Save a Site as a Template in SharePoint 2010

This blog post explains how to save a site as Template. This is important when you want to clone your site somewhere else. You can do this either with the content or without the content.

The process is very simple. First go to Site actions and then select Save site as template under Site Actions. but sometimes though you are the administrator you might not get that option. The reason may be that you have turn on the site's publishing feature.

If so, go to Site Actions and select site settings. Then click on Manage site features under Site Actions and Deactivate the SharePoint Server Publishing Feature.

Then if you go back to Site Actions > Site settings you will see the Save site as template under Site Actions

You can click on Save site as template and then fill required filed. Then you can decide either to include content or not.

Then you will get a link to the Solution Gallery, where your template is located. (<you root site URL>/_catalogs/solutions/Forms/AllItems.aspx)

In order to clone the site first you need to save the created template. Just click on the template and save it. It will save as a .wsp file.

Then go to the SharePoint 2010 installation where you want to create the clone site and go the root site. Then navigates to the Solution Galley. (Site Actions > Site settings > select Solutions under Galleries)

Then select the Upload solution under the Solutions tab.

Browse to the saved template and click OK to upload the template.

After that click on Activate to Activate the template

Now you can create a new site from that template. Go to Site Actions and select New Site. Then you can select the template from the list and create a new Site from that template.