Notes on software and the ideas behind it

Find the meaning
behind the code.

I’m Fred Yang. I write about software—how it works, why it behaves the way it does, and the ideas that make code easier to reason about.

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Working notes / 2026

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Architecture, reactivity, and the hidden relationships that shape frontend systems.

SharePoint

Global Site Definition

The Global site definition is located at the 12\TEMPLATES\GLOBAL path. It contains the standard default.master page template along with instructions to provision an instance of default.master page into the Master Page gallery of every...
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SharePoint

Site Definition vs Site Template

Site definition are deployed within 12\template\sitetemplates directory and are referenced in 12\template\1033\xml\webtemp*.xml files Wss offer site definitions to provide users with createable site templates out of the box. A site definition named sts prvoides...
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SharePoint

Changing a built-in site definitions and templates

One of the challenges in WSS 2.0 was adding new functionality to existing site definitions and templates. This was because the official guidance from Microsoft was to never edit an existing site definition or...
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SharePoint

Feature used to activate other feature

Sometime you can use a feature simply to activate other features.
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SharePoint

When to make a feature hidden

When creating a Feature that contains a Feature receiver performing certain tasks that require special permissions, consider making it a hidden Feature, thereby requiring activation via STSADM.EXE. Why? When a Feature is activated from...
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