Site Definitions and Web Templates

Site definition configurations and Web templates are defined at the site collection level and saved or exported at the website level. Web templates are defined in Elements.xml files compressed into .WSP solution files in the SharePoint Foundation database. Site definitions are containers for one or more site definition configurations and are expressed in CAML by Template elements in WebTemp*.xml files in the TEMPLATE\LCID\XML directory (LCID is the numeric ID of your language/culture such as 1033 for English). Details of the site definition configuration are stored in one of the Configuration XML elements in the Onet.xml file in the TEMPLATE\SiteTemplates\site_type\XML directory, where site_type is STS, SGS, MPS, BLOG, WIKI, CENTRALADMIN, TENANTADMIN, or the name of a custom site definition.

Site Definition Configurations and Custom Web Templates

SPWebTemplate represents either a site definition configuration or a Web template that is used to create SharePoint sites, while the derived class SPCustomWebTemplate always represents a custom Web template. SPWebTemplate.IsCustomTemplate property tells if this is a custom Web template or not.

SPSite.GetCustomWebTemplates(LCID) method returns Web templates created through the UI or the object model, while SPSite.GetWebTemplates(LCID) method returns site definition configurations in the site collection. SPWeb.GetAvailableWebTemplates(LCID) method returns web templates that are available for creating subsites beneath the website.

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Solution Exporters

SPWeb.SaveAsTemplate(…) method saves the website as a .WSP site template solution. The solution can be later retrieved as a SPUserSolution:

using (SPSite site = new SPSite("http://localhost"))
using (SPWeb web = site.RootWeb) {
   web.SaveAsTemplate("Template Name", "Template Title", "Template Description", false);
   SPUserSolution solution = site.Solutions.Cast()
      .FirstOrDefault(s => s.Name.StartsWith("Template Name"));
}

SPSolutionExporter utility class provides static methods to:

1. Export a Web site as a Web template either as a WSP solution file (ExportWeb) that you can import into Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 for further modification, or in the Solution Gallery (ExportWebToGallery). ExportMode enumeration specifies how much of the Web site to export: FullPortability or FullReuse if you intend to use the Web template within the same site collection as the exported Web site.
2. Export a custom workflow as a workflow template either as a WSP solution file (ExportWorkFlowTemplate) or as a solution in a document library (ExportWorkFlowToList).

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The following code sequence saves a website as a Web template solution in a new “MySite.WSP” solution file in the application directory. We use ExportMode.FullPortability to include features that the site depends upon. Last parameter is false to not include the content:

using (SPSite site = new SPSite("http://localhost"))
   using (SPWeb web = site.RootWeb)
      SPSolutionExporter.ExportWeb(web,
         SPSolutionExporter.PathCombine(AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory, "MySite.wsp"),
         "Template Title", "Template Description",
         SPSolutionExporter.ExportMode.FullPortability, false);