- I was doing some work for a client and was thinking…. Site definitions are great.
make sure to set the
/Project/ListTemplates/ListTemplate[Path]
attribute to the folder under the Lists directory where the original site definition
resides. For example, if referencing lists from the default Team Web Site site definition,
set the
/Project/ListTemplates/ListTemplate[Path]
attribute to
“STS”.
file, add a
/Project/ListTemplates/ListTemplate
element to the destination
file
Note:
for each
/Project/ListTemplates/ListTemplate
element. Each new ListTemplate element will take this form:<ListTemplate Name=”Cache” DisplayName=”Cache” Type=”10000″ BaseType=”0″ Unique=”TRUE”
Hidden=”TRUE” DontSaveInTemplate=”TRUE” SecurityBits=”11″ Description=”List of meetings
attached to the workspace.” Image=”/_layouts/images/itgen.gif”></ListTemplate>I will refer to attributes from the
/Web/UserLists/List
the List[@source_attribute]
/Project/ListTemplates/ListTemplate
we are generating through
the ListTemplate[@target_attribute]Note:
/Project/ListTemplates/ListTemplate
elements to the new
ONET.XML
/Project/ListTemplates/ListTemplate
elements already present
in the file.Note:
in the ONET.XML file, but we have not yet created the list schemas behind the new
list definitions. For detailed steps on converting the list definition from the
site template manifest.xml to a site definition schema.xml file, take a look at
my previous blog entry.
unique numeric value. I, and others, recommend starting at 10000.
Note:
Type
ONET.XML
provision the list using
elements upon site creation unless you specify the
attribute.
based on the configuring of the site from the site template.
/Project/Configurations/Configuration/Lists/List
the optional Type attribute specified in step 3c.The newly created elements will take the following forms:
<List Title=”Cache” Type=”10000″ ></List>
Note:
for each newly created
/Project/Configurations/Configuration/Lists/List direction: ltr; font-family: Calibri; unicode-bidi: embed” type=”a”>
file.
They are extremely flexible. But, they can also be very time consuming to create.
Site templates are a little less desirable because they un-ghost pages. But, they
are so easy and quick to create. It would sure be nice if I could simply take a
site template and convert it to a site definition. Well, it turns out that it’s
not all that hard. There are quite a few steps to follow, but it’s a lot easier
than creating a site definition from scratch.
First, let’s get some prep-work done.
manifest.xml
destination directory
Important:
files distributed with SharePoint.
Now that our source and target files are setup, we can begin migrating our list
definitions.
Make sure to remove any non-alpha characters from when converting the title to the
list name. For example, if the Title is ,
set the name to something like .
elements as is.
With the list definitions migrated, we need to set up a site configuration to provision
our lists and a couple of modules to define the files and web parts our site will
use.
.
/Project/Configurations/Configuration/Lists
element:
<List Title=”Site Template Gallery” Type=”111″ Url=”_catalogs/wt” RootWebOnly=”TRUE”></List>
<List Title=”Web Part Gallery” Type=”113″ Url=”_catalogs/wp” RootWebOnly=”TRUE”></List>
<List Title=”List Template Gallery” Type=”114″ Url=”_catalogs/lt” RootWebOnly=”TRUE”></List>
/Project/Modules
<Module Name=”DefaultHome” Url=”” Path=””>
<File Url=”default.aspx”>
<NavBarPage Name=”Home” ID=”1002″ Position=”Start”> </NavBarPage>
</File>
</Module>
/Project/Modules
element:
<Module Name=”WebPartPopulation” List=”113″ Url=”_catalogs/wp” Path=”..stslistswplibdwp”
RootWebOnly=”TRUE”>
<File Url=”MSContentEditor.dwp” Type=”GhostableInLibrary”/>
<File Url=”MSPageViewer.dwp” Type=”GhostableInLibrary”/>
<File Url=”MSImage.dwp” Type=”GhostableInLibrary”/>
<File Url=”MSMembers.dwp” Type=”GhostableInLibrary”/>
<File Url=”MSXml.dwp” Type=”GhostableInLibrary”/>
</Module>
At this point we have transferred all of the list definitions from our site template
to our site definition and created the list schema.xml files to store the schemas
for our custom lists. However, we have not added the web pats to our default.aspx
page. Unfortunately, I have run out of time on this post so I will have to leave
that for another day. In the mean time, I hope this post helps anyone looking for
a “quick-start” way to create site definitions from existing SharePoint sites.
Hi, great post. Do you know how to specify a specific theme and regional settings in the ONET.XML?
Toby, I have not seen how to do that. You can always fall back on specifying it in code in an ASPX page. You can spcify to run the ASPX page using the ExecuteURL sub-element of the Configuration element.