MOSS Site Template: Working with Site Templates – Part 2

Overview In part 1 of this article, I have introduced Site Templates and explained the various actions performed on them, e.g. save, download, use, delete…etc I have dedicated this article to expose some of the problems I have encountered while working with Site Templates. Problem 1: Custom templates Tab is not visible Description: 1. Add a few custom site templates to the Site Templates Gallery. 2. Open the New SharePoint Site page. 3. In the Select a template section, the Custom tab is not visible. Solution 1: Templates are bound to languages. You can only use a template if you have installed its language Language Pack. After installing the language pack, you will be able to select the language first and then you would see the Custom tab. Click the Custom tab and you will find the custom site templates that you have added. References: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sharepointcustomization/thread/6f641f20-7972-4207-87b2-40b7d9554706/ http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sharepointadmin/thread/34de88b2-ccdd-40bd-a75c-7c88419046ad/ Solution 2: Site definitions and templates work together to customize a site. Custom templates are always associated with the site definition on which the template is based. A custom template depends on the base site definition in the file system in order to work. You can only use a template if you have installed its base site definition first. After installing the site definition you would see your custom site templates under the Custom tab. Problem 2: Deleting orphaned sites Description: 1. Open the New SharePoint Site page. 2. Select a custom site template from the Custom tab. 3. After you create the Create button, an error message is displayed telling you that the template you have chosen was invalid or could not be found. 4. Click the Go Back To Site link. 5. Click View All Site Content. 6. Under Sites and Workspaces, you can find the new site that has been created with errors. 7. Click the site’s name, you will encounter a page cannot be found error. Solution: An orphaned site is one that is in an undefined state. It exists, but it doesn't exist. Normally the site won't work, but you won't be able to delete it, or overwrite it either. Click here to browse the solution provided by Microsoft. References: http://www.toddklindt.com/blog/Lists/Posts/Post.aspx?List=56f96349%2D3bb6%2D4087%2D94f4%2D7f95ff4ca81f&ID=27 http://blogs.technet.com/corybu/archive/2007/05/31/sharepoint-orphans-explained.aspx Problem 3: Changes in the site template do not affect existing sites Description: 1. Create a site out of a site template. 2. Make changes to the site template. 3. There is confusion about whether the changes will affect the existing sites or not? Answer: You can modify a site template without affecting existing sites created by the template. Problem 4: Access Denied on Custom Workflows Description: 1. Create a custom workflow in SharePoint Designer containing a “Collect Data From User” action. 2. Save the site as a template. Note that the Include content checkbox was selected during the saving of the new site, in order to save the custom workflow. 3. Create a new sub sites based on the created custom site template. 4. Let the custom workflow start and run till it assigns the Collect Data From User task to a certain user. 5. When the user tries to edit the task assigned to him, he gets an access denied error. He also gets a link to request access. 6. Open the Access Request mail sent to the administrator. It contains a link to a page with the following path: Site Name > Workflows > Settings > Permissions. 7. If you add the permissions on this page then user can edit his taks again. Solution: In order to ensure the custom workflow works well after being deployed in another site, you can follow the steps below to grant the permission to the site groups/users. 1. Open SharePoint Designer, and open the site. 2. Right click Workflows and point to Properties. 3. On the Security tab, click "Manage permissions using the browser". 4. It will take you to the Site > Workflows > Settings > Permissions and you can manage the permission in this page. Reference: http://www.tech-archive.net/Archive/SharePoint/microsoft.public.sharepoint.portalserver/2007-10/msg00294.html Well, I hope this helps you troubleshoot your custom site template problems. I would like seize the chance and welcome everyone who would like to share his own experience in troubleshooting site templates. Waiting for your comments! Samar Hossam