Restaurant review site in SharePoint

Ive implemented url redirecting with MOSS using the HTTP module route. I documented the code I used and what parameters worked the best for me here;

http://scaredpanda.com/2008/08/url-rewriting-with-sharepoint-moss-2007/

Take a look and let me know if this helps you and if you have any questions.

Update: The link above is no longer valid, so here text from the page that I used for URL redirect.

After messing around for a little bit it, I came up with a good way to do it. When I was looking for examples on the web there were a lot of people saying that it couldnt be done. But in the end it actually didn’t take much to implement it. Here’s an HttpModule that I wrote to do the work.

The key pieces are the this.app.BeginRequest += new EventHandler(app_BeginRequest) which steps in front of the request and allows the module to get its redirect on.

And HttpContext.Current.RewritePath(redirect, false); will push the necessary headers n such forward so that the receiving .aspx page will understand how to correctly post back.

using System;
using System.Data;
using System.Data.SqlClient;
using System.Reflection;
using System.Collections;
using System.Text;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.Caching;
using System.Web.SessionState;
using System.Security.Cryptography;
using System.Configuration;
using System.Threading;
using System.IO;
using System.Security;
using System.Security.Principal;

namespace ScaredPanda
{
    public sealed class RewriteHttpModule : IHttpModule
    {
        HttpApplication app = null;
        ///
        /// Initializes the httpmodule
        ///
        public void Init(HttpApplication httpapp)
        {
            this.app = httpapp;
            this.app.BeginRequest += new EventHandler(app_BeginRequest);
        }

        public void app_BeginRequest(Object s, EventArgs e)
        {
            try
            {
        //determine if the income request is a url that we wish to rewrite.
        //in this case we are looking for an extension-less request
                string url = HttpContext.Current.Request.RawUrl.Trim();
                if (url != string.Empty
                    && url != "/"
                    && !url.EndsWith("/pages")
                    && !url.Contains(".aspx")
                    && url.IndexOf("/", 1) == -1)
                {
                    //this will build out the the new url that the user is redirected
                    //to ie pandas.aspx?pandaID=123
                    string redirect = ReturnRedirectUrl(url.Replace("/", ""));

            //if you do a HttpContext.Current.RewritePath without the 'false' parameter,
                    //the receiving sharepoint page will not handle post backs correctly
            //this is extremely useful in situations where users/admins will be doing a
                   //'site actions'  event
                   HttpContext.Current.RewritePath(redirect, false);
                }
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                //rubbish
            }
        }
    }
}

Check out the links I posted in the answer to this question for some links to SharePoint 101 tutorials online:

Restaurant review site in SharePoint

Given you're looking for 'branding' that will mean a custom Master Page. A Master Page is what will determine the overall layout of your SharePoint Web Application's pages. After creating a standard SharePoint application, connect with SharePoint Designer and play with that Master Page for a while until you get the hang of it.

In modifying or creating custom Master Pages, it is important to take note of all the controls (special ASP.NET server-side tags) in particular Content Place Holders; if you create your own Master Page and these are missing you're in a world of uninformative-error-message hurt.

You're going to want to create Lists ( http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepointtechnology/HA011199881033.aspx ) to represent 'News' and 'Products'... for Products you may even want to create a Content Type.

Once you create 'News' and 'Products' lists, to see those lists of Products you'll want to make views and use List View Web Parts ( http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/help/HA100240521033.aspx ) to include those views in Pages... but at the subject of Web Parts this is probably getting a bit overwhelming so I'll stop here. Comment me if you'd like more.

Addendum

"Is is possible to show only categories of a document library in home page and documents of the selected category in another page?"
-> Yes, and there are several ways. I'd suggest you look into either defining a View for that list which filters based on the category field, then add List View Web Parts to your home page, or writing custom XSLT for the Content Query Web Part, and then add it to your home page. Writing the XSLT for he Content Query web part is a little more difficult, but using the List View has it's short comings in being not-as-configurable, much like this guy is finding out: No-code solution for calendar view of SharePoint news items

"But how can i change a list item to show its details as a whole new page with its own web parts and theme?"
-> Here's the kicker; in SharePoint, each Site you create has a special list for Pages, and each Page actually belongs to a Content Type. So you can take any content type and turn it into a page; all you have to do is create a Page Layout for it, and add that Content Type to the list.

(So, an example. This is purely speculative; I'm not saying do this specifically, and you probably can't do it exactly as I describe it as I'm oversimplifying a little)

You create a Content Type 'Product', but you also decide 'Category' should be a Content Type too. So you create a content type for 'Catagory', and you give it a lookup column, which refers to items in the 'Product' List. You specify that the lookup can contain multiple items.

Now you want a Page where people can see a category, and all the Products which belong to it. You create a 'Page Layout' (an aspx file) for the 'Catagory' Content Type. In the Page Layout aspx file you can include web controls which render the Catagory's fields, such as 'title' and 'description' and you can probably even add one to render the 'Products' lookup field. (maybe you'll have to code it yourself)

I hope I haven't lost you.

Now that you've created a Page Layout for 'Catagory' you can add 'Catagory' to the Pages list/library and then create pages which represent Catagories, and when people edit those pages, they will also edit the Catagory.

More Addendum

If "Announcements" is a list, the web part you added was a list view web part, and so it just shows the contents of the list (which is independent of the product pages) You'll want o specify filters of your view. I dunno if you can specify unique filters on the web part... but you can try :)

You might want to consider looking into The Content Query Web Part.

I don't fully understand your second question, but I get the feeling the answer is yes... what do you mean by "view"? You gotta be careful with the lingo; do you mean the Page Layout? or the List View Web Part? or the List View? or the Master Page? ...