Device channels were one of the newly introduced features in SharePoint 2013. Device channel allows us to map the created device channel to a device, based on its user agent and target custom master pages specifically to the device. Thus, we can have one master page for iPhone, while a different one for Blackberry and so on. We can define a maximum of 10 device channels.
In this blog, let’s see how to define a device channel and associate specific master pages with the device channel. By default, master page settings allows us to define a site and a system master page.
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In order to create a device channel, click ‘Device Channels’ from ‘Look and feel’ section.
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This will open up the ‘Device Channels’ list. Click new item to create a new device channel.
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Specify the name, alias and description for the new device channel.
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Mention the user agent, which will be mapped against the device channel. Select ‘Active’ check box to activate the device channel.
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Click Save. This will list the new device channel in the Device Channels list.![]()
Heading over to the master page settings page, we will see a warning to disable ‘Mobile Browser View’ feature. Without disabling the mobile view feature, device channels will not work. Thus, go to the site features and disable it.
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Once it is disabled, we can see the new device channel in the ‘Site Master Page’ section. Here, we have assigned a specific Bootstrapped master page for use with iPhone. Hence, we have a site, system and a mobile device channel master page set for the site.![]()
Summary
Thus, we saw how to create a device channel and assign a specific master page to the created device channel.