Copy List Schema across farms

Question

I have a site in a DEV SharePoint 2013 farm that I would like to move four lists, and all their dependencies (Content Types, Forms, Site Columns, etc.) to the TST SharePoint farm. The data in the lists does not need to be copied.

I do not want to do a backup and restore, because the DEV site contains various POC pages and test items that should not be promoted.

I've tried doing it by hand, but the process invariably fails due to manual copy errors. (Either I mis-type something, or I accidentally copy a GUID that shouldn't be copied, etc.) Eventually, one of my errors throws SharePoint into "One or more field types are not installed properly" mode where I can no longer edit the list and have to delete everything and restart the process.

I need to find someway to automate the process to get the accuracy I need. What tools can help me do this? This isn't a large migration, so big $$$$ tools might not make sense, but a reasonably priced 3rd party utility is not out of the question. I've seen references to the Content Migration API, but I'm not finding how to install it or use it, or even if it works with SP2013.

Answer 1

You can try two method.

1. Use "Save as Template" feature to save that list as template( unchecked the include content). Then download the template, and move to 2nd farm. Now upload the Template to the site collection and activate it, Lastly create the List using that template. also look this http://blogs.interfacett.com/sharepoint-2010-saving-a-custom-list-as-a-template-and-create-new-lists-in-template-gallery
2. You can use the Export-spweb and Import-SpwEB method,to move the list between farms.
3. Lastly if you are looking for a tools, then Sharegate is best bet as it is cheap. they have trial version you can try it.