Implement Custom SuiteLinks Delegate Control In SharePoint 2013

SuiteLinksDelegate

It is a new delegate control introduced in SharePoint 2013. If you are looking to add a new link just next to “Sites, NewsFeed, SkyDrive” etc, on the top bar of your SharePoint site you can now do that with a new delegate control "SuiteLinksDelegate". The SuiteLinksDelegate control will allow us to modify the default links,

For Example: To add our own links, in the "suit links".

Header before



Step 1: Create One Empty SharePoint Project and provide the Solution Name and choose the Solution Path and click OK.

Step 2: Deploy the Solution as Farm Solution. Provide the Url in next screen and validate the connection.

Step 3: Add New UserControl to the Project from the Templates and provide a Name to it, in our case it is “MyCustomSuiteLinksDelegate”



Now our Solution Explorer looks as follows,



Step 4: Add reference to Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal dll.

 

Ensure your control inherits from MySuiteLinksUserControl like this:

 

public partial class MyCustomSuiteLinksDelegate: MySuiteLinksUserControl

Step 5: Code snippet for the ascx.cs file.

using System;
using System.Web.UI;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts;
using Microsoft.SharePoint;
using Microsoft.SharePoint.Utilities;
using Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls;
using System.Globalization;
using System.IO;
using System.Collections;
using Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal;
using Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal.WebControls;
namespace SuiteBarBrandingDelegate_Example.ControlTemplates.SuiteLinksDelegate_Example
{
    public partial class MyCustomSuiteLinksDelegate: MySuiteLinksUserControl
    {
        protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {}
        protected override void Render(HtmlTextWriter writer)
        {
            writer.RenderBeginTag(HtmlTextWriterTag.Style);
            writer.Write(".ms-core-suiteLinkList {display: inline-block;}");
            writer.RenderEndTag();
            writer.AddAttribute(HtmlTextWriterAttribute.Class, "ms-core-suiteLinkList");
            writer.RenderBeginTag(HtmlTextWriterTag.Ul);
            RenderSuiteLink(writer, "http://AboutUs/", "About Us", "lnkSearchLink", false);
            RenderSuiteLink(writer, "http://ContactUs/", "Contact Us", "lnkSearchLink", false);
            RenderSuiteLink(writer, "http://Feedback", "Requisition Manager", "lnkSearchLink", false);
            writer.RenderEndTag();
            base.Render(writer);
        }
    }
}

Step 6: Add Elements.xml file to the Solution, provide the name and click Add.



Step 7: Click on elements.xml file and paste the following code snippet inside the elements tag.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
    <Elements xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">
        <!-- Adding DelegateControl reference to our custom SuiteSuiteLinksDelegate Control -->
        <Control ControlSrc="/_controltemplates/15/SuiteLinksDelegate_Example\MyCustomSuiteSuiteLinksDelegate.ascx" Id="SuiteLinksDelegate" Sequence="90" /> </Elements>

Step 8: Final step is to build and deploy, then the SharePoint text will override with the Text of the portal.

The final outcome will look as in the following,