How to dynamically switch PageLayout and MasterPage of SharePoint Publishing page?

Question

To improve both the editing and displaying experience of SharePoint WCM Publishing pages I would like to be able to switch to a special set of Masterpage/PageLayout when in edit

Answer 1

My text was too long for the comment box, so I answer on Aiden as if it is an answer, but my question remains!

Hi Aidan, I see SharePoint as a platform where you can build your solutions on. And I think that the WCM solution built by Microsoft on top of the platform is weak. I know my way is not directly the SharePoint standard way, but the standard way just does not work. Combining edit and display mode leads to (pick your choice): - standard SharePoint publishing sites that all look alike but work ok in edit mode - a site that is very editable but very basic in its appearance - a great looking site in display mode, that is almost impossible to edit We have a lot of clashes between the stylesheets needed in display mode with the MOSS WCM stylesheet. We did write all kinds of compensating stylesheets to get it working, but it is a pain in the ***. It is a major flaw to inject code with styles in your page to make editing possible, this should have done completely outside the page you are editing. In an iframe for example which can be displayed as a floating window on top of the page you are editing. But this is not the case. And then I didn't even mention the issues you have when you have tabs or an accordion control on your page.

We are targeting really interactive web 2.0 sites where a lot of content management must be done. Getting editing mode right in the SharePoint way just does not work.

An optimal editing experience is key. So why not use the masterpage and pagelayout optimized for editing so all editable elements are reachable in a clear and consistent way. But then you still need the display mode. This could be done using a complete separate site that just uses the data produced in SharePoint. This can be an ASP.NET site, or if you want full control over the html MVC could be used. I don't at to go that way, because but has a lot of implications in navigation, security, reuse of controls, use of web parts etc.

I think you get best of both worlds if a masterpage/pagelayout is used that is optimized for editing, and another couple of masterpage/pagelayout is used for display only with a minimal set of code in the pagelayout.

So.. keep the answers coming please!