SharePoint Top navigation links read from the External file.

Get data from external file for SharePoint Top Navigation:

1.      Open the Web.config file for the SharePoint web application with a text editor such as notepad.

2.      Take copy the web.config before modifying the file.

3.      Path of the web.config is “C:\inetpub\wwwroot\wss\VirtualDirectories\80\”

4.      Add the following code in the siteMap and providers  as a last row.

<siteMap defaultProvider="CurrentNavigation" enabled="true">

      <providers>

<add name="CustomNavigationProvider" siteMapFile="/_layouts/1033/styles/CustomNavigationProvider/CustomSiteMap.sitemap" type="System.Web.XmlSiteMapProvider, System.Web, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b03f5f7f11d50a3a" />

5.      Save the Web.config and close it.

6.      Create a SiteMap file named CustomSiteMap.sitemap and put it into a new folder with the name CustomNavigationProvider. Add this folder into following directory: \14\TEMPLATE\LAYOUTS\1033\STYLES\CustomNavigationProvider

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>

<siteMap>

 

  <siteMapNode title="" url="">

    <siteMapNode title="Home" url="/"/>

    <siteMapNode title="sitecollection1" url="/sites/sitecollection1"> </siteMapNode>

   

  <siteMapNode title="Functions">

                  <siteMapNode title="sitecollection2" url=" /sites/sitecollection1 "/>

                  <siteMapNode title=" sitecollection3" url=" /sites/sitecollection3"/>

                  <siteMapNode title="ISC" url="/sites/isc"/>

                  <siteMapNode title="IT" url="/sites/it"/>

  </siteMapNode>

 </siteMapNode>

</siteMap>

7.      Open the master page and search for the content placeholder with the id PlaceHolderHorizontalNav. Replace this placeholder with this code:

<SharePoint:AspMenu

      ID="TopNavigationMenuV4"

      Runat="server"

      EnableViewState="false"

      DataSourceID="topSiteMap"

      AccessKey="<%$Resources:wss,navigation_accesskey%>"

      UseSimpleRendering="true"

      UseSeparateCss="false"

      Orientation="Horizontal"

      StaticDisplayLevels="2"

      MaximumDynamicDisplayLevels="1"

      SkipLinkText=""

      CssClass="s4-tn"

      Visible="false"/>

    <SharePoint:DelegateControl runat="server" ControlId="TopNavigationDataSource" Id="topNavigationDelegate"><Template_Controls>

            <asp:SiteMapDataSource

              ShowStartingNode="False"

              SiteMapProvider="SPNavigationProvider"

              id="topSiteMap"

              runat="server"

              StartingNodeUrl="sid:1002"/>

        </Template_Controls></SharePoint:DelegateControl>

       

       

        <SharePoint:AspMenu

      ID="CustomXmlNavigationAspMenu"

      Runat="server"

      EnableViewState="false"

      DataSourceID="CustomNavigationSiteMapDataSource"

      AccessKey="<%$Resources:wss,navigation_accesskey%>"

      UseSimpleRendering="true"

      UseSeparateCss="false"

      Orientation="Horizontal"

      StaticDisplayLevels="1"

      MaximumDynamicDisplayLevels="3"

      SkipLinkText=""

      CssClass="s4-tn">

   

    </SharePoint:AspMenu>

    <!-- Second sitemap DS -->

    <SharePoint:DelegateControl runat="server" ControlId="CustomXmlMapProviderDelegateControl">

        <Template_Controls>    

            <asp:SiteMapDataSource

              ShowStartingNode="False"

              SiteMapProvider="CustomNavigationProvider"

              id="CustomNavigationSiteMapDataSource"

              runat="server" />

        </Template_Controls>

    </SharePoint:DelegateControl>

8.      Save the master page now the Top navigation read the external file. If you want add new link to the top navigation add it into the CustomSiteMap.sitemap.