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"Save site as template" option and the publishing feature

A common question I receive is the following:

I have tried to save my site as a template using "Site Action" - "Save site as template" but this option is not available as soon as I enable the publishing feature. After some tries I managed to save the site as a template my adding "_layouts/savetmpl.aspx" behind the site URL. But after creating a site based on this template the new site does not behave correct. How can I fix this?

Unfortunatelly the answer for this question is: saving publishing enabled sites as a template is not supported and it does not work. You cannot use this option to create new sites. Instead you should create site definitions (..\web server extensions\12\template\SiteTemplates) and provision the new site based on such a site definition.

Update April 24th, 2008: The same statement applies if you save the template from SharePoint Designer. Also not supported.

Published Wednesday, September 19, 2007 5:53 PM by Stefan_Gossner
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Wednesday, September 19, 2007 9:57 PM by Daniel

# re: "Save site as template" option and the publishing feature

So if it is "supported" why can you save the Site as Template using SharePoint Designer. We have 100 of sites with publishing features created from a save as template and it is working with no issue

Saturday, September 22, 2007 4:46 PM by Meron Fridman

# re: "Save site as template" option and the publishing feature

Hi

It should be supported because you can save site as template via SharePoint Designer that open the correct URL without change the URL manual. MS should support it!!! Actually the site behave as expected after you refresh it and even you get at the first time "Error" in the menu in the next time you enter the site everything fine.

Meron.  

Saturday, October 20, 2007 1:56 PM by Chris Stone

# re: "Save site as template" option and the publishing feature

Actually it works but you have to make sure that everything every single file published before saving it as template :)

Tuesday, October 23, 2007 2:38 PM by DV

# re: "Save site as template" option and the publishing feature

I've used this method many times without problems. And I agree with Daniel, if it is available in SharePoint Designer, how can you state that it is unsupported? Can you please post a link to the official M$ policy regarding this?

Tuesday, October 23, 2007 3:40 PM by Stefan_Gossner

# re: "Save site as template" option and the publishing feature

Hi DV,

this is the best we have so far:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/925189/en-us

Afaik a more detailled document is in the works.

Cheers,

Stefan

Tuesday, October 30, 2007 9:46 AM by Jenny Everett

# Save as template with Publishing feature turned on

I came across this when trying to save as site as a template the other day - the option didn't exist

Wednesday, January 09, 2008 10:53 AM by stephaneey

# re: "Save site as template" option and the publishing feature

Hello,

The fact that sharepoint designer allows you make a template of a site having the publishing feature turned on is indeed incoherent with what the UI does but Sharepoint Designer does nothing else than calling the URL which you could do using your browser.....

It doesn't fix the problems however because you can run in the following trouble:

- Create a template of a site having publishing turned on (either using SD either by typing the URL manually)

- Create a new site using the template you've just created

- Make a new template of this site now....

- Create a new site of this template, you'll get errors....

Monday, January 21, 2008 5:15 AM by Infosys | Microsoft

# Branding in SharePoint Technologies (PART 3)

Today we will look 3 options available for the modification of Site Master Pages. They include SP Designer, Site Template and File System options. ...

Tuesday, July 08, 2008 11:15 PM by Timbo

# re: "Save site as template" option and the publishing feature

Thanks for the information Stefan, if you get some spare time I am interested in understanding why saving as customized templates is not supported in the publishing environment.

We want to make some simple changes to a blog site (relocate web parts on the page) and use that as a template. Seems there are some disadvantages in choosing to do this via a site definition http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa979683.aspx

Thanks a lot

Tim

Wednesday, July 09, 2008 2:17 AM by Stefan_Gossner

# re: "Save site as template" option and the publishing feature

Hi Timbo,

internal testing showed a couple of problems when using save as a template with the publishing feature so it was decided not to support this.

Cheers,

Stefan

Wednesday, November 12, 2008 8:21 AM by Hammad

# re: "Save site as template" option and the publishing feature

Hi Guys i am also doing the same work but i am getting the Error Tab as Meron said... but i am unable to get rid of that... can any one help me out how can i do that without any error... i have published every thing. Thanks

Wednesday, November 12, 2008 8:24 AM by Stefan_Gossner

# re: "Save site as template" option and the publishing feature

Hi Hammad,

using this method is unsupported. Don't expect that it will work. Never create a publishing site from a saved template.

Cheers,

Stefan

Saturday, December 06, 2008 11:38 AM by wspencer@interlytics.com

# re: "Save site as template" option and the publishing feature

Stefan,

Very useful information.  What I am trying to do is develop a reporting portal that lives on a publishing site.  As the standard report templates are not visible once you've selected a top level publishing site, I'm wondering how you would handle this.

Saturday, December 06, 2008 11:44 AM by Stefan_Gossner

# re: "Save site as template" option and the publishing feature

You can add other site templates to your site collection from the settings page.

Thursday, March 05, 2009 9:13 AM by Tal Winter

# re: "Save site as template" option and the publishing feature

I've tried to save the Site as template with browsing and using the /_layouts/savetmpl.aspx screen (like Meron said) and it works fine.

Thursday, March 05, 2009 9:18 AM by Stefan_Gossner

# re: "Save site as template" option and the publishing feature

Hi Tal,

yes it works - but it is unsupported.

The reason is that sites created from such a saved template do not work correct which leads to an unsupported target database.

Cheers,

Stefan

Friday, May 08, 2009 1:54 PM by Joyce

# re: "Save site as template" option and the publishing feature

I tried using the url and the sites don't work.  However, we have MOSS and I have tried using Site Manager to 'Copy' the site.  This seems to work, but I've found that the styles on the copied site do not work.  Any suggestions for this approach?  

We really don't have the time to invest in learning how to create a custom site definition.

Saturday, May 09, 2009 9:18 AM by Stefan_Gossner

# re: "Save site as template" option and the publishing feature

Hi Joyce,

using the standard page layouts and master pages I did not see a problem with styles when using copy in Site Manager.

Do you used customized page layouts or master pages? If yes, there might be a problem in the implementation of these files.

Cheers,

Stefan

Tuesday, August 25, 2009 1:24 PM by Stephen

# re: "Save site as template" option and the publishing feature

Can someone tell us exactlly what the issues is when create a publishing site from a saved template? How many errors and what is it?

Tuesday, August 25, 2009 2:39 PM by Stefan_Gossner

# re: "Save site as template" option and the publishing feature

Hi Stephen,

such a list ist not available to the public for two reasons:

1) the scenario is unsupported and we do not provide details about things that can go wrong for unsupported scenario as this could encourage people to use the unsupported scenario.

2) a complete list does not exist as no complete tests have been done for this unsupported scenario. During product release several limitations have been found which led to the decision that this scenario is unsupported and after this decision all further tests have been stopped.

Cheers,

Stefan

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