SharePoint Programming

Many changes that have been introduced for the pages in _layouts directory (also known as Application pages) in SharePoint 2010. Unlike SharePoint 2007 the pages in the _layouts directory now use dynamic master page based on what site they are accessed from. This will give your users a rich design look and they will not feel as if they got kicked out of your SharePoint site. There are many other customizations that you need to keep in mind.

Some of the changes in the Application Pages are :

1. They uses DynamicMasterPageFile tag to specify the master page that it would use.

2. The Code behind file for the Application Pages now derive from "Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls.LayoutsPagebase". If you do not have a code behind you will inhertit the .aspx page from this class.

3. Some of the Application Pages like error,accessdenied, login etc .. which uses simple.master are not customizable because of the security reasons.
The list of these pages are :

1. accessdenied Page
2. confirmation page
3. error page
4. Login page
5. reqacc page
6. signout
7. webdeleted

4. VS 2010 now has a "Application Page" type item that you can add in a empty sharepoint project to create a custom Application page for your site.