Summary

Custom site and list templates are an easy way for non-technical users to create a reusable site or list definition. They are created by making a copy of a customized list or site. After being created, they seamlessly appear within the SharePoint web user interface and appear as built-in list types or site types. In addition, custom templates have the following properties:

• The templates represent a delta between a site definition (see Chapter 2) and a customized list or site. As such, they put an additional burden on the server.

• Custome site templates can be migrated from one site collection to another or globally installed for all site collections in a farm.

• Custom templates contain no security settings from the list or site from which they were copied.

• A 10-megabyte limit exists on the total size of a template.

• The site template exists as a single file stored in a cabinet (CAB) format within a template library.

• The code within a site template can be extracted and reused in site definitions.

• Ghosted web pages are interpreted with the ASP.NET parser. They exist in the SharePoint database as a pointer to a physical file on the front end web server. They are compiled into an assembly the first time they are executed and run from that compiled assembly thereafter.

• Unghosted web pages are interpreted by the SharePoint SafeMode parser. Their executable code exists entirely within the database and not on the physical disk. They are not compiled. They run slower than a comparable ghosted page.