1. My site
·
Mysite collection master page
(root.master) cannot be edited using SharePoint Designer, it actually can be
changed but the change is not supported by Microsoft and might cause the site
to break. http://community.office365.com/en-us/forums/153/p/58396/213704.aspx#213704
·
Feature stapling is not supported as
of yet as it is a Farm level feature??? Not sure if this is true but Microsoft
do not seem to want to confirm or refute this. It is only available in
dedicated online Implementations, not on multi tenancy.
·
It is possible to brand the My Site
Host and Individual user My Sites with Custom Sandbox Solutions, but this is
not supported by Microsoft. It is important to note that when a user provisions
their My Site for the first time, it would take default branding based on the
OOTB My Site template. The user must then upload Sandbox solutions to apply
branding to their already created My Sites. Individual end-users can use
SharePoint Designer to update branding on case by case basis as well. This
should be avoided as it is not supported http://community.office365.com/en-us/forums/153/p/46010/223145.aspx
·
The Microsoft supported way is to
use SharePoint Designer to make branding changes or accept the standard themes
available.
2. IIS Limitations
·
No access to web.config file or any
other IIS changeable element. To make changes
in IIS you need to have full access to SharePoint’s web site directory in IIS
as well as the full SharePoint object model on the server. This level of access
is not available in SharePoint Online. Currently the only ways around this are
to use a client-side calls in JavaScript/ JQuery (ECMAScript) or Silverlight,
or wrap it in an Azure-hosted WCF endpoint and call it using SharePoint
Online’s Business Connectivity Services.
3. Branding
·
Branding can be done directly via
SharePoint Designer or packaged using a Visual Studio project. You start with
an empty SharePoint project and add the relevant elements including a feature
receiver to apply branding during a feature activated event and retract it during
the feature deactivated event. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/Office365TrainingCourse_8V_4
·
The master page of a public facing
website cannot be changed using SharePoint Designer. Editing of the public
website cannot be done using SPD either. All customisations must be done using
the site designer tool.
·
Master pages for SharePoint online
are not set up for fixed width sites or layouts.