What is a SharePoint site template

SharePoint site templates are pre-built definitions designed around a particular business need. You can use these templates as they are to create your own SharePoint site and then customize the site as much as you like. You’re probably familiar with the default site templates, like Team Site, Blog site, and Group Work Site as shown here.

You can create your own site template based on a site you’ve created and customized in SharePoint. This is a powerful feature in SharePoint that allows you to create a custom solution and then share that solution with your peers, the broader organization, or outside organizations. You can also package the site and open it in another environment or application like Microsoft Visual Studio and further customize it there.

When you save your site as a template, you create a Web Solution Package, or WSP. A WSP is a CAB file with the solution manifest. The solution you create gets stored in the Solution Gallery for the SharePoint site collection. From there, you can download a copy of the solution or activate it on the server.

Installing SharePoint Designer

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Activating SharePoint Designer

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SharePoint Designer 2010 SP1

Microsoft SharePoint Designer 2010 Service Pack 1 (SP1) provides the latest updates for SharePoint Designer 2010.

This service pack includes two main categories of fixes:

• Previously unreleased fixes that were made specifically for this service pack. In addition to general product fixes, these fixes include improvements in stability, performance, and in security.

• All the public updates that were released through June 2011, and all the cumulative updates that were released through April 2011. 

How to obtain and install the service pack

To download the service pack from Microsoft Update, visit the following Microsoft website: Microsoft Update

Download the SP1 package from Microsoft Download Center

Download the Microsoft SharePoint Designer 2010 32-bit Service Pack 1 package now.

Download the Microsoft SharePoint Designer 2010 64-bit Service Pack 1 package now.

An unexpected error has occurred

Problem Description:

If you try to import a spreadsheet from within SharePoint Designer 2010 to create a list in SharePoint 2010 then you will get an error

"An unexpected error has occurred."

What exactly I am doing:

1.   Browse to a SharePoint site

2.   From the Site Settings menu click on "Edit In SharePoint Designer"

3.   Within SharePoint Designer, choose left menu "Lists and Items"

4.   From the Ribbon menu click "List from Spreadsheet"

5.   SharePoint Designer will launch the SharePoint site within a browser

6.   Add a title on the list and choose File then click Import

7.   You will get error message "An unexpected error has occurred"

After hours of troubleshooting and debugging, I got this issue resolved by using the following workaround.

Workaround:

1.   The URL when you try to load the page from SharePoint Designer will look something like the following and it will not work:

          http://server/_layouts/new.aspx?ListTemplate=SpreadsheetImport

2.   Append to the URL on the page that is being called from Sharepoint Designer with the following and reload the page.

          &ListBaseType=0&DisplayName=Spreadsheet+Import

Example:

http://server/_layouts/new.aspx?ListTemplate=SpreadsheetImport&ListBaseType=0&DisplayName=Spreadsheet+Import

I hope the above mentioned information will help you to resolve your issue. If you have any queries/questions regarding the above mentioned information then please let me know. I would be more than happyJ to help you as well as resolves your issues J J