A web part library is a central warehouse of web parts that you can use to locate a specific web part when you are creating a web part page. You can access web part libraries at your site by clicking either Browse or Search from the Add Web Parts menu on either the Modify Shared Page menu or the Modify My Page menu.
Once you locate the web part you want, you typically drag it to your web part page. Depending on how your site administrator has configured your site, there can be up to three different web part libraries available:
• Site Library: Web parts available to a top-level Windows SharePoint Services web site.
• Virtual Server Library: This library contains web parts available to all sites and sub-sites within a virtual server.
• Online Library: By default, the Online Library contains an additional set of web parts available from Microsoft. However, a site administrator can redirect the online library to a different site.
This topic discusses how to mange a Site Library. For more information on managing Virtual Server or Online libraries, please refer to the Windows SharePoint Services or SharePoint Portal Server online help.
The Site Web Part Gallery is often the most central web part gallery for your work group. This web part gallery is typically managed by your server administrator, who decides which web parts are available and safe for your site. By default, the gallery name is the name of your site. For example, if your site is called "Boaters and Sailors," then the web part gallery name is “Boaters and Sailors Gallery.” There is only one Site Web Part Gallery for each site and any sub-sites under it.
Uploading a New Web Part to the Site Library
You can add a web part to the Site Library even if it has not been installed in the Virtual Server Library. To do this via the web browser interface, follow these steps:
1. On a top-level Web site, click Site Settings.
2. Under Administration, click Go to Site Administration.
3. Under Site Collection Galleries, click Manage Web Part gallery.
4. On the Web Part Gallery page, click Upload Web Part.
5. In the Name box, type the name of the web part (including the full path to the .dwp file), or click Browse to locate the web part.
6. If you have several web parts that you want to upload at once, click Upload Multiple Files and select the web parts to upload.
7. In the Group box, select a group or type a group name for the web part under Specify your own value.
8. Click Save and Close.
Adding a Deployed Web Part to the Site Library
To make an existing web part available in the site library, follow these steps:
NOTE: By “existing web part,” we mean web parts that have already been deployed in the Virtual Server Library on the server running Windows SharePoint Services.
1. On a top-level Web site, click Site Settings.
2. Under Administration, click Go to Site Administration.
3. Under Site Collection Galleries, click Manage Web Part Gallery.
4. On the Web Part Gallery page, click New Web Part.
5. Select the check box next to the web parts that you want to include in the gallery and then click Populate Gallery.
Removing a Web Part from the Site Library
You can remove a web part from the gallery if you want to make it unavailable to users. If a user has already used a web part in the site and you delete the web part from the site gallery, the web part will remain on the web part page and will still work. However, if an administrator removes the web part assembly that contains the web part from the server, or marks the assembly as unsafe in the Web.config file for the server, the web part will no longer run and the user will see an error message.
To remove a web part, follow these steps:
1. On a top-level web site, click Site Settings.
2. Under Administration, click Go to Site Administration.
3. Under Site Collection Galleries, click Manage Web Part Gallery.
4. On the Web Part Gallery page, next to the web part that you want to remove, click the Edit icon.
5. On the Web Part Gallery: Web Part Name page, click Delete.
6. Click OK to delete the web part.