SharePoint 2010 – Search Center Controls Missing

Further to the previous post related to “styling for SharePoint 2010”, I was having an issue with the “SEARCH” page. 

Even though I’d updated the Master Page to be 2010 aware (ribbon, etc), I was getting the Search Center home page showing as ‘blank’ in the middle – and the search controls were in the flyout (when clicking the ribbon button for “Location”) :

This page is within the ‘Search Center’ site :

• Page Name : default.aspx
• Page Layout : SearchMain.aspx

I looked into a working example (changed the Master Page to be v4.master) – as well as tried the old “upgraded2007” Master Page – and found that the culprit was actually a placeholder control in the Page Layout : PlaceHolderTitleBreadcrumb

Here’s the reason why (as far as I can tell) :

The Page Layout (SearchMain) puts the search controls into the ‘breadcrumb’ placeholder – this would normally be shown just underneath the top navigation (for a 2007 implementation).  

When moving to 2010, the same placeholder (PlaceHolderTitleBreadcrumb) is thus located within the ribbon, in the Master Page – meaning that the Page Layout is essentially injecting these controls into the ribbon.

My actions to resolve this were as follows :

• Change the PlaceHolder name in the Page Layout (SearchMain.aspx) –> PlaceHolderSearchControls
• Within the Master Page, include a placeholder within the ‘main’ area (for PlaceHolderSearchControls)

This is now working as expected.   See below…>

And – the flyout for “Location” is working too – this was broken :

So – if you’re having troubles with SEARCH, just check the PlaceHolders in use – and where they’re slotted into the Master Page.