Hide Open with windows explorer menu in list actions

Let’s go, I created and deploy this feature (http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms414790.aspx) :

Feature.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<Feature Id="GUID"
    Title="Hide open in explorer action"
    Description="Hide open in explorer action"
    Version="1.0.0.0"
    Scope="Site"
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">
  <ElementManifests>
    <ElementManifest Location="manifest.xml" />
  </ElementManifests>
</Feature>

Manifest.xml
<Elements xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">
  <HideCustomAction
      Id="HideOpenInExplorer"
      HideActionId="OpenInExplorer"
      GroupId="ActionsMenu"
      Location="Microsoft.SharePoint.StandardMenu" />
</Elements>

Unfortunately this method does not work. Only the actions listing on http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb802730.aspx could be hidden with the HideCustomAction element.


The template override method

After some searching, I found another solution: Override the ToolbarActionsMenu template

Simply copy the defaultTemplate.ascx file in the “<12Hive>\TEMPLATE\CONTROLTEMPLATES” directory and rename it, for example myDefaultTemplate.ascx.
In this file remove all the Sharepoint:RenderingTemplate excepts the Sharepoint:RenderingTemplate ID=”ToolbarActionMenu”

In ToolbarActionMenu section remove : SharePoint:MenuItemTemplate ID=”OpenInExplorer”. The file must look like this :

<%@ Control Language="C#"   AutoEventWireup="false" %>
<%@Assembly Name="Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" %>
<%@Register TagPrefix="SharePoint" Assembly="Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls"%>
<%@Register TagPrefix="SPHttpUtility" Assembly="Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint.Utilities"%>
<%@ Register TagPrefix="wssuc" TagName="ToolBar" src="~/_controltemplates/ToolBar.ascx" %>
<%@ Register TagPrefix="wssuc" TagName="ToolBarButton" src="~/_controltemplates/ToolBarButton.ascx" %>

<SharePoint:RenderingTemplate ID="ToolbarActionsMenu" runat="server">
 <Template>
  <SharePoint:FeatureMenuTemplate runat="server"
   FeatureScope="Site"
   Location="Microsoft.SharePoint.StandardMenu"
   GroupId="ActionsMenu"
   UseShortId="true"
   >
   <SharePoint:MenuItemTemplate
    ID="EditInGridButton"
    ImageUrl="/_layouts/images/menudatasheet.gif"
    PermissionsString="UseRemoteAPIs"
    MenuGroupId="200"
    Sequence="200"
    UseShortId="true"
    runat="server"/>
    This section must be delete
   <SharePoint:MenuItemTemplate
    ID="OpenInExplorer"
    Text="<%$Resources:wss,ToolBarMenuItemOpenInExplorer%>"
    Description="<%$Resources:wss,ToolBarMenuItemOpenInExplorerDescription%>"
    PermissionsString="UseClientIntegration"
    PermissionContext="CurrentList"
    MenuGroupId="200"
    Sequence="300"
    UseShortId="true"
    runat="server"/>   <SharePoint:MenuItemTemplate
    ID="ChangeOrder"
    Text="<%$Resources:wss,ToolBarMenuItemChangeOrder%>"
    Description="<%$Resources:wss,ToolBarMenuItemChangeOrderDescription%>"
    MenuGroupId="200"
    Sequence="400"
    UseShortId="true"
    runat="server"/>
   <SharePoint:MenuItemTemplate
    ID="ShowInStdViewButton"
    Text="<%$Resources:wss,ToolBarMenuItemShowInStdView%>"
    Description="<%$Resources:wss,ToolBarMenuItemShowInStdViewDescription%>"
    MenuGroupId="300"
    Sequence="100"
    UseShortId="true"
    runat="server"/>
   <SharePoint:MenuItemTemplate
    ID="NewRowButton"
    Text="<%$Resources:wss,ToolBarMenuItemNewRow%>"
    Description="<%$Resources:wss,ToolBarMenuItemNewRowDescription%>"
    PermissionsString="AddListItems"
    PermissionContext="CurrentList"
    MenuGroupId="300"
    Sequence="200"
    UseShortId="true"
    runat="server"/>
   <SharePoint:MenuItemTemplate
    ID="TaskPaneButton"
    Text="<%$Resources:wss,ToolBarMenuItemTaskPane%>"
    Description="<%$Resources:wss,ToolBarMenuItemTaskPaneDescription%>"
    MenuGroupId="300"
    Sequence="300"
    UseShortId="true"
    runat="server"/>
   <SharePoint:MenuItemTemplate
    ID="TotalsButton"
    Text="<%$Resources:wss,ToolBarMenuItemTotals%>"
    Description="<%$Resources:wss,ToolBarMenuItemTotalsDescription%>"
    MenuGroupId="300"
    Sequence="400"
    UseShortId="true"
    runat="server"/>
   <SharePoint:MenuItemTemplate
    ID="RefreshDataButton"
    Text="<%$Resources:wss,ToolBarMenuItemRefreshData%>"
    Description="<%$Resources:wss,ToolBarMenuItemRefreshDataDescription%>"
    MenuGroupId="300"
    Sequence="500"
    UseShortId="true"
    runat="server"/>
   <SharePoint:MenuItemTemplate
    ID="OfflineButton"
    Description="<%$Resources:wss,ToolBarWorkOfflineOutlookDescription%>"
    PermissionsString="UseClientIntegration"
    PermissionContext="CurrentList"
    MenuGroupId="400"
    Sequence="100"
    ImageUrl="/_layouts/images/MenuPIM.gif"
    UseShortId="true"
    runat="server"/>
   <SharePoint:MenuItemTemplate
    ID="ExportToSpreadsheet"
    Text="<%$Resources:wss,ToolBarMenuItemExportToSpreadsheet%>"
    Description="<%$Resources:wss,ToolBarMenuItemExportToSpreadsheetDescription%>"
    PermissionsString="UseClientIntegration"
    PermissionContext="CurrentList"
    MenuGroupId="400"
    Sequence="200"
    ImageUrl="/_layouts/images/MenuSpreadsheet.gif"
    UseShortId="true"
    runat="server"/>
   <SharePoint:MenuItemTemplate
    ID="ExportToDatabase"
    PermissionsString="UseClientIntegration"
    PermissionContext="CurrentList"
    MenuGroupId="400"
    Sequence="300"
    ImageUrl="/_layouts/images/MenuDatabase.gif"
    UseShortId="true"
    runat="server"/>
   <SharePoint:MenuItemTemplate
    ID="DiagramButton"
    Description="<%$Resources:wss,ToolBarCreateDiagramDescription%>"
    PermissionsString="UseClientIntegration"
    PermissionContext="CurrentList"
    MenuGroupId="400"
    Sequence="500"
    UseShortId="true"
    runat="server"/>
   <SharePoint:MenuItemTemplate
    ID="ViewRSS"
    Text="<%$Resources:wss,ToolBarMenuItemViewRSSFeed%>"
    Description="<%$Resources:wss,ToolBarMenuItemViewRSSFeedDescription%>"
    MenuGroupId="500"
    Sequence="400"
    ImageUrl="/_layouts/images/MenuRSS.gif"
    UseShortId="true"
    runat="server"/>
   <SharePoint:MenuItemTemplate
    ID="SubscribeButton"
    Text="<%$Resources:wss,ToolBarMenuItemAlertMe%>"
    Description="<%$Resources:wss,ToolBarMenuItemAlertMeDescription%>"
    PermissionsString="CreateAlerts"
    PermissionContext="CurrentList"
    PermissionMode="Any"
    MenuGroupId="500"
    Sequence="500"
    ImageUrl="/_layouts/images/MenuAlert.gif"
    UseShortId="true"
    runat="server"/>
   <SharePoint:MenuItemTemplate
    ID="AddToMyLinksButton"
    Text="<%$Resources:wss,ToolBarMenuItemAddToMyLinks%>"
    MenuGroupId="500"
    Sequence="600"
    UseShortId="true"
    runat="server"/>
  </SharePoint:FeatureMenuTemplate>
 </Template>
</SharePoint:RenderingTemplate>

Finally, restart IIS.

It’s work. But I can use this method, because all the site collections on the server farm are affected and I need to hide this section for a specific site collection.


The js method
Since I didn’t found any solution, I decided to implement my custom solution. Then I tried to remove this menu with a custom JavaScript. After analyzing the Html source of the list web page, the open in explorer menu is render by a custom IE HTML Tag:
<ie:menuitem id="zz22_OpenInExplorer" type="option" …………… menuGroupId="200"></ie:menuitem>

So I wrote a custom JavaScript code to hide this element:

customBranding.js
function HideOpenInExplorer()
{
    var viewInExplorer = document.getElementById("zz22_OpenInExplorer");
    if (viewInExplorer != null)
    {
        if (viewInExplorer.parentNode != null)
         viewInExplorer.parentNode.removeChild(viewInExplorer);
    }
}

Then I created a custom master page to apply this JavaScript. I copied the default.master and rename to myCustomBranding.master. In the head section I added
<SharePoint:ScriptLink ID="ScriptLink2" language="javascript" name=" customBranding.js" runat="server" />

And at the bottom of the file, I call my custom js function: 

 <script language="javascript">
     HideOpenInExplorer ();
 </script>

</BODY>
</HTML>

Then I created a solution (a wsp file), to deploy my js file and deploy my custom master page in master gallery. Then I used the excellent master page picker (www.codeplex.com/SPMasterPicker) to change the master page on my WSS site.

It’s works!