Copy structure site collection

Question

I currently own a site collection with many sites children. One of the subsites acts as a template the rest.

Request:

Create a new site collection with the same structure of content types and site columns
Copy only one of the subsites (which I use as a template for other sites)
Some lists belonging to the root site should be copied with their own data. Other non

Methods

I am seeking ideas and recommendations for the best way to address this requirement. Thank you!

I'd probably recommend a migration tool from one of the big vendors in the space. It will allow you to copy a site collection to another, with or with out content as you'd like, being totally configurable. — Eric Alexander, Jul 14, 2016 at 16:28
This doesn't seem like a "migration" problem. From what I understand, this is more of a "create site from template" issue... Normally, one would create a "static" site template/definition and then just create new sites starting from that, but here it seems that the "template" is just a live site. I can't know what is the reason for that (maybe the "template" is getting constantly updated so it is preferred to have it as an actual site??), but if that is the case, I would advocate for the code approach. — SPArcheon, Jul 14, 2016 at 17:58
Since there is already a strong source of entropy in the template begin technically editable, the more you can make the process replicable at a given moment the better. — SPArcheon, Jul 14, 2016 at 17:59
Yes, the site used like template is getting constantly updated — Juan Pablo Pussacq Laborde, Jul 14, 2016 at 20:20

Amal Hashim · Accepted Answer · 2016-07-14 13:21:44Z

1

Using PowerShell create a backup of existing site collection. Restore it as a new Site Collection.

Write PowerShell script to iterate through the sub sites and delete all except the template site.

Now take a backup of the new site collection so you can use it in future as a template.

answered Jul 14, 2016 at 13:21

Amal Hashim

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Thanks for the idea. Unfortunately I can not use Powershell. Only C # or manual.
– Juan Pablo Pussacq Laborde
Jul 14, 2016 at 13:23
The PowerShell functions are Available in C# server side API. So you can try that also.
– Amal Hashim
Jul 14, 2016 at 13:24

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