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The question I’m going to ask might have a very simple answer... but I couldn’t figure it out myself yet.

So here is the simplified scenario...

  1. I created a Site on Dev. SharePoint 2010, added a couple of SPD workflows, customized lists and views etc. Presented the functionality to the Stakeholders and its accepted.
  2. Now the site would be used as a template and many instances of this site will be created using these settings (template)...so i just went ahead and saved the site as template.
  3. Deployed the site template to the live environment by deploying the wsp file. and activated on the desired site collection.
  4. THE PROBLEM IM FACING IS IN THE CHANGE MANAGEMENT: i.e. now the sites are being created and in some point of time down the line there is a suggestion to add functionality / or a bug to be fixed...

MY APPROACH: I have created a sample instance of template. I mmade all the changes to that template and re-save it. This way the new sites which are created from that template do have all the fixes and enhancements.

THE PROBLEM: How can I update the existing sites which has already been created, to apply the same fixes and enhancements.

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thanks for the edits @Vedran – Amir Riaz Jan 26 '12 at 6:37

2 Answers

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SharePoint app-lifecycle capabilities are realized in the feature framework. Custom site definitions and web templates now are really just collections of feature activations. Being able to update sites created from templates is accomplished by virtue of upgrading the features individually the templates are based on. Otherwise, there is no ALM around templates saved from the UI.

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Thank you Chris. Your brief round up indeed gave some pointers, very useful. Now when I looked back at my portal, I do have the "Web Template feature of exported web template XYZ" enabled on the site collection level. I understood that the ALM is best manageable when doing it all the way with programming in feature framework. But could this feature which is deployed by web template (wsp) i.e. "Web Template feature of exported web template XYZ" not be updated using Power Shell commands. If yes, could you suggest how to do it? Thanks – Amir Riaz Jan 26 '12 at 6:51
When you create a custom site template from the UI, it does package it as a "Web Template" feature. You can import this into Visual Studio, but it would require a lot of cleanup and hand-tooling by a developer to make it something that could support application lifecycle considerations. – Chris Beckett Jan 30 '12 at 20:13
Yes, after deploying a site based on a template, you could customize the site further using PowerShell, assuming that Farm Administrator with suitable permissions was responsible for provisioning the site and applying these customization's manually. – Chris Beckett Jan 30 '12 at 20:14
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You can look at this question and try to explore each answer to find best upgrade method for your needs:

When to use Custom Site Definitions... and not

And you are wrong because there is no simple answer to your question.

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