Exploring SharePoint Online: Site Template Solutions



So today I decided to explore the common task of using site template solutions. Previously it has been a common task to create a site and then save it as a template, download that template, upload it to another farm and then create a new site based on that template.

Creating the site templateIn a vanilla setup of a SharePoint Foundation I created a small Support site. Just a simple thing with the following content:

1)      A document library

2)      A Customer list

3)      A Task list

I also created the custom column Customer in the document library and task list creating them as lookups from the Customer list selecting on Company. For each component I created a new view to be used on the front page and then added them as web parts to the front page web part page.

There after I connected the web parts so when one select a task in the Task list the relevant documents in the Document web part and the relevant Customer data in the Customers web part was filtered out.

Pretty easy stuff not using any fancy things or custom solutions.

I also deactivated all site features and saved the site as a site template.

Getting the site to my SharePoint Online instanceAfter downloading the WSP to my desktop and then adding it to my Solutions gallery at netconzent.sharepoint.com I activated the solution.

Then I went to the All site content page and selected to create a new site. No problems so far. The site template could be activated and shows up in the list of templates.

Bam!!!

Well that didn’t work out very well.

Turns out that in the SharePoint Online instance several of the basic features that are native in even SharePoint Foundation has been removed. This is all very well explained here:

 http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint-online-enterprise-help/why-do-i-receive-an-error-when-i-try-to-create-a-new-sharepoint-online-site-based-on-a-site-template-created-in-sharepoint-foundation-or-sharepoint-server-HA102737442.aspx

The error in my case happens to be for reporting services that isn’t even used in the solution but even so is included in the WSP.

Lesson learnedOnly sites that are created in SharePoint Online can be migrated into SharePoint Online using the solutions gallery and web site template mechanism.

This will be a major challenge for anyone migrating an on-premises application to SharePoint Online and will require a lot of testing and manual hands-on stuff when doing so.