Site Definitions versus Site Templates and deciding on the correct customization approach

a-foton » Site Definitions versus Site Templates and deciding on the correct customization approach

Sun, 13 Jul 2008 21:43:31 GMT

PingBack from http://blog.a-foton.ru/2008/07/site-definitions-versus-site-templates-and-deciding-on-the-correct-customization-approach/

re: Site Definitions versus Site Templates and deciding on the correct customization approach

petronella mhishi — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 18:51:14 GMT

You can create custom templates in development . You need to deploy them see example of how to deploy a list template here

You can also do the same for site templates

http://www.sharepointblogs.com/tonstegeman/archive/2007/07/10/deploy-a-sharepoint-list-template-to-sharepoint-mysites.aspx

re: Site Definitions versus Site Templates and deciding on the correct customization approach

Ven — Thu, 07 May 2009 18:39:04 GMT

Excellent Article ...Hats-off.. Looking forward to more articles like this from you in future

re: Site Definitions versus Site Templates and deciding on the correct customization approach

Chalapathi — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 22:23:57 GMT

Hello,

As part of SharePoint rollout in our company, we are in the process of developing custom site definitions/templates for team sites, project sites etc…

We understood that new site definitions/templates required configuration (adding new views to lists, adding webparts to pages etc) can be built in three ways. They are

Custom site template (do all the required configuration in a site and store it as .stp file to be used to recreate sites)

Custom site definition (do all the required configuration in onet.xml of a custom site definition in 12 hive)

Feature ( do all the required configuration in a dll through object model and attach the dll to Feature, to be called when a new site is created using Feature site template association)

Instead of preferring option 2. above, we are leaning more towards option 3. (actually combination of 2. and 3. with bare bones site definiton) as this would help change the site definition ( by changing the dll) without touching the site definition files in 12 hive ( best practice from MS is not to touch the site definition files in 12 hive once site collections are created). This would help us in the version management of site definitions.

But while preferring option 3., we are facing some challenges in doing the required configuration (changing some webpart settings) through code.

So, do you have any idea if combination of 1. and 3. will be robust enough? By combination, I mean doing most of the changes in the custom template (option 1. above) and include some changes into Feature (option 3.) which are not doable through custom template.

From the best practice perspective, do you suggest the above combination of 1. and 3. or you think it is better to go with 2. and 3. (with all the configuration done through code and just a bare bones site definition in 12 hive – this would require more time to resolve our challenges but will prefer if this is the best way to go.)?

With Regards,

Chalapathi

re: Site Definitions versus Site Templates and deciding on the correct customization approach

Florin — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 11:42:40 GMT

Very nice post, however a few comments:

I agree with you that site definition are harder to develop but I do not agree that it is difficult to change after it has been deployed. I say this mainly thinking at feature stapling (I have seen on the MS site that changing site definitions already in use is not supported fo feature stapling is the only solution left :)).

I always leave the onet.xml file blank and I only set the list of site/web features to be activated by default. By doing this I have never seen the issue you mentioned about 2 lists of the same type (I have never tried using SharePoint themes directly in the site definition, but I think it should be possible).

Also, 3 important points about site definitions/templates comparison :

- site templates cannot be multilingual

- you cannot create a site template from a publising site (actually it works, if you use the correct Url but I think it is not supported, the link to create a site template is removed in the site admin page)

- you cannot create a site template for the root site of a site collection (at least I haven't found a way to do it)

- using site templates require extra work when working with multiple site collection/web application (you have to manually/automatically deploy the .stp files in the gallery)