SharePoint 2010 : SharePoint Fundamentals (part 2) - Site Templates

Site Templates

Because a site is simply a Web Part page with some administration and some lists to back it up, how do you get a different look and behavior for each site in SharePoint? Templates. Templates are collection of lists, Web Part pages, and Web Parts that are packaged together to define a starting point for your site. Because everything is a SharePoint Foundation 2010 site in SharePoint, the template defines the look and behavior of the page(s). Table 1 lists the out-of-the-box templates in SharePoint Server 2010. In addition to the out-of-the-box templates, you can make an unlimited number of custom templates available to users. Templates are your building blocks, allowing you to quickly create complex solutions that include custom branding and functionality.

Table 1. The Out-of-the-Box Templates in SharePoint Foundation 2010 and Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010

Category	Name	Best Suited For ...	SharePoint Server Only?
Collaboration	Team Site	Team collaboration
Collaboration	Blank Site	Custom collaboration applications
Collaboration	Document Workspace	Actively working on documents
Collaboration	Wiki Site	Adding, editing, and linking Web pages
Collaboration	Blog	Posting information in chorological order; others can comment
Collaboration	Internet Presence Web Site	An Internet-facing corporate Web site with several various pages like publishing and search (Site Collection level)	Y
Collaboration	My Site Host	A site used for hosting My Sites (Site Collection level)	Y
Collaboration	Records Repository	Storing documents that should not be modified after being added	Y
Collaboration	News Home template	Creating and managing new articles	Y
Collaboration	Publishing and Team Collaboration Site	Publishing Web content along with team collaboration	Y
Collaboration	Publishing Site	Publishing Web content (like an intranet or Internet site)	Y
Meetings	Basic Meeting Workspace	Tracking meeting data
Meetings	Blank Meeting Workspace	Tracking meetings
Meetings	Decision Meeting	Tracking meetings that lead to a decision
Meetings	Social Meeting Workspace	Planning social events
Meetings	Multipage Meeting Workspace	Tracking meeting data
Enterprise	Document Center	Centrally managing documents (active, broadly published items)	Y
Enterprise	Records Center	Centrally managing records (corporate ‘sealed’ items)	Y
Enterprise	Personalization Site	Hosting a My Site page for a user	Y
Enterprise	Report Center	Managing reports and BI information	Y
Enterprise	Search Center	Hosting a central search page	Y
Publishing	Publishing Site	A blank site for quickly publishing HTML Web pages	Y
Publishing	Publishing Site with Workflow	A site for publishing Web pages on a schedule by using approval workflows	Y
Publishing	Corporate Intranet Site	Creating an intranet site with News, Sites Directory, and Search (Site Collection level)	Y

If you’ve made customizations to a site, you can save those customizations as a site template. This enables you to create new sites in the future based on your customization. To save a site template, simply click Site Actions → Site Settings and then select Save Site as Template (see Figure 8). You are then prompted for a name for the file, a title, description, and whether you want to save the content (the items or documents in the lists). Figure 9 shows the Save as Template page. Saving the content is useful for when you want a new site to contain some “starter” content, such as a deliverable document, some scheduled tasks, or workflows. Note that content cannot exceed 10MB and permissions are not saved with the template.

Figure 8. Choosing “Save site as template” enables you to save the site (the lists, libraries, and Web Part pages) as a reusable template that can be used for the creation of future sites

Figure 9. When saving a site template, specify whether you want to include content. Including content is useful for priming your new site with starter content.

Site templates are stored in the User Solutions Gallery, which is at http://<site URL>/_catalogs/solutions (see Figure 10). To use a site template, simply create a new site; your custom template appears in the custom section.

Figure 10. The User Solutions Gallery enables you to track user solutions, which include site templates and sandbox solutions

Sandbox solutions, a new feature in SharePoint 2010, are also stored and tracked in the User Solutions Gallery.