Strangely enough, one of the first things that seems to be sacrificed in a branding engagement is the SharePoint Ribbon bar.  For some reason it’s just too “SharePointy” and ends up being one of the first things to go, especially for publishing sites and intranets (At some point I have to wonder if Microsoft will just give in and bake a ribbon hiding feature into the site settings?).

That being said, it’s one of those incredibly useful components for those of us who have to maintain and edit a site.

A couple of years ago I wrote about How to Hide the Ribbon from Anonymous Users and Users without Edit Privileges.   This approach is of course still valid for 2013, but there are of course more than one way to accomplish this.

With SharePoint 2013 we have HTML master pages that are converted to SharePoint master pages.  So one “correct” way to handle this is that we need to hide the ribbon bar from users of the site who don’t have the rights to manage the content on the site.

If you open your HTML masterpage and search for “SID:02” you’ll find the ribbon snippet that we are looking for.  This is the control that we want to be able to hide for the users who don’t have the correct permissions to modify our publishing site – which can be defined by the SharePoint security mask of “ManageWeb”.   Since only those users who have to modify the site will need to see the ribbon, we just need to wrap the ribbon snippet inside a SPSecurityTrimmedControl that has it’s permissions set to “ManageWeb”.

Anything controls that are placed within this snippet will then be displayed only to the users who match that particular security mask.

<!–MS:<SharePoint:SPSecurityTrimmedControl runat=”server” Permissions=”ManageWeb”>—>

{Your controls go here}

<!–ME:</SharePoint:SPSecurityTrimmedControl>–>

For me, I’m generally using the ManageWeb for the permissions since I’m hiding the ribbon bar for all users except people who are editing and creating content.  However, there is a whole set of SPBasePermissions that can be used when defining what sort of permissions you are wrapping your SPSecurityTrimmedControl around:

Member nameDescription
EmptyMaskHas no permissions on the Web site. Not available through the user interface.
ViewListItemsView items in lists, documents in document libraries, and view Web discussion comments.
AddListItemsAdd items to lists, add documents to document libraries, and add Web discussion comments.
EditListItemsEdit items in lists, edit documents in document libraries, edit Web discussion comments in documents, and customize Web Part Pages in document libraries.
DeleteListItemsDelete items from a list, documents from a document library, and Web discussion comments in documents.
ApproveItemsApprove a minor version of a list item or document.
OpenItemsView the source of documents with server-side file handlers.
ViewVersionsView past versions of a list item or document.
DeleteVersionsDelete past versions of a list item or document.
CancelCheckoutDiscard or check in a document which is checked out to another user.
ManagePersonalViewsCreate, change, and delete personal views of lists.
ManageListsCreate and delete lists, add or remove columns in a list, and add or remove public views of a list.
ViewFormPagesView forms, views, and application pages, and enumerate lists.
AnonymousSearchAccessListMake content of a list or document library retrieveable for anonymous users through SharePoint search. The list permissions in the site do not change.
OpenAllow users to open a Web site, list, or folder to access items inside that container.
ViewPagesView pages in a Web site.
AddAndCustomizePagesAdd, change, or delete HTML pages or Web Part Pages, and edit the Web site using a SharePoint Foundation–compatible editor.
ApplyThemeAndBorderApply a theme or borders to the entire Web site.
ApplyStyleSheetsApply a style sheet (.css file) to the Web site.
ViewUsageDataView reports on Web site usage.
CreateSSCSiteCreate a Web site using Self-Service Site Creation.
ManageSubwebsCreate subsites such as team sites, Meeting Workspace sites, and Document Workspace sites.
CreateGroupsCreate a group of users that can be used anywhere within the site collection.
ManagePermissionsCreate and change permission levels on the Web site and assign permissions to users and groups.
BrowseDirectoriesEnumerate files and folders in a Web site using Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007 and WebDAV interfaces.
BrowseUserInfoView information about users of the Web site.
AddDelPrivateWebPartsAdd or remove personal Web Parts on a Web Part Page.
UpdatePersonalWebPartsUpdate Web Parts to display personalized information.
ManageWebGrant the ability to perform all administration tasks for the Web site as well as manage content. Activate, deactivate, or edit properties of Web site scoped Features through the object model or through the user interface (UI). When granted on the root Web site of a site collection, activate, deactivate, or edit properties of site collection scoped Features through the object model. To browse to the Site Collection Features page and activate or deactivate site collection scoped Features through the UI, you must be a site collection administrator.
AnonymousSearchAccessWebListsContent of lists and document libraries in the Web site will be retrieveable for anonymous users through SharePoint search if the list or document library has AnonymousSearchAccessList set.
UseClientIntegrationUse features that launch client applications; otherwise, users must work on documents locally and upload changes.
UseRemoteAPIsUse SOAP, WebDAV, or Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007 interfaces to access the Web site.
ManageAlertsManage alerts for all users of the Web site.
CreateAlertsCreate e-mail alerts.
EditMyUserInfoAllows a user to change his or her user information, such as adding a picture.
EnumeratePermissionsEnumerate permissions on the Web site, list, folder, document, or list item.
FullMaskHas all permissions on the Web site. Not available through the user interface.

And now when the user accesses the page, unless their permissions match the ManageWeb permission mask they will no longer see the “SharePointy” ribbon bar or be able to access it’s functionality.