Sharepoint default.master propagation?

Question

We have a large collection of MOSS 2007 sites that need a chunk of javascript added to them. I edited, checked in, published, and approved this change to default.master and the change is reflected on the root site, but none of the subsites.

I'm a little nervous to use the "Reset all subsites to inherit this Site Master Page setting" in site settings since there are so many subsites, but I'm not sure if I have any other option? All of the subsites only show default.master in their master page gallery, but it's not the version I just modified.

Thanks!

Answer 1

There are two (three really) things that could have occured here.

1. Your root masterpage was edited previously without cascading the change
2. A number of your subsites have had thier masterpage edited independantly.

For case 1. you should replace the child masterpages for all the subsites. For case 2. you have to figure out what changes were made and why. (There is also case 3 where both changes have occured.)

You need to check on the "owners" of the subsites to know what is going on. In most organisations there are not that many people with the required permission level and skills to make modifications to a sites masterpage.

Choosing to replace the child masterpages will completly replace them.

Answer 2

Hi Justin

In order to get a piece of JavaScript to every page the use of the AdditionalPageHead Delegate control is better than modifying the default.master as it'll also work with modified masterpages (as long as they obey the rules of including the "AdditionalPageHead" delegate)

See my blog post on how to Turn Default Upload Overwrite Off in WSS 3.0 for an example of using the AdditionalPageHead Delegate

Answer 3

The "Reset all subsites" option only points their custom.master attribute to the inheritor. They do not replace the subsites' masterpages/default.master file. The option would then read "Reset all subsites masterpages to point to this site masterpage"

If you're not comfortable with the way sharepoint may mess with your site collection, run a stsadm backup before commiting the changes or restore your backup in another webapplication to test whether nothing explodes.