Activating the site template in the solution gallery

Once you’ve saved your site as a template, a solution file (.wsp) is created and stored in the Solution Gallery for the site collection. From here, you can download or activate the solution.

To activate your site template, perform the following steps:

1. Browse to the top level site of your site collection in SharePoint.

2. Click Site Actions and choose Site Settings.

3. Under Galleries, click Solutions.

4. To activate your solution, click the pull-down menu beside your solution, and choose Activate

5. On the activate solution confirmation screen, click Activate.

Your solution now has an activated status in the Solution Gallery.

6. To download the solution, just click its name in the Solution Gallery.

7. In the File Download dialog box, click Save, and browse to the location where you want to save the solution.

What gets saved in a template

When you save your SharePoint site as a template, you’re saving the overall framework of the site. Most of the objects in a site are included and supported by the template.

There are a number of objects and features not supported however.

Supported

Lists

Libraries

External Lists

Data source connections

List views and data views

Custom forms

Workflows

Content Types

Custom Actions

Navigation

Site pages

Master pages

Modules

Web Templates

Not Supported

Customized permissions

Running workflow instances

List item version history

Workflow tasks associated with running workflows

People/group field values

Taxonomy field values

Publishing pages and publishing sites

My Sites

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.

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