Extending SharePoint by Adding Custom Actions

So, you want to add your custom items in the SharePoint menus or toolbars ? You can do so by adding your own Custom Action. Custom Action is a SharePoint Feature which makes your life easier if you want to customize your site.

Some examples of where you might want to add items may be:

1) In the Upload Drop Down menu in the Document Library

2) In the Edit Menu content block

If you do a web search, you will find that many people have achieved this by modifying a file called core.js. This is a JavaScript file used by SharePoint master page and has all the code in creating those menus.

But *it is not recommended* to change the SharePoint's core files.How do we do this then?

• Read about How to Add Actions to the User Interface in MSDN
• Look here for an excellent sample which adds an extra action item to the Edit Control Block.

If you do sometimes want to hide items in the Edit Control Block, MSDN again has a neat article on how to perform this.

My only advice when doing customisations to a SharePoint website would be, *not to modify the default SharePoint files* !

Here is my modified Edit Control Block for my Document Library :

I have hidden the Send To menu and added a new action item - Send Item for Review