visible = true;
            linkButtonMySite.OnClientClick = string.Format("STSNavigate2(event, '{0}');return false;", SPHttpUtility.EcmaScriptStringLiteralEncode(mySiteHostUrl));
            }
    
            if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(myProfileUrl))
            {
            // Use the SharePoint foundation profile page, since the MySite host is not available
            PostCacheSubstitutionText pt = new PostCacheSubstitutionText();
            pt.TextType = PostCacheSubstitutionTextType.UserId;
            pt.PrefixHtml = "";
            placeHolderUserID.Controls.Add(pt);
                string serverRelativeUrlFromUrl = this.ResolveClientUrl("~/_layouts/userdisp.aspx?Force=True&ID=");
            linkButtonEditProfile.OnClientClick = "GoToPage('" + SPHttpUtility.EcmaScriptStringLiteralEncode(serverRelativeUrlFromUrl) + "' + _spUserId);return false;";
            }
            else
            {
                // Use the MySite profile page...
            linkButtonEditProfile.OnClientClick = string.Format("STSNavigate2(event, '{0}');return false;", SPHttpUtility.EcmaScriptStringLiteralEncode(myProfileUrl));
            }
 
            // Login as another user
            string loginAsAnotherUserUrl = this.ResolveClientUrl("~/_layouts/closeConnection.aspx?loginasanotheruser=true");
            linkButtonLoginAsDifferentUser.OnClientClick = string.Format("LoginAsAnother('{0}', 0);return false;", SPHttpUtility.EcmaScriptStringLiteralEncode(loginAsAnotherUserUrl));
 
            // Sign out
            string signOutUrl = this.ResolveClientUrl("~/_layouts/SignOut.aspx");
            linkButtonLogOut.OnClientClick = "GoToPage('" + SPHttpUtility.EcmaScriptStringLiteralEncode(signOutUrl) + "');return false;";
 
        }
 
    }
}

Hopefully you find this useful, and can take it further if need be. Leave comments if you have any questions.

Creating a Custom Welcome Menu for SharePoint Server 2010 – Part 2

Adam Toth — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 23:10:00 +0000

Part 2 – Edit Profile and My Site links

A project I am working on called for a custom implementation of the SharePoint Welcome menu control. The replacement control needed to provide the following:

Implement the look and behaviors that the designers created.
Exclude some default SharePoint menu items (such as My Regional Settings).
Reuse some existing SharePoint menu items (such as Sign Out/Sign in as a Different User).
Allow for the addition of other custom menu items in the future.
Display thumbnail of the user’s profile picture.

I had to create a control that looked and behaved like the following:

The designers came up with some clean, semantic markup married with some jquery, for me to start from:

<div class="header">
    <img class="header-logo" src="/images/header_logo.png" alt="" width="169" height="78" />
    <div class="header-bar">
        <div class="profile_menu">
            <a href="#" class="profile_btn">
                <span class="image"><img src="" style="width:20px;height:20px" />span>
                <span class="name">John Doespan>
                <span class="arrow">span>
            a>
            <div class="profile_dropdown">
                <div class="dropdown_bkgrd">
                    <ul>
                        <li>Edit Profileli>
                        <li>My Siteli>
                        <li>Log Outli>
                        <li>Sign in as a Different Userli>
                    ul>
                div>
            div>
        div>
    div>
div>

This is part 2 of a three part series.

Leveraging the SocialNavigationControl for My Site and My Profile links

The My Site and My Profile links are rendered by the SocialNavigationControl, and contain rendering logic that branches depending on whether a My Site host has been installed. I didn’t want to recreate this so I went digging with Reflector.

I found this code for the control’s OnInit method:

protected override void OnInit(EventArgs e)
{
    base.OnInit(e);
 
    if (!base.IsPostBack && SocialControlHelper.CheckUserAccess)
    {
        this.ProfileURL = SocialControlHelper.ProfileURL;
        this.MySiteHostURL = SocialControlHelper.MySiteHostURL;
    }
}
 

Sweet! Everything I needed was right there, from the SocialControlHelper class.

Wait a minute, Doh! SocialControlHelper is marked as sealed, internal. Wonderful, don’t you love it when Microsoft does that?

Fortunately, upon looking at the code for SocialControlHelper, it runs once, and caches the two URLs it’s responsible for in the HttpContext.Items collection using the following string keys:

private const string FLD_MySiteHostURL = "SocialData$MySiteHostURL";
private const string FLD_ProfileURL = "SocialData$ProfileURL";
 

Perfect, anything can grab it from there. The SocialNavigationControl does its rendering of menu items in the OnPreRender event. This means that by including the control on a page, and setting it’s visibility to FALSE, it won’t render anything, and we can still leverage the items in SocialDataHelper by getting the urls from HttpContext.Items. We can add this to our ASCX markup at the top:

<asp:PlaceHolder ID="placeHolderSocialData" runat="server"><SPSWC:SocialNavigationControl ID="socialNav" runat="server" Visible="false">SPSWC:SocialNavigationControl>asp:PlaceHolder>
 

Some ASCX code-behind:

string myProfileUrl = Context.Items["SocialData$ProfileURL"] as string;
string mySiteHostUrl = Context.Items["SocialData$MySiteHostURL"] as string;
 
if (!Page.IsPostBack)
{
    myProfileUrl = Context.Items["SocialData$ProfileURL"] as string;
    ViewState[Constants.VIEWSTATE_PROFILE_URL] = myProfileUrl;
    mySiteHostUrl = Context.Items["SocialData$MySiteHostURL"] as string;
    ViewState[Constants.VIEWSTATE_MYSITE_URL] = mySiteHostUrl;
}
else
{
    myProfileUrl = ViewState[Constants.VIEWSTATE_PROFILE_URL] as string;
    mySiteHostUrl = ViewState[Constants.VIEWSTATE_MYSITE_URL] as string;
}
 
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(mySiteHostUrl))
{
    // No MySite host, or user does not have rights to view profile page...
}
else
{
    // User has a MySite, show the link to it...
}
 
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(myProfileUrl))
{
    // Use the SharePoint foundation profile page, since the MySite host is not available...        
}
else
{
    // Use the MySite profile page...
}

Notice that I am storing these URLs in ViewState as well. The SocialNavigationControl only fetches data on initial page load. If you have applications/web parts/user controls that will be present during postbacks, then you will want to persist these links somewhere like ViewState.

Reconstructing the SocialNavigationControl’s Javascript

Now for the hard part, filling in the conditionals above. The Welcome menu is comprised of three different controls, so they don’t all render the same way. The primary control, PersonalActions, renders the core menu and the bulk of the menu items in HTML. The SocialNavigationControl, however, uses javascript to find the existing menu on the page and then append its own items to it. It’s pretty ugly and hacky (from Reflector):

private void SetMyProfileMenuJavascript()
{
    string key = this.ClientID + "_insertMyProfileMenu";
    DebugStringBuilder builder = new DebugStringBuilder();
    builder.AppendLine("function " + key + "() {");
    builder.AppendLine("    var menus = document.getElementsByTagName('menu');");
    builder.AppendLine("    if (menus == null)  return;");
    builder.AppendLine("    var menu = null;");
    builder.AppendLine("    for (var i=0, len=menus.length; i);
    builder.AppendLine("        if (menus[i].id.lastIndexOf('PersonalActionMenu') != -1) {");
    builder.AppendLine("\t\t       menu = menus[i]; break;");
    builder.AppendLine("        }");
    builder.AppendLine("    }");
    builder.AppendLine("    if (menu == null)   return;");
    bool flag = false;
    bool flag2 = false;
    if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(this.ProfileURL))
    {
        flag = true;
        builder.AppendLine("    var elm = document.createElement('ie:menuitem');");
        builder.AppendLine("    elm.setAttribute('menugroupid', '50');");
        builder.AppendLine("    elm.setAttribute('description', '" + SPHttpUtility.EcmaScriptStringLiteralEncode(StringResourceManager.GetString(LocStringId.MyProfileMenu_description)) + "');");
        builder.AppendLine("    elm.setAttribute('text', '" + SPHttpUtility.EcmaScriptStringLiteralEncode(StringResourceManager.GetString(LocStringId.MyProfileMenu_text)) + "');");
        builder.AppendLine(@"    elm.setAttribute('onmenuclick', 'STSNavigate2(event,\'" + SPHttpUtility.EcmaScriptStringLiteralEncode(this.ProfileURL) + @"\')');");
        builder.AppendLine("    elm.setAttribute('id', 'ID_MySiteLinksMenu');");
    }
    if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(this.MySiteHostURL))
    {
        flag2 = true;
        builder.AppendLine("    var elm2 = document.createElement('ie:menuitem');");
        builder.AppendLine("    elm2.setAttribute('menugroupid', '50');");
        builder.AppendLine("    elm2.setAttribute('description', '" + SPHttpUtility.EcmaScriptStringLiteralEncode(StringResourceManager.GetString(LocStringId.MultPages_MySite_Description)) + "');");
        builder.AppendLine("    elm2.setAttribute('text', '" + SPHttpUtility.EcmaScriptStringLiteralEncode(StringResourceManager.GetString(LocStringId.MultPages_MySite_Label)) + "');");
        builder.AppendLine(@"    elm2.setAttribute('onmenuclick', 'STSNavigate2(event,\'" + SPHttpUtility.EcmaScriptStringLiteralEncode(this.MySiteHostURL) + @"\')');");
        builder.AppendLine("    elm2.setAttribute('id', 'ID_MySiteMenu');");
    }
    builder.AppendLine("    var sep = null;");
    builder.AppendLine("    for (var i=0, len=menu.childNodes.length; i);
    builder.AppendLine("    \t   if (menu.childNodes[i].id == undefined || menu.childNodes[i].id == '') {");
    builder.AppendLine("            sep = menu.childNodes[i]; break;");
    builder.AppendLine("        }");
    builder.AppendLine("    }");
    if (flag)
    {
        builder.AppendLine("    if (sep != null)");
        builder.AppendLine("        menu.insertBefore(sep.cloneNode(true), menu.firstChild);");
        builder.AppendLine("    menu.insertBefore(elm, menu.firstChild);");
    }
    if (flag2)
    {
        builder.AppendLine("    if (sep != null)");
        builder.AppendLine("        menu.insertBefore(sep.cloneNode(true), menu.firstChild);");
        builder.AppendLine("    menu.insertBefore(elm2, menu.firstChild);");
    }
    builder.AppendLine("};");
    builder.AppendLine("_spBodyOnLoadFunctionNames.push('" + key + "');");
    this.Page.ClientScript.RegisterStartupScript(base.GetType(), key, builder.ToString(), true);
}
 

The OOB behavior for the Welcome menu will actually render two profile links if you have SharePoint Server installed:

My Profile (linking to the My Site Host profile page)
My Regional Settings (linking to userdisp.aspx, the SharePoint Foundation profile page)

The My Regional Settings link is added by the PersonalActions control (from Reflector):

PostCacheSubstitutionText text2 = new PostCacheSubstitutionText();
text2.TextType = PostCacheSubstitutionTextType.UserId;
text2.PrefixHtml = "";
this.Controls.Add(text2);
SPUser currentUser = this.Web.CurrentUser;
MenuItemTemplate menuItem = base.GetMenuItem("ID_PersonalInformation");
if (menuItem != null)
{
    if (currentUser == null)
    {
        menuItem.Visible = false;
    }
    else
    {
        string serverRelativeUrlFromUrl = this.Web.GetServerRelativeUrlFromUrl("_layouts/userdisp.aspx?Force=True&ID=");
        menuItem.ClientOnClickScript = "javascript:GoToPage('" + SPHttpUtility.EcmaScriptStringLiteralEncode(serverRelativeUrlFromUrl) + "' + _spUserId);return false;";
    }
}

My design called for only displaying one “Edit Profile” link, which should be smart enough to combine these two approaches, and link to userdisp.aspx if SharePoint Foundation used, and to the My Site Host profile page if available.

To achieve this, the first step is to adjust the ASCX markup to include some PlaceHolder controls that can be customized in code-behind:

<div class="profile_dropdown">
<asp:PlaceHolder ID="placeHolderUserID" runat="server">asp:PlaceHolder>
    <div class="dropdown_bkgrd">
        <ul>
            <asp:PlaceHolder ID="placeHolderEditProfile" runat="server"><li><asp:LinkButton ID="linkButtonEditProfile" runat="server" EnableViewState="false" Text="Edit Profile">asp:LinkButton>li>asp:PlaceHolder>
            <asp:PlaceHolder ID="placeHolderMySite" runat="server"><li><asp:LinkButton ID="linkButtonMySite" runat="server" EnableViewState="false" Text="My Site">asp:LinkButton>li>asp:PlaceHolder>
            <li>Log Outli>
            <li>Sign in as a Different Userli>
        ul>
    div>
div>

Here is the code-behind I used that combines the output from the PersonalActions control and SocialNavigationControl:

string myProfileUrl = Context.Items["SocialData$ProfileURL"] as string;
string mySiteHostUrl = Context.Items["SocialData$MySiteHostURL"] as string;
 
if (!Page.IsPostBack)
{
    myProfileUrl = Context.Items["SocialData$ProfileURL"] as string;
    ViewState[Constants.VIEWSTATE_PROFILE_URL] = myProfileUrl;
    mySiteHostUrl = Context.Items["SocialData$MySiteHostURL"] as string;
    ViewState[Constants.VIEWSTATE_MYSITE_URL] = mySiteHostUrl;
}
else
{
    myProfileUrl = ViewState[Constants.VIEWSTATE_PROFILE_URL] as string;
    mySiteHostUrl = ViewState[Constants.VIEWSTATE_MYSITE_URL] as string;
}
 
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(mySiteHostUrl))
{
    // No MySite host, or user does not have rights to view profile page...
    placeHolderMySite.Visible = false;
}
else
{
    // User has a MySite, show the link to it...
    placeHolderMySite.Visible = true;
    linkButtonMySite.OnClientClick = string.Format("STSNavigate2(event, '{0}');return false;", SPHttpUtility.EcmaScriptStringLiteralEncode(mySiteHostUrl));
}
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(myProfileUrl))
{
    // Use the SharePoint foundation profile page, since the MySite host is not available
    PostCacheSubstitutionText pt = new PostCacheSubstitutionText();
    pt.TextType = PostCacheSubstitutionTextType.UserId;
    pt.PrefixHtml = "";
    placeHolderUserID.Controls.Add(pt);
    string serverRelativeUrlFromUrl = this.ResolveClientUrl("~/_layouts/userdisp.aspx?Force=True&ID=");
    linkButtonEditProfile.OnClientClick = "GoToPage('" + SPHttpUtility.EcmaScriptStringLiteralEncode(serverRelativeUrlFromUrl) + "' + _spUserId);return false;";
}
else
{
    // Use the MySite profile page...
    linkButtonEditProfile.OnClientClick = string.Format("STSNavigate2(event, '{0}');return false;", SPHttpUtility.EcmaScriptStringLiteralEncode(myProfileUrl));
}

Summary

In this post, we deconstructed the SocialNavigationControl, and figured out how to render intelligent links to My Site and My Profile pages.

Our ASCX markup so far is:

<%@ Assembly Name="$SharePoint.Project.AssemblyFullName$" %>
<%@ Assembly Name="Microsoft.Web.CommandUI, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" %>
<%@ Register Tagprefix="SharePoint" Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls" Assembly="Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" %>
<%@ Register Tagprefix="Utilities" Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint.Utilities" Assembly="Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" %>
<%@ Register Tagprefix="asp" Namespace="System.Web.UI" Assembly="System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35" %>
<%@ Import Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint" %>
<%@ Register Tagprefix="WebPartPages" Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages" Assembly="Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" %>
<%@ Control Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeBehind="CustomWelcomeMenuControl.ascx.cs" Inherits="CustomWelcomeMenu.ControlTemplates.CustomWelcomeMenu.CustomWelcomeMenuControl" %>
<div class="header">
    <img class="header-logo" src="/images/header_logo.png" alt="" width="169" height="78" />
    <div class="header-bar">
        <div class="profile_menu">
        <a href="#" class="profile_btn">
            <span class="image"><asp:Image ID="imageProfilePicture" runat="server" Width="20px" Height="20px" />span>
            <span class="name"><asp:PlaceHolder ID="placeHolderWelcomeName" runat="server">asp:PlaceHolder>span>
            <span class="arrow">span>
        a>
            <div class="profile_dropdown">
            <asp:PlaceHolder ID="placeHolderUserID" runat="server">asp:PlaceHolder>
                <div class="dropdown_bkgrd">
                    <ul>
                        <asp:PlaceHolder ID="placeHolderEditProfile" runat="server"><li><asp:LinkButton ID="linkButtonEditProfile" runat="server" EnableViewState="false" Text="Edit Profile">asp:LinkButton>li>asp:PlaceHolder>
                        <asp:PlaceHolder ID="placeHolderMySite" runat="server"><li><asp:LinkButton ID="linkButtonMySite" runat="server" EnableViewState="false" Text="My Site">asp:LinkButton>li>asp:PlaceHolder>
                        <li>Log Outli>
                        <li>Sign in as a Different Userli>
                    ul>
                div>
            div>
        div>
    div>
div>
 

Our ASCX code-behind so far is:

using System;
using System.Web.UI;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts;
using Microsoft.SharePoint;
using Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls;
using Microsoft.SharePoint.Utilities;
 
namespace CustomWelcomeMenu.ControlTemplates.CustomWelcomeMenu
{
    public partial class CustomWelcomeMenuControl : UserControl
    {
        protected void Page_PreRender(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {    
    
            // Username
            PostCacheSubstitutionText welcomeText = new PostCacheSubstitutionText();
            welcomeText.TextType = PostCacheSubstitutionTextType.UserName;
            placeHolderWelcomeName.Controls.Add(welcomeText);
 
            // Profile picture
            SPList userInfoList = SPContext.Current.Web.GetCatalog(SPListTemplateType.UserInformation);
            SPListItem userProfileItem = userInfoList.GetItemById(SPContext.Current.Web.CurrentUser.ID);
            if (userProfileItem["Picture"] == null || string.IsNullOrEmpty(userProfileItem["Picture"].ToString()))
            {
                // Use default picture (or replace with another)
                imageProfilePicture.ImageUrl = "/_layouts/images/PERSON.GIF";
            }
            else
            {
                SPFieldUrlValue value = new SPFieldUrlValue(userProfileItem["Picture"].ToString());
                imageProfilePicture.ImageUrl = value.Url;
            }
 
                string myProfileUrl = Context.Items["SocialData$ProfileURL"] as string;
                string mySiteHostUrl = Context.Items["SocialData$MySiteHostURL"] as string;
    
            if (!Page.IsPostBack)
            {
                myProfileUrl = Context.Items["SocialData$ProfileURL"] as string;
                ViewState[Constants.VIEWSTATE_PROFILE_URL] = myProfileUrl;
                mySiteHostUrl = Context.Items["SocialData$MySiteHostURL"] as string;
                ViewState[Constants.VIEWSTATE_MYSITE_URL] = mySiteHostUrl;
            }
            else
            {
                myProfileUrl = ViewState[Constants.VIEWSTATE_PROFILE_URL] as string;
                mySiteHostUrl = ViewState[Constants.VIEWSTATE_MYSITE_URL] as string;
            }
    
    
            if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(mySiteHostUrl))
            {
                // No MySite host, or user does not have rights to view profile page...
                placeHolderMySite.Visible = false;
 
            }
            else
            {
                // User has a MySite, show the link to it...
                placeHolderMySite.Visible = true;
                linkButtonMySite.OnClientClick = string.Format("STSNavigate2(event, '{0}');return false;", SPHttpUtility.EcmaScriptStringLiteralEncode(mySiteHostUrl));
            }
    
            if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(myProfileUrl))
            {
                // Use the SharePoint foundation profile page, since the MySite host is not available
                PostCacheSubstitutionText pt = new PostCacheSubstitutionText();
                pt.TextType = PostCacheSubstitutionTextType.UserId;
                pt.PrefixHtml = "";
                placeHolderUserID.Controls.Add(pt);
                string serverRelativeUrlFromUrl = this.ResolveClientUrl("~/_layouts/userdisp.aspx?Force=True&ID=");
                linkButtonEditProfile.OnClientClick = "GoToPage('" + SPHttpUtility.EcmaScriptStringLiteralEncode(serverRelativeUrlFromUrl) + "' + _spUserId);return false;";
            }
            else
            {
                // Use the MySite profile page...
                linkButtonEditProfile.OnClientClick = string.Format("STSNavigate2(event, '{0}');return false;", SPHttpUtility.EcmaScriptStringLiteralEncode(myProfileUrl));
            }
 
        }
    }
}

Next, check out Part 3, where we learn how to display links to Sign Out and Sign in as a Different User.

Creating a Custom Welcome Menu for SharePoint Server 2010 – Part 1

Adam Toth — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 23:00:00 +0000

Part 1 – Overview, Profile Picture, and User Name

A project I am working on called for a custom implementation of the SharePoint Welcome menu control. The replacement control needed to provide the following:

Implement the look and behaviors that the designers created.
Exclude some default SharePoint menu items (such as My Regional Settings).
Reuse some existing SharePoint menu items (such as Sign Out/Sign in as a Different User).
Allow for the addition of other custom menu items in the future.
Display thumbnail of the user’s profile picture.

I had to create a control that looked and behaved like the following:

The designers came up with some clean, semantic markup married with some jquery, for me to start from:

<div class="header">
    <img class="header-logo" src="/images/header_logo.png" alt="" width="169" height="78" />
    <div class="header-bar">
        <div class="profile_menu">
            <a href="#" class="profile_btn">
                <span class="image"><img src="" style="width:20px;height:20px" />span>
                <span class="name">John Doespan>
                <span class="arrow">span>
            a>
            <div class="profile_dropdown">
                <div class="dropdown_bkgrd">
                    <ul>
                        <li>Edit Profileli> 
                        <li>My Siteli>
                        <li>Log Outli>                        
                        <li>Sign in as a Different Userli>
                    ul>
                div>
            div>
        div>
    div>
div>

This is part 1 of a three part series.

Overview of Approach

My general approach to solve this was to create a .NET User Control, installed in the _controltemplates directory. I could use code-behind and the API, and have the most control over display and formatting of the menu. This could all be deployed with a WSP package, using Visual Studio 2010. I could leave out any menu items I didn’t need, add any custom items necessary, and write code to recreate any SharePoint menu items that I wanted to keep.

I started out creating a new Empty SharePoint Project in Visual Studio 2010:

I then added a User Control to the project, and pasted the markup from the designers into the :

My next task was to figure out what I could reuse from SharePoint’s own menus, by looking into the OOB Welcome menu.

OOB Welcome Menu Controls

Before I started, I had to dissect the out-of-box Welcome menu control. If you look at the master pages in SharePoint, they usually include a reference to Welcome.ascx. It turns out that this isn’t just one control, it is a combination of three different controls that each interject their own menu items:

Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls.PersonalActions – This is the primary control, responsible for most of the menu items and the menu core. Items 4-9 below (plus another item, “Request Access” that isn’t shown in the screen shot) are rendered by this control. The menu and its items are rendered as and nodes in the html.
Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls.MUISelector – This is responsible for displaying language selections (item #3 below) if you’ve installed language packs.
Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal.WebControls.SocialNavigationControl – This is responsible for displaying My Site and My Profile links (items 1 and 2 below, part of SharePoint Server).

Displaying the User’s Profile Picture

To display the profile picture, I first had to adjust the original markup from the designers to include a server Image control. Here is the original markup:

<a href="#" class="profile_btn">
    <span class="image><img src="" style="width:20px;height:20px;" />span>
    <span class="name">John Doespan>
    <span class="arrow">span>
a>

Here is the adjusted markup:

<a href="#" class="profile_btn">
    <span class="image"><asp:Image ID="imageProfilePicture" runat="server" Width="20px" Height="20px" />span>
    <span class="name">John Doespan>
    <span class="arrow">span>
a>

Once that was done, I was able to use the API to get at the user’s picture:

protected void Page_PreRender(object sender, EventArgs e)
{    
    // Profile picture
    SPList userInfoList = SPContext.Current.Web.GetCatalog(SPListTemplateType.UserInformation);
    SPListItem userProfileItem = userInfoList.GetItemById(SPContext.Current.Web.CurrentUser.ID);
    if (userProfileItem["Picture"] == null || string.IsNullOrEmpty(userProfileItem["Picture"].ToString()))
    {
        // Use default picture (or replace with another)
        imageProfilePicture.ImageUrl = "/_layouts/images/PERSON.GIF";
    }
    else
    {
        SPFieldUrlValue value = new SPFieldUrlValue(userProfileItem["Picture"].ToString());
        imageProfilePicture.ImageUrl = value.Url;
    }
}

Displaying the User’s Name

The user name is pretty easy to deconstruct. The PersonalActions menu uses the PostCacheSubstitutionText control to render the user name and insert it into the Welcome menu’s controls collection (code below from Reflector):

PostCacheSubstitutionText child = new PostCacheSubstitutionText();
if (flag)
{
    child.TextType = PostCacheSubstitutionTextType.UserName;
}
else
{
    child.TextType = PostCacheSubstitutionTextType.WelcomeUser;
}
child.MaximumLength = maxChar;
base.MenuControl.UseShortId = true;
base.MenuControl.Controls.Add(child);

The PostCacheSubstitutionText control will prevent the username from being cached on the server as part of output cache settings, so that if a user uses the Sign in as a Different User menu item, they will always see the current username instead of a cached one. You can play with the PostCacheSubstitutionTextType to change how the username is displayed.

In order to insert this text into our menu, I added a PlaceHolder control into the ASCX markup, and then added the PostCacheSubstitutionText control to the PlaceHolder’s controls collection in code-behind. I replced the John Doe text in the markup with this:

<a href="#" class="profile_btn">
    <span class="image"><asp:Image ID="imageProfilePicture" runat="server" Width="20px" Height="20px" />span>
    <span class="name"><asp:PlaceHolder ID="placeHolderWelcomeName" runat="server">asp:PlaceHolder>span>
    <span class="arrow">span>
a>

I then added the following lines to the PreRender event:

// Username
PostCacheSubstitutionText welcomeText = new PostCacheSubstitutionText();
welcomeText.TextType = PostCacheSubstitutionTextType.UserName;
placeHolderWelcomeName.Controls.Add(welcomeText);
    

Summary

In this post, we deconstructed the OOB welcome menu control, figured out how to get the user’s profile picture, and got the user’s display name into the menu.

Our ASCX markup so far is:

<%@ Assembly Name="$SharePoint.Project.AssemblyFullName$" %>
<%@ Assembly Name="Microsoft.Web.CommandUI, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" %>
<%@ Register Tagprefix="SharePoint" Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls" Assembly="Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" %>
<%@ Register Tagprefix="Utilities" Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint.Utilities" Assembly="Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" %>
<%@ Register Tagprefix="asp" Namespace="System.Web.UI" Assembly="System.Web.Extensions, Version=3.5.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=31bf3856ad364e35" %>
<%@ Import Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint" %> 
<%@ Register Tagprefix="WebPartPages" Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages" Assembly="Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" %>
<%@ Control Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeBehind="CustomWelcomeMenuControl.ascx.cs" Inherits="CustomWelcomeMenu.ControlTemplates.CustomWelcomeMenu.CustomWelcomeMenuControl" %>
<div class="header">
    <img class="header-logo" src="/images/header_logo.png" alt="" width="169" height="78" />
    <div class="header-bar">
        <div class="profile_menu">
        <a href="#" class="profile_btn">
            <span class="image"><asp:Image ID="imageProfilePicture" runat="server" Width="20px" Height="20px" />span>
            <span class="name"><asp:PlaceHolder ID="placeHolderWelcomeName" runat="server">asp:PlaceHolder>span>
            <span class="arrow">span>
        a>
            <div class="profile_dropdown">
                <div class="dropdown_bkgrd">
                    <ul>
                        <li>Edit Profileli> 
                        <li>My Siteli>
                        <li>Log Outli>                        
                        <li>Sign in as a Different Userli>
                    ul>
                div>
            div>
        div>
    div>
div>

Our ASCX code-behind so far is:

using System;
using System.Web.UI;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts;
using Microsoft.SharePoint;
using Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls;
 
namespace CustomWelcomeMenu.ControlTemplates.CustomWelcomeMenu
{
    public partial class CustomWelcomeMenuControl : UserControl
    {
        protected void Page_PreRender(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {    
 
    
            // Username
            PostCacheSubstitutionText welcomeText = new PostCacheSubstitutionText();
            welcomeText.TextType = PostCacheSubstitutionTextType.UserName;
            placeHolderWelcomeName.Controls.Add(welcomeText);
 
            // Profile picture
            SPList userInfoList = SPContext.Current.Web.GetCatalog(SPListTemplateType.UserInformation);
            SPListItem userProfileItem = userInfoList.GetItemById(SPContext.Current.Web.CurrentUser.ID);
            if (userProfileItem["Picture"] == null || string.IsNullOrEmpty(userProfileItem["Picture"].ToString()))
            {
                // Use default picture (or replace with another)
                imageProfilePicture.ImageUrl = "/_layouts/images/PERSON.GIF";
            }
            else
            {
                SPFieldUrlValue value = new SPFieldUrlValue(userProfileItem["Picture"].ToString());
                imageProfilePicture.ImageUrl = value.Url;
            }
        }
    }
}

Next, check out Part 2, where we learn how to display links to My Site and My Profile.

Adding and Deploying Generic Handlers (.ashx) to a SharePoint 2010 Visual Studio Project

Adam Toth — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 21:00:28 +0000

Generic Handlers (.ashx files) deployed to the _layouts directory are not directly supported by Visual Studio 2010 SharePoint projects like custom .aspx application pages are.

If you try to Add New Item… and select the Web or SharePoint categories in a VS 2010 SharePoint project, you won’t find Generic Handler anywhere.

You’ll find ASP.NET Handler, but this will require you to create entries in web.config to make your handler work. In order to add a new .ASHX generic handler and get it to deploy properly, you can use the following steps:

Right-click the project, and select Add New Item…
Choose the Application Page template.
In the name box, enter a name for your file, with an .ashx extension.
Open the .ashx file, delete the contents and replace with the following, changing your Class= attribute with your desired namespace and class name:
```
<%@ Assembly Name="$SharePoint.Project.AssemblyFullName$" %>
```
```
<%@ Assembly Name="Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=14.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" %>
```
```
<%@ WebHandler Language="C#" Class="MyNamespace.MyGenericHandler" %>
```
Note: If you want to reference other SharePoint assemblies in your code-behind, you will need to add an @ Assembly directive for each DLL.

Open the ashx.cs file.

Add a using statement for System.Web.
You probably don’t need the using statement for Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls, so remove it.
Change your namespace if necessary.
Change the class to inherit from IHttpHandler.

Implement the IHttpHandler interface. Your code should now look something like this:�

using System;
using Microsoft.SharePoint;
using System.Web;
 
namespace MyNamespace
{
    public partial class MyGenericHandler : IHttpHandler
    {
 
        #region IHttpHandler Members
 
        public bool IsReusable
        {
            get { throw new NotImplementedException(); }
        }
 
        public void ProcessRequest(HttpContext context)
        {
            throw new NotImplementedException();
        }
 
        #endregion
    }
}

In the Solution Explorer, delete the ashx.designer.cs file, it is not needed.
In the Solution Explorer, click the .ashx file, and in the Properties pane, set the Build Action to Content.
In the Solution Explorer, click the .ashx.cs file, and in the Properties pane, set the Build Action to Compile.
Make sure to enable Token replacement for .ashx extensions. This will replace the $SharePoint.Project.AssemblyFullName$ token with the full strong name of your assembly, enabling you to reference other classes in your compiled assembly from the ashx code-behind.You can read more about token replacement here. To enable this for your Project, Unload your Project, Edit the .csproj file and add the following text to a PropertyGroup, and Reload your project:
```
<PropertyGroup>
```
```
  <TokenReplacementFileExtensions>ashxTokenReplacementFileExtensions>
```
```
PropertyGroup>
```

PDC Day 1 – Lap Around Windows Azure Notes

Adam Toth — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:02:56 +0000

Session #1:

Windows Azure Platform:

Windows Azure
SQL Azure
AppFabric
…plus developer tools and "Dallas"

Azure does "Compute" "Management" and "Storage"

SQL Azure is a relational DB as a service.

Demo is of a tickmaster-type application that uses Azure.

TicketDirect Architecture:

"Compute" using Web and Worker roles to process tickets

Using the service bus to communicate with on-premise services.

Storage of data in SQL Azure

Printing of tickets is offloaded to the site (i.e. venue).

Site receives a message via service bus to print the ticket for pickup at role call

Another Demo, sample app, of basic CRUD web app.

CRUD is standard ASP.NET SqlDataSource control with SQL commands, that works with SQL Express but runs in the cloud

Demo’d using Trace.Write which writes out to the development console logger and can also write to the Azure Storage logging subsystem

Migrated to SQL Azure by just changing the connection string

Storage (BLOBs, Tables, and Queues)

NEW – Add ability to mount Azure storage as NTFS drive

Coming soon – Ability to manage VMs with admin privileges

Create snapshots of your VMs

When up-scaling, Azure will deploy your app on top of your custom VM image

SQL Azure:

Only pay for what you use

Do not worry about disaster recovery

Change a connection string an have effortless switch to SQL Azure

Sync framework to sync SQL DBs in the cloud with on-premise data

Service Bus:

Securely connect apps (on-premise with cloud)

Tunneling technology

Services bus is a middle man for communication between

Access Control:

Provides outsourcing of claims-based RESTful services

Integrates with ADFS v2

PDC Day 1 KeyNote Notes

Adam Toth — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:53:55 +0000

Windows Azure Improvements since last year:

Support PHP, CGI, Apache, other frameworks
Expose very low-level programming efforts (not just .NET).
Example was a C++ app with pointers exposed as an Azure service
Identity framework (support passing tokens from federated locations i.e. onsite AD instance)

SQL Azure Improvements since last year:

Not just RESTful consumption of services anymore
Works with standard TDS based tools (SQL management studio)

Microsoft has a vision of "Three screens and a Cloud".

The screens include:

Mobile devices
Desktop computers
Internet connected TVs
They can all be united by data and services in the cloud.

Public Data in the Cloud (Codename "Dallas").

Repository for public data sets that can be consumed in any number of ways (and easily by Azure)

Accessed through Microsoft PinPoint

Some data includes NASA mars photos, GIS data, AP News articles

PinPoint:

Centralized marketplace for partner providers, Azure ISVs and implementers, and gateway to "Dallas" public Data.

"System Center" will plugin to Azure to monitor your Azure instances, check to meet SLAs, and enable you to scale up the Azure instances directly.

2010 will include ability to have the Azure cloud be able to establish a network connection to on-premise resources (i.e. self hosted SQL Server)

WordPress is moving to Windows Azure

Helper Method for ASP.NET Wizard Controls

Adam Toth — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 19:38:29 +0000

I enjoy working with the ASP.NET Wizard control – it’s one of the more useful controls available, and there always seems to be a place for a wizard in the custom apps I’ve written. Over time I’ve developed a helper method that makes it easier to do non-linear jumps from step to step.

GetIndexFromStep(WizardStepBase step)

Often, in a NextButtonClick event handler for a Wizard, you need to figure out what the current step is that you are on, based on the WizardNavigationEventArgs e.CurrentStepIndex property. Here is a helper method to enable you to do that:

/// /// Returns the index of a particular wizard step in the WizardSteps collection/// /// The step whose index number you want/// private int GetIndexFromStep(WizardStepBase step){    return step.Wizard.WizardSteps.IndexOf(step);}

You can also package it up as an extension method (.NET 3.5) off of the Wizard or WizardStepBase object:

using System.Web.UI.WebControls; /// /// Extensions for ASP.NET Wizard Control Objects/// public static class WizardExtensions{        ///     /// Gets the index of a particular wizard step.    ///     /// The current Wizard    /// The step whose index number you want    ///     public static int GetIndexFromStep(this Wizard wizard, WizardStepBase step)    {        return wizard.WizardSteps.IndexOf(step);    }    ///     /// Gets the index of this wizard step.    ///     /// This step    ///     public static int GetIndex(this WizardStepBase step)    {        return step.Wizard.WizardSteps.IndexOf(step);    }}

If you’ve given your wizard steps specific IDs, then you can use them strongly typed in a NextButtonClick event:

protected void Wizard1_NextButtonClick(object sender, WizardNavigationEventArgs e){    if (e.CurrentStepIndex == GetIndexFromStep(step1))    {        // We are on step #1         // Validate...         // Skip to step 3        Wizard1.ActiveStepIndex = GetIndexFromStep(step3);     }}

Apostrophes in Community Server

Adam Toth — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 23:15:00 +0000

I noticed that the RSS feed for this blog had a screwed up blog title because of the apostrophe in it. It seems that community server is htmlencoding the blog title, and that is getting passed through to the RSS feed as “& # 3 9 ;”. This was supposed to be fixed in a service pack, but doesn’t seem to have made it in yet on this particular blog.
In the meantime, I found a workaround. Open your Windows Character Map, and choose the following character:

Select it, copy it, and paste it into the text box for your blog title. It’s a good substitute, and doesn’t get encoded. I’m not sure if the same problem exists for post titles, so this workaround may be applicable to those as well.

UPDATE: I’ve now moved on and am using a WordPress blog.