Choosing the Site template is the first decision that the developer makes while designing the SharePoint / MOSS portal. But What is really a site template? Is it same as the site definition? Time to take a deeper look into this.
Site Definition as well as the site template defines the content of a the portal. This specifies what all the web site will contain. This may include content types, lists, features, Web parts, event handlers, Navigation elements etc.
In a layman's term, site definition is nothing but a xml file that defines what all are the items that needs to be included in the new site that is being provisioned. In contrast with Site template is built on top of the site definition, recording the changes on the site dentition.
When to Use Site Definitions
Customizing portal sites or SharePoint sites using site definitions is apt for third-party developers and server administrators. Site definition requires access to the file system of the Web server. The
Administrator should always be involved in the deployment of site definitions.
Although deploying a site definition requires more work, site definitions typically perform better when cached on the file system instead of in the database. In addition, you can achieve a higher level of customization by directly editing all the schema files without depending on the existing site definition as a site template does. Also, if you want to introduce new file types, view styles, and drop-down edit menus, you need to edit the schema files that make up the site definition.
Custom site definitions are upgrade independent. Subsequent upgrades to MOSS Products and Technologies may overwrite existing default site definitions. Using custom site definitions excludes your sites from potential upgrade issues.
However, there is no easy way to modify site definitions once they are deployed. There is always the possibility of breaking existing deployed sites derived from the site definition once you modify an existing site definition. You can only add to the site definition once it is deployed.
When to Use Site Templates
Site template when compared to site definitions, are easy to create and deploy. You can make all customizations through the user interface. Also, you do not need to be a server administrator on the Web server to create and deploy site templates. Modifying a site template will not create issues in existing sites created by the template. It also eases the deployment as the template data is stored centrally in the configuration database.
Site templates are slower than the site definition as they are stored in the database. Templates in the database are compiled and executed every time a page is rendered. WSS does some performance optimization whereby it stores templates on the local Web server and a ghost of the page in the configuration database. However, you can easily prevent WSS from using a copy of the page by using Web Folders to open, modify, and save it. From this point forward, the database is used to render the page.
Site templates only work on SharePoint sites that are not portal sites (not based on the SPS templates). Furthermore, site templates are not ideally suited for a development environment. In effect, they are still customizations of a site definition. If the site definition does not exist on the server, the site template fails.
Generally, site templates are not as efficient as site definitions in a large-scale environment
Here is the list of the site definitions available on the MOSS 2007
| ID | Name | Type |
| STS#0 | Team Site | WSS |
| STS#1 | Blank Site | WSS |
| STS#2 | Document Workspace | WSS |
| MPS#0 | Basic Meeting Workspace | WSS |
| MPS#1 | Blank Meeting Workspace | WSS |
| MPS#2 | Decision Meeting Workspace | WSS |
| MPS#3 | Social Meeting Workspace | WSS |
| MPS#4 | Multipage Meeting Workspace | WSS |
| CENTRALADMIN#0 | Central Admin Site | WSS |
| WIKI#0 | Wiki Site | WSS |
| BLOG#0 | Blog | WSS |
| BDR#0 | Document Center | MOSS |
| OFFILE#1 | Records Center | MOSS |
| OSRV#0 | Shared Services Administration Site | MOSS |
| SPS#0 | SharePoint Portal Server Site | MOSS |
| SPSPERS#0 | SharePoint Portal Server Personal Space | MOSS |
| SPSMSITE#0 | Personalization Site | MOSS |
| SPSMSITE#0 | Contents area Template | MOSS |
| SPSTOPIC#0 | Topic area template | MOSS |
| SPSNEWS#0 | News Site | MOSS |
| CMSPUBLISHING#0 | Publishing Site | MOSS |
| BLANKINTERNET#0 | Publishing Site | MOSS |
| BLANKINTERNET#1 | Press Releases Site | MOSS |
| BLANKINTERNET#2 | Publishing Site with Workflow | MOSS |
| SPSNHOME#0 | News Site | MOSS |
| SPSSITES#0 | Site Directory | MOSS |
| SPSCOMMU#0 | Community area template | MOSS |
| SPSREPORTCENTER#0 | Report Center | MOSS |
| SPSPORTAL#0 | Collaboration Portal | MOSS |
| SRCHCEN#0 | Search Center with Tabs | MOSS |
| PROFILES#0 | Profiles | MOSS |
| BLANKINTERNETCONTAINER#0 | Publishing Portal | MOSS |
| SPSMSITEHOST#0 | My Site Host | MOSS |
| SRCHCENTERLITE#0 | Search Center | MOSS |
Time to see how it maps to 2010
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