Branding SharePoint 2013 My Sites with Feature Stapling

Hi,

Here is a quick guide for branding SharePoint 2013 My Sites using Feature Stapling.

Create a new Sharepoint Solution.

Select "Farm solution" then provide the correct URL to your MySite Host (in my case I'm using "/my") then click Finish.

Step 1 : Provisioning the custom masterpage

Add a new Module to the projet.

As a starting point just copy the original my sites masterpage from "\15\TEMPLATE\FEATURES\MySiteMaster\mysite15.master" into the project and rename it "CustomMySite.master" and integrate your HTML/CSS design to it. EDIT : if you are adding a new file (css, png, jpg,...) that you are referencing in the master consider using the LAYOUTS folder to keep url reference simple. Alternatively you can use a provisioning feature to store it in a library instance on the site but this method can be unsafe as the url may be inconsistent and therefore will require to unghost the masterpage to edit the html.

Edit the Elements.xml and copy this:

<Elements xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">
  <Module Name="ML_MasterPages" List="116" Url="_catalogs/masterpage" Path="ML_MasterPages" RootWebOnly="TRUE">
    <File Url="CustomMySite.master" Type="GhostableInLibrary" />
  </Module>
</Elements>

You'll have to add the module to the feature you will create in step 2.

Step 2 : Applying the custom masterpage to the site
We'll use an event receiver to apply the new master.

Add a new Feature with scope "Site" and name it "Site_ApplyCustomMasterPage";

Add an event receiver to the feature.

Add the following code:

namespace ClientName.MySitesBranding.Features.Site_ApplyCustomMasterPage
{
    using Microsoft.SharePoint;
    using Microsoft.SharePoint.Utilities;
    using System;
    using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
    using System.Security.Permissions;

    [Guid("{your Guid}")]
    public class Site_ApplyCustomMasterPageEventReceiver : SPFeatureReceiver
    {
        public override void FeatureActivated(SPFeatureReceiverProperties properties)
        {
            SPSite siteCollection = (SPSite)properties.Feature.Parent;
            string masterUrl = SPUrlUtility.CombineUrl(siteCollection.ServerRelativeUrl, "_catalogs/masterpage/CustomMySite.master");

            foreach (SPWeb web in siteCollection.AllWebs)
            {
                try
                {
                    web.MasterUrl = masterUrl;
                    web.CustomMasterUrl = masterUrl;
                    web.Update();
                }
                catch
                {
                    if (web != null)
                        web.Dispose();

                    throw;
                }

                if (web != null)
                    web.Dispose();
            }
        }

        public override void FeatureDeactivating(SPFeatureReceiverProperties properties)
        {
            SPSite siteCollection = (SPSite)properties.Feature.Parent;
            string masterUrl = SPUrlUtility.CombineUrl(siteCollection.ServerRelativeUrl, "_catalogs/masterpage/mysite15.master");

            foreach (SPWeb web in siteCollection.AllWebs)
            {
                try
                {
                    web.MasterUrl = masterUrl;
                    web.CustomMasterUrl = masterUrl;
                    web.Update();
                }
                catch
                {
                    if (web != null)
                        web.Dispose();

                    throw;
                }

                if (web != null)
                    web.Dispose();
            }
        }
    }
}

Step 3 : Stapling the "apply mastepage" feature to the personal site template
This action will hook your feature to any new personal site that will be created after staple is effective. If you need to apply the branding to existing personal write a PowerShell script that activates the feature for each "/my/personal/xxx" :)
NOTE : As the MySiteHost (the "/my" root url) will usually already exist on the customer's target platform when they create their "User Profile Application Service" you'll have to manually activate the "ApplyCustomMasterPage" feature on that site collection (or think PowerShell if needed)

Create a new Feature with scope "Farm" and name it "Farm_MySiteStapler".

Then create a new empty Element name it "ML_ApplyCustomMasterPageStapler".

Add the followin code

<Elements xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">
  <FeatureSiteTemplateAssociation Id="{the Guid of the Site_ApplyCustomMasterPage feature}" TemplateName="SPSPERS#2" />
</Elements>

Note that in SharePoint 2013 the Template to staple is "SPSPERS#2" whereas in SharePoint 2010 you had to staple "SPSPERS#0".

Add the module to the Stapler feature.

Your projet should look like this:

 At this point the branding will actually work for the root sites, if you wish to apply template to any subsite that will be created (such as Blogs,...) you need to follow step 4 to hook the WebProvisioned event.

Step 4 : Applying the masterpage to any subsite created under the my site

Add a new Event receiver "ER_MySite_ElementsWebProvisioned".

Selected the web event "a site was provisioned".

Then enter the following code:

namespace ClientName.MySitesBranding.Receivers.ER_MySite_ElementsWebProvisioned
{
    using System;
    using Microsoft.SharePoint;

    public class ER_MySite_ElementsWebProvisioned : SPWebEventReceiver
    {
        public override void WebProvisioned(SPWebEventProperties properties)
        {
            SPWeb web = properties.Web;
            SPWeb rootWeb = web.Site.RootWeb;
            web.MasterUrl = rootWeb.MasterUrl;
            web.CustomMasterUrl = rootWeb.CustomMasterUrl;
            web.Update();
        }
    }
}

Now add the Event receiver to the "Site_ApplyCustomMasterPage" feature.

Your project should look like this:

Deploy your solution, activate the Farm feature and connect with a new user to his MySite check that the new master is applied. (alternative is to delete your current MySite and connect to the site to force automatic re-creation)
Your done :)

Edit: These are clues on how to solve common problems
* "The newsfeed and about me pages are styled, but looking at the urls these are all default screens and don't belong the personal mysites of individuals. Pages like blogs and apps have /personal/*username*/ in the url and these are not being properly styled as part 4 should be doing."
=> This means that the stapler feature is not working (step 3). Check the "Farm_MySiteStapler" feature, it should be in charge of activating the "Site_ApplyCustomMasterPage" feature for each new personal site created. If the personal site already exists you should run a PowerShell activation for each of them as they didn't initialised with the stapled feature.
Try Mat's code it should do the trick (Thx Mat):

Get-SPSite http://{your-server-name}/my/personal/* | ForEach { $_.URL } | ForEach { Enable-SPFeature -Identity {your-solution-name}_Site_ApplyCustomMasterPage -URL $_ }

* "My custom masterpage gets applied to the About me and the Newsfeed but not the blog, tasks and apps pages."
=>This means the event receiver "ER_MySite_ElementsWebProvisioned" is not working. Check that the ER is in your feature. You can use SharePoint Manager (http://spm.codeplex.com/) to see the EventReceivers collection of the SPSite object or through PowerShell

$site = Get-SPSite http://mydevsite/my/personal/djavanroa
$site.EventReceivers

Our custom ER should be listed.