Manage and share Web Parts and Web Part Pages

This article is intended for site owners and administrators. It provides an overview of how to configure and manage Web Part galleries and Web Part Pages.

Overview of Web Part galleries

A Web Part gallery is a central warehouse of Web Parts where you can locate a specific Web Part when you are creating a Web Part Page. Depending on how your site is configured, up to four different Web Part galleries may be available. If you have the appropriate permissions, you can access the available Web Part galleries on your site by clicking either Browse or Search in the tool pane. After you locate the Web Part that you want, you typically drag it to your Web Part Page.

Closed Web Parts

The Closed Web Parts gallery is a collection of Web Parts that are available to a specific Web Part Page but not visible on the page, whether you are browsing through or designing the page. Each Web Part Page has its own Closed Web Parts gallery. Through this gallery, a Web Part Page author can, for example, create a collection of recommended Web Parts for users to add to the Web Part Page.

The Closed Web Parts gallery also contains Web Parts that at one time were on the page but have since been closed by you or another user (on the Web Part menu , click Close, or click Close button ). Web Parts can be closed by you when you personalize the Web Part Page in a personal view or by the Web Part Page author who created the page for all users in a shared view.

Closing a Web Part removes the Web Part from the Web Part Page and moves it to the Closed Web Parts gallery. A closed Web Part (as opposed to a deleted Web Part) is still technically on the Web Part Page but is not available because its IsIncluded property is set to False. However, you can add it back to the Web Part Page at any time, if you have the appropriate permission.

Site Name Gallery

The Site Name Gallery is often the central Web Part gallery for your work group. This Web Part gallery is typically managed by your server administrator, who decides which Web Parts are available and safe for your site. The name of this gallery is based on the title of your site. For example, if your site is named Margie's Travel, the site gallery is called Margie's Travel Gallery. There is only one Site Name Gallery for each site collection and any subsites under it.

Server Gallery

If your enterprise is large, has many sites, and has decided to conveniently install the same set of Web Parts on many sites, these Web Parts may be stored in the Server Gallery.

You can deploy Web Parts in a Server Gallery by developing a Web Part Package file (.cab). For more information about deploying Web Parts on servers, see the Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SDK, which is available from the Windows SharePoint Services Developer Center on MSDN.

Note: Additional galleries may be available.

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Manage the Web Part Gallery

You can use a gallery of Web Parts to manage the Web Parts that are available to your site and all sites under it. You can add and upload new Web Parts and change certain Web Part properties in the Web Part Gallery. Web Parts added to the gallery are listed under the Site Name Gallery on the tool pane.

Note: To manage the Web Part Gallery, you must be a site collection administrator or you must have the Full Control permission level on the site, and you must be at the root site of the site collection. If you cannot access the Site Settings menu, or if you do not see a link for Web Parts listed on the Site Settings page, contact your site collection administrator for assistance.

On the Site Actions menu , click Site Settings.

Note: On a site for which the Site Actions menu is customized, point to Site Settings, and then click the settings that you want to view.

In the Galleries column, click Web Parts.
Do one of the following:
- To add new Web Parts to the gallery, click New.
- To upload a Web Part by using a .dwp or .webpart file, click Upload.
- To edit the properties for a specific Web Part, click the Edit button next to the name of the Web Part.

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Add a Web Part to a custom group

You can put Web Parts into custom groups that you specify. The custom group is listed under the All Web Parts section of the Add Web Parts dialog box when you click Add a Web Part while the page is in edit mode.

Note: Each Web Part can belong only to a single group.

On the Site Actions menu , click Site Settings.

Note: On a site for which the Site Actions menu is customized, point to Site Settings, and then click the settings that you want to view.

In the Galleries column, click Web Parts.
Click the Edit button for the Web Part that you want to edit.
In the Group section, do one of the following:
- To add the Web Part to an existing group, select the group name.
- To add the Web Part to a new group, click Specify your own value. In the text box, type the name of the new group.
Click OK. The Web Part will be listed under the group name in the All Web Parts section of the Add Web Parts dialog box.

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Import and export Web Parts

Web Parts are designed to be easy to export and import. When you personalize a Web Part or when a site owner makes a change to a Web Part Page for all users, you or the site owner may want to share it with other users at your site or even another site. For example:

You can export the Web Part from a Web Part Page and then share the Web Part description file (.dwp or .webpart) with other users. Other users can then import the Web Part to a Web Part Page. Alternatively, a site owner can upload the Web Part directly to a Web Part gallery so that all users can access it.
A site owner can export a Web Part from a Web Part gallery and then save the file to a public location. Other users can then import the Web Part to a Web Part Page. Or another site owner can upload the Web Part description file to another site Web Part Gallery.

In all cases, it is important to ensure that the Web Part assembly file is also installed on the new site, so that the new Web Part that you created can run on the new site.

Note: You cannot export a List View Web Part. Lists are specific to a site and cannot be transported to other sites in the same way as other Web Parts. If you want to move list data from one site to another, you can export the list data from one site and then import the data to a list on the other site. When you create a new list on the other site, a new List View Web Part is created and added to the Site Name Gallery.

Export a Web Part

You can export a Web Part and share it with other users. Remember that List View Web Parts cannot be exported. Web Parts that can be exported include the following: Content Editor Web Part, Form Web Part, Page Viewer Web Part, XML Web Part, and Image Web Part.

On the Site Actions menu , click Edit Page.
Click the Web Part menu of the Web Part that you want to edit, and then click Export.
In the File Download dialog box, click Save.
Select a location to which you want to save the Web Part file.
If you want the file to have a different name, type the name in the File name box.
Click Save.

Import a Web Part

If you exported a Web Part from another page or site or if someone sends you a Web Part file, you can import the Web Part for use on your Web Part Page.

Note: Importing a Web Part makes it available only to the Web Part Page to which it is imported, not to other pages on the site. For information about uploading Web Parts to the server for use by multiple sites, see the Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 SDK, which is available from the Windows SharePoint Services Developer Center on MSDN.

On the Site Actions menu , click Edit Page.
In the Web Part zone that you want to add the Web Part to, click Add a Web Part.
Click Advanced Web Part gallery and options to display the tool pane.
At the top of the tool pane, click the arrow, and then click Import.
Click Browse.
Locate the Web Part file that you want to import, and then click Open.
Click Upload.
Select the Web Part zone that you want to add the Web Part to, and then click Add.

Tip: You can also drag the Web Part to the location where you want it on the Web Part Page.

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Manage Web Part Page permissions

You can manage permissions to individual Web Part Pages that you create. By changing the permissions to a Web Part Page, you can restrict how users interact with the page, for example, which users can edit the page and which users can only read the page.

Open the document library that contains the Web Part Page.
Point to the name of the Web Part Page, click the arrow that appears, and then click Manage Permissions.
Do one of the following:
- If the document inherits permissions from the parent folder or library and you want to continue inheriting permissions, on the Actions menu , click Manage Permissions of Parent.
- If the document inherits permissions from the parent folder or library and you want to use unique permissions for the document, on the Actions menu , click Edit Permissions.
- If the document uses unique permissions, proceed to step 5.
Click OK.
Select the check boxes for the users or groups that you want to edit.
On the Actions menu , click Edit User Permissions.
Select the check boxes for the permissions that you want to assign to the users or groups, and then click OK.

Note: By default, all new Web Part Pages inherit permissions from the parent folder or document library. The first time you edit the permissions for a Web Part Page, the page is changed to use the unique permissions that you specify. To restore the default permissions, click Inherit Permissions from Parent on the Permissions page. Find links to more information about managing permissions and permission inheritance in the See Also section.

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Thursday, December 1, 2016