Modifying site  def’s is not recommended? It’s not like they are saying “um, we realy wouldn’t do that”… in fact… they even describe how to do it.



Actually yes I do have a strategy… however mine is VERY 1-off and custom, but… it won’t be hard to re-implement if <worst case> a service pack overwrote all my template files. My changes to the site def’s invole removing one line from every site def & adding two lines… in my mind, a small modification (and it’s actually implemented with a global search & replace on all 200+ OOB site def. files).



Basically here’s my approach:

Ø Create custom user control… this determines where you are in the site and matches it up with ~our~ site hierarchy (we have multiple portals, WSS sites, MS Content Management System websites, and custom sites). The user control then builds the navigation.

Ø {SPS MOD} Add a <%@ Register tag in the page header for my user control

Ø {SPS MOD} Remove the vertical nav from SPS OOB templates & replace with my user control



That’s the jist of it… the real magic for me comes with what/where/how do we implement our site hierarchy. Still trying a few different approaches out from using a SQL2000 DB, an XML file, or MCMS’ channel structure (doing this now). So far, I like the last one the most.



My navigation  will then contain a special “admin” switch that will only appear for server administrators. When a new area is created, they goto the page and click the admin link… this launches a dialog that helps them marry it up with the MCMS structure.



I’ll bet many people in this group think we’re crazy. But you’d be surprised how easy it is (once you get past some of the hurdles like big CAS issues).