WSSv3, Provisioning a site (with master page and default.aspx) using a site definition

I have to create a site in Sharepoint (Wss) with a default pages in complete custom layout and custom menu and it has to be created as a package so the Wss site can be deployed to multiple sites.

I started by developing the master page with heather solomon’s simple masterpage as basis, Then i decided to develop a few features to deploy the master page, install the menu and provision a few standard pagelouts to the site. The master page and menu worked, but provisioning the default.aspx is not possible with features.

So I decided to make a switch to provision with a site defenition instead of features, it has some advantages over features, you can use the site definition to create a site at once instead of using the feature’s.

Step 1: Create your own Sitetemplate.

• Go to “12TEMPLATE1033XML” and copy the file WEBTEMP.XML to WEBTEMPYOURTEMPLATE.XML
• create your own template config:
  
  
  
• Mind the ID part, just use a ID that doesn’t exist in WEBTEMP.XML .
• create a directory in “12TEMPLATESiteTemplatesYOURTEMPLATE”
• create a directory XML in your just created sitetemplate directory
• Copy ONET.XML from “12TEMPLATESiteTemplatesstsxml” to “12TEMPLATESiteTemplatesYOURTEMPLATEXML”
• Your site template will work now, nothing is changed though

Step 2: Create a master page and place it in “12TEMPLATESiteTemplatesYOURTEMPLATE”

• Find the node in ONET.XML
• Place a new module in de the Modules tag under configuration ““
• under the main node find and add:
  “
   
  “
• Your master page will now be provisioned
• To use it with all your provisioned pages find the Configuration ID=”0″  again and add the tag MasterUrl, like this: ““

Step 3: Create site layout pages to provision and place them in “12TEMPLATESiteTemplatesYOURTEMPLATE”

• Find the node in ONET.XML
• Place a new module in de the Modules tag under configuration ““
• under the main node find and add:
  “
       
       
         
                               http://schemas.microsoft.com/WebPart/v2″>
                          Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c
                          Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages.ContentEditorWebPart
                          None
                                None
                         
                    
                     ]]>
         
       
       
         
                               http://schemas.microsoft.com/WebPart/v2″>
                          Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c
                         Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages.ContentEditorWebPart
                          None
                                None
                         
                    
                     ]]>
         
        “
• You now will have 2 pages under http://yoursite/Sitepages based upon you own site layout pages defined in the Url propertie. This code will add a content editor webpart to your pages.

Step 4: Provision the new Default.aspx based on your own page layout

• Find the node in ONET.XML
• Place a new module in de the Modules tag under configuration ““
• under the main node find and add:
  
       
         
                               http://schemas.microsoft.com/WebPart/v2″>
                          Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c
                         Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages.ContentEditorWebPart
                          None
                                None
                         
                    
                     ]]>
         
      
  

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