How Do I Upload and Use a Wsp Template in Sharepoint

After you accept customized your SharePoint site and then that it contains the libraries, lists, views, workflows, logos, and other elements that you require for your business, you may desire to create a template of that site for reuse. A site template is similar a pattern for site. Creating a site template allows you to capture your customizations, then that they tin be rapidly practical to other SharePoint environments and even utilize the template every bit the basis for a business solution. Users can create new sites based on the template or yous can hand it off for additional development in Visual Studio.

Agreement a site template

Before you piece of work with a site template, information technology'south helpful to understand what a site template is in more item so you tin can employ information technology more finer. This department discusses the following:

What is a site template?

You're probably familiar with the default site templates, such every bit Team Site, Project Site, and Communities Site. SharePoint site templates are prebuilt definitions designed effectually a particular business need. Y'all can use these templates as they are to create your own SharePoint site, and then customize the site as much as you lot want. For more information, come across What kinds of sites can I create in SharePoint and Office 365?

In addition to these default site templates, you can also create your own site template based on a site yous've created and customized. A custom site template is a fashion to package site features and customizations that you can add to a solutions gallery. Custom site templates are often used to deploy solutions in other sites or to provide site consistency within your organisation. For instance, you may have a standard policy on project management, and so you require the use of a custom project site template for all new projects.

A custom site template is a powerful feature that allows you to create a solution then share that solution with your peers, the broader organisation, or outside organizations. You can also package the site into a Spider web Solution Packet file (.wsp) and open it in another environment or application such as Visual Studio and farther customize it there. Turning your customized site or business organization solution into a template is an extremely useful and very powerful adequacy. Once you start to package your solution equally a template, you begin to realize the potential of SharePoint as a platform for business applications. Site templates make all of this possible.

What gets saved in a site template?

When you save a SharePoint site as a template, y'all're saving the overall framework of the site — its lists and libraries, views and forms, and workflows. In addition to these components, yous tin also include the contents of the site in the template; for example, the documents stored in the document libraries or data in the lists. This could be useful to provide sample content for users to get started with. But consider that including content could also increment the size of your template beyond the 50 MB site template limit.

Almost of the features in a site are included and supported by the template. Nevertheless, there are several features that are not supported.

• Supported    Lists, libraries, external lists, information source connections, listing views and data views, custom forms, workflows, content types, custom deportment, navigation, site pages, chief pages, modules, and web templates.

• Unsupported    Customized permissions, running workflow instances, list item version history, workflow tasks associated with running workflows, people or grouping field values, taxonomy field values, publishing sites and pages, and stapled features.

When you create a site template, information near site features and content types is also saved. When y'all use the site template in a different site collection, those features must be available and activated for the site template to work. Problems can arise when moving between site templates from different SharePoint versions. Certain features and content types may not even be available depending on the SKU and configuration.

Note:  Moving site templates between different versions, such as SharePoint 2010 to SharePoint 2013, is non supported. Moving betwixt SharePoint 2013 and SharePoint 2016 should piece of work, though you may need to check the template to ensure it is complete.

What can y'all practice with a site template?

Saving a site every bit a template is a powerful feature because it offers so many uses of custom sites. Here are the immediate benefits yous get from saving a site every bit a template:

• Deploy solutions immediately    Salve and activate the template in the solutions gallery and allow other employees create new sites from this template. They can select it, and then create a new site from information technology, which will inherit the components of the site, its structure, workflows, and more. In brusk, just save the site as a template, activate it, and off you go.

• Portability    In addition to deploying a custom solution in your environment, you lot tin download the .wsp file, take information technology on the road, and deploy information technology in another SharePoint surround. All of your site customization is conveniently stored in one file.

• Extensibility    As a Web Solution Package, yous tin open your customized site in Visual Studio, perform additional evolution customization to the template, and and so deploy it to SharePoint. Every bit a result, site development can get through a solution life bike (develop, stage, and put into production).

As y'all begin to create custom sites in SharePoint, y'all'll detect even more benefits to turning your site into a solution that tin can be fabricated portable beyond the organization.

Work with a site template

The basic steps to working with a site template are as follows:

Save a site template to the Solutions Gallery

When y'all salve a site template, y'all create a Spider web Solution Package file (.wsp) is that is stored in the Solutions Gallery for farther use. But the current site is saved; non any subsites below the site.

1. Navigate to the top-level site of your site drove.

2. Click Settings then click Site Settings.

3. In the Site Deportment department, click Save site every bit a template.

   Annotation: The Relieve site as a template option may not exist available in all situations. For more data, see the section Troubleshoot a custom site template below.

4. Specify a name to use for the template file in the File name box.

5. Specify a name and clarification for the template in the Template proper name and Template description boxes.

6. To include the content of the site in the site template, select the Include Content check box. The limit is 50 MB and cannot be inverse.

   Of import:  Before creating a site template that includes content, cheque the workflow history list for the site. If in that location are thousands of items in the listing, information technology may accept a long time to create the site template or yous may exceed the limit of l MB. In this example, it's a skillful idea to modify the workflow association to a utilize new workflow history list and then delete the original workflow history list before creating the site template.

7. Click OK to save the template.

   If all of the components on the site are valid, the template is created, and you see a bulletin that states "Performance Completed Successfully."

8. Do 1 of the post-obit:

   • To render to your site, click OK.

   • To go straight to the site template, click Solutions Gallery.

Download the site template from the Solutions Gallery

When yous download your site template, you lot create a .wsp file that is portable and easy to use in other site collections.

1. Navigate to the top-level site of your site collection.

2. Click Settings and then click Site Settings.

3. In the Web Designer Galleries section, click Solutions.

4. If information technology'south necessary to activate the solution, select information technology, and in the Commands group, click Activate. Then, on the Actuate Solution Confirmation screen, in the Commands group, click Activate.

5. Click its name in the solutions gallery, and click Salvage.

6. In the Save As dialog box, browse to the location where y'all desire to relieve the solution, click Relieve, and then click Close.

Upload the site template to a Solutions Gallery

Yous can upload a .wsp file to the same site collection or different site collections in the same or different SharePoint environments.

1. Navigate to the top-level site of your site drove.

2. Click Settings and then click Site Settings.

3. In the Web Designer Galleries section, click Solutions.

4. In the Commands group, click Upload or Upload Solution, and then in the Add together a Certificate or Add a Solution dialog box, click Scan.

5. In the Choose File to Upload dialog box, locate the file, select information technology, click Open, and then click OK.

6. To actuate the solution, on the Activate Solution confirmation screen, in the Commands grouping, click Activate.

Create a site from the site template

Later you create a site template and confirm information technology is activated, you can create a site based on the template.

There are several ways to create a new site or subsite. You lot can use the SharePoint Designer or create a subsite from an existing site. Follow these steps to create a uncomplicated subsite in SharePoint using your saved site template:

Create a subsite

1. Click Settings and then click Site Settings.

2. Click Sites and workspaces under Site Administration.

   

3. Click Create in the Sites and Workspaces dialog.

   

4. In the New SharePoint Site dialog, enter the Championship for the page, a Clarification, and the URL proper name for users to apply to get to your site.

   

5. Under the Template Selection, click the Custom tab, and click your saved template.

   

6. Select the User Permissions and Navigation options you'd adopt.

7. When you're done, click Create.

Manage the Solutions Gallery

Yous tin control when a site template appears in the Create dialog box or its resources usage by activating and deactivating site templates in the Solution Gallery.

1. Navigate to your Solution Gallery.

2. Click Settings , Site Settings, and, and so under the Spider web Designer Galleries section, click Solutions.

3. Select a site template, and so exercise one of the post-obit:

   • Actuate    Makes the site template bachelor for use when users create new sites through the Create dialog.

   • Deactivate    Removes the site template from the Create dialog box. A deactivated site template is unavailable for site cosmos and can be deleted.

   • Delete    Removes the site template from the Solution Gallery, simply moves information technology into to the Recycle Bin for approximately xc days by default before the Recycle bin is emptied. This is helpful if you later decide to restore information technology. If y'all need to delete a site template, you must deactivate it start.

     Notes:

     • It is important to monitor the growth of the Solutions Gallery. Each entry has a resource usage number assigned to it. Solutions tin can swallow resources, and for that reason they may exist temporarily disabled if resource usage exceeds quota.

     • If you upload a site template to a Solutions Gallery, and the original site template is currently deactivated, you can potentially overwrite the original site template. To avoid this, make sure to uniquely proper name the site template y'all are uploading. Nevertheless, yous will not be able to activate both solutions at the same time, and will demand to deactivate the original if yous wish to apply the newly uploaded site template for site creation.

Troubleshoot a custom site template

The post-obit sections can help yous resolve problems when yous are working with a custom site template.

Resolving common issues

The following sections describe mutual problems you may meet when working with site templates and their recommended solutions.

The site template is based on a site type that is not bachelor in the electric current business plan

The availability of site templates depends on the features set past your administrator, whether you work with sites or site collections, and what programme you lot accept for Office 365 or SharePoint Server. The following table summarizes the site type availability betwixt different plans. For more on templates, run across Using templates to create different kinds of SharePoint Online sites.

Category	Site Type	Site Collection	Site	Office 365 for Pocket-sized Business	Office 365 for Medium or Large Business	SharePoint Server 2013	SharePoint Foundation 2013	SharePoint Server 2016	SharePoint Online
Collaboration	Team	Yes	Yes	Yep	Yep	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Collaboration	Web log	Yes	Aye	Aye	Yes	Yes	Yeah	Yep	Yes
Collaboration	Project	Yeah	Yes	Yep	Yes	Yes	No	Yep	Yes
Collaboration	Community	Yes	Yep	No	Yeah	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Enterprise	Document Center	Yeah	Yes	No	Yeah	Yes	No	Yep	Yes
Enterprise	Records Center	Yes	Yes	No	Aye	Yeah	No	Yes	Yes
Enterprise	Business Intelligence Heart	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Enterprise	Enterprise Search Heart	Aye	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes
Enterprise	Basic Search Center	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	Aye	Yes
Publishing	Publishing Site	No	Yes	No	No	Yeah	No	No	Yep
Publishing	Publishing Site with Workflow	No	Yeah	No	No	Aye	No	No	Yes
Publishing	Enterprise Wiki	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yeah	No	No	Yep

The site template was created in a previous version of SharePoint or in a different language

Moving site templates between unlike versions, such as SharePoint 2010 to SharePoint 2013, or dissimilar languages is not supported.

Unavailable features prevent site creation

You lot become an fault message stating that certain features are not installed, activated, or licensed.

When the site template was created, all site features were saved with the template, regardless of whether they were activated or not. Yet, one or more of these site features are not activated or bachelor in the current site collection. This situation can arise when you are moving site templates between different Office 365 plans or betwixt SharePoint Server on premise and SharePoint online.

To help you resolve the state of affairs, the error message usually contains the Feature Description and GUID. If the feature is available in the current site collection, you lot can actuate it. If the feature is non available in the electric current site drove, you cannot use the site template to create a site.

For a list of SharePoint features and GUIDs, encounter Sharepoint 2013: Existing Features GUID. For a list of service descriptions based on Office 365 plans, see SharePoint Online Service Descriptions.

The site template cannot be created or does not work correctly

One or more than of the following issues may be the cause:

• Check to see if whatsoever lists or libraries exceed the List View Limit Threshold of 5000 items as this tin can block creation of a site template.

• The site may be using too many resources and therefore the site template exceeds the fifty MB limit. You can see how much resources are being used in the Solutions Gallery where the site template was created. You may exist able to reduce the site resource, and and then salvage the site template again.

• If you are saving content with the site template, you may need to clear the Include Content cheque box. Although you tin increase the site template limit in SharePoint Server on premise by using a PowerShell command, this command is not available in SharePoint online. Be conscientious increasing the site template size in SharePoint Server on premise and moving it to SharePoint online as information technology can prevent its apply. For more data well-nigh using site templates on SharePoint Server, see Save, download, and upload a SharePoint 2013 site as a template.

• There are issues displaying data from a list that uses a lookup column. For more than information, see Template-generated list doesn't display data from the correct lookup list in SharePoint Online.

The Salve site template command is non available

The Save site as template command is non supported and can cause problems on sites that use the SharePoint Server Publishing Infrastructure. If your site has the publishing infrastructure enabled, you tin can't utilise the site template feature.

For more data, meet Enable publishing features and About publishing-enabled site templates.

There are problems with the site templates after upgrading from SharePoint Online 2010

If y'all accept custom site templates that yous want to continue to use after your subscription has been upgraded to SharePoint Online 2013, then you must recreate them before upgrading your site collection. Otherwise, all new site templates volition not work after you upgrade. To recreate the site template, create a new subsite based on the 2013 experience, customize it again to match the template that you had, then salve the customized subsite as a template.

For the steps to recreate your custom site templates in SharePoint Online 2013, run across Upgrade site templates. For more data on the upgrade process, see Upgrade a site drove to SharePoint Online 2013.

Inspecting a Web Solution Packet

Occasionally, you may need to dig deeper to unearth a problem with a site template. For example, you may accept inherited the site template and practice not know how it was created or what information technology contains.

Under the covers, a .wsp file is a chiffonier file (CAB), which is a file that contains other files. This cab file contains a manifest file that defines elements in your site. If you are curious most the content, do the following:

1. Copy the .wsp file.

2. Rename the file extension from .wsp to .cab.

3. Double-click the file, select all the files displayed, correct-click the selection, click Extract, locate a binder in the Select a Destination dialog box, and then click Extract.

You lot can now meet the Manifest.xml , the folders referenced in the Manifest.xml, and all required elements, schemas, resources and feature files used to recreate the site. If you chose to include the contents of the site when y'all created the site template, you can also see the content, such every bit document library files.

Important:  Do non unzip the original .cab, and alter the manifest, or the contents, of a .wsp. Creating sites from packages edited at this level tin can pb to instability in sites created from the template. However, .wsp files can be safely opened and edited in Microsoft Visual Studio in order to further customize the template.

Note:  The Web Solution Package you create in a site template is a partial trust user solution that has the same declarative format every bit a full trust SharePoint solution. Yet, it does not back up the full extent of feature chemical element types that are supported past full trust solutions.

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