Default page of custom site template with SharePoint Server Publishing feature

Question

I created a custom site template for Sharepoint 2010. In this template is automatically activated SharePoint Server Publishing feature by this code in onet.xml:

<WebFeatures>
  <Feature ID="94c94ca6-b32f-4da9-a9e3-1f3d343d7ecb" />
</WebFeatures>

I have also specified module for default page in onet.xml in this way:

(in configuration section):

<Modules>
   <Module Name="DefaultBlank" />
</Modules>

(and specified under configuration section):

<Module Name="DefaultBlank" Url=""  Path="">
  <File Url="default.aspx" Name="default.aspx" NavBarHome="True" Type="Ghostable">
  </File>
</Module>

But when I create site based on this template Sharepoint automatically redirect to NewSiteURL/Pages/default.aspx, which is something what I do not want. This default page is created automatically by publishing feature and it is blank. But I want as default page my prepared default.aspx, so address should be just NewSiteURL/default.aspx. I tried set this up by property of Publishing feature:

<Feature ID="94c94ca6-b32f-4da9-a9e3-1f3d343d7ecb">
   <Properties xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">
      <Property Key="WelcomePageUrl" Value="~/default.aspx"/>
   </Properties>
</Feature>

But it's not working. Does anybody know how to resolve this problem?

UPDATE:

I tried solution from Chakkaradeep but no luck with it :(. I still see blank default page when I created a site. My onet.xml now:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project Title="Custom Publishing Site" Revision="2" ListDir="" xmlns:ows="Microsoft   SharePoint" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">
<NavBars>
</NavBars>
<Configurations>
  <Configuration ID="0" Name="Custom Publishing Site"   CustomMasterUrl="_catalogs/masterpage/publish.master">
  <Lists/>
  <SiteFeatures>

    <!-- Aggregation lists + instances -->
    <Feature ID="465138bd-5cbb-477c-9148-0f0846f6c323" />

    <!-- Publishing Site Infrastructure -->
    <Feature ID="f6924d36-2fa8-4f0b-b16d-06b7250180fa" />

    <!-- Custom Content Types-->
    <Feature ID="d86c7005-d31d-43ae-b86b-38f28b81072e" />

    <!-- Custom styles + images -->
    <Feature ID="cfac09fe-5aff-4b66-8c3c-22ec02af3af5" />

  </SiteFeatures>
  <WebFeatures>

    <!-- Master Page -->
    <Feature ID="4dae3485-c2e5-4c07-adcc-28a7417b6dd9" />

    <!-- Page layouts --><!--
    <Feature ID="985b3cfc-728c-4459-90d9-5d02de88857a" />-->

    <!-- Publishing Feature -->
    <Feature ID="94c94ca6-b32f-4da9-a9e3-1f3d343d7ecb">
      <Properties xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">
        <Property Key="WelcomePageUrl" Value="$Resources:osrvcore,List_Pages_UrlName;/Default.aspx" />
        <Property Key="SimplePublishing" Value="true" />
      </Properties>
    </Feature>

    <!--Lists definitions + instances-->
    <Feature ID="be3732cc-6f55-41c1-b62c-a24a43540fad" />


     <!--Default Page Setting--> 
    <Feature ID="538e4d0c-d335-4ce1-a2d9-bfc94f78e6c8" />

  </WebFeatures>

</Configuration>
</Configurations>
</Project>

As you can see I deplying also custom master page + list definitions on web scope. Last feature is my custom default page. It's in module called DefaultPage and elements.xml of this module looks like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Elements xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">
  <Module Name="DefaultPage" Url="$Resources:cmscore,List_Pages_UrlName;">
   <File Url="default.aspx" Type="GhostableInLibrary" Path="DefaultPage\default.aspx" IgnoreIfAlreadyExists="TRUE" >
    <Property Name="Title" Value="Home" />
    <Property Name="IncludeInGlobalNavigation" Value="FALSE" />
    <Property Name="ContentType" Value="Welcome Page" />
    <Property Name="PublishingPageLayout"  Value="~SiteCollection/_catalogs/masterpage/BlankWebPartPage.aspx, Blank Web Part page" />
  </File>
 </Module>
</Elements>

In default.aspx file is just this code:

<%@ Page Inherits="Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing.TemplateRedirectionPage,Microsoft.SharePoint.Publishing,Version=14.0.0.0,Culture=neutral,PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" %> 
<%@ Reference VirtualPath="~TemplatePageUrl" %> 
<%@ Reference VirtualPath="~masterurl/custom.master" %>

All my changes are mostly copied from Chakkaradeep's example solution which is working fine. So I really don't know where can be a problem.

Answer 1

The sample avaialble in my blog post exactly has what you are asking for :) - http://blogs.msdn.com/b/chaks/archive/2011/09/04/teched-2011-provisioning-sharepoint-sites-using-web-templates.aspx

The sample is a sandbox web template which creates a publishing site with a default page.

Answer 2

In the File element in the DefaultBlank module add a Path attribute that points to your custom default page like shown below and put the default-custom.aspx page beside the default.aspx in the SiteTemplate folder (or your sub folder):

<File Url="default.aspx" Path="default-custom.aspx" NavBarHome="True" Type="Ghostable">

Answer 3

I solved this problem by adding this code into WebFeatures:

<Feature ID="22A9EF51-737B-4ff2-9346-694633FE4416">
      <Properties xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">
        <Property Key="ChromeMasterUrl" Value=""/>
        <Property Key="WelcomePageUrl" Value="$Resources:osrvcore,List_Pages_UrlName;/default.aspx"/>
        <Property Key="PagesListUrl" Value=""/>
        <Property Key="AvailableWebTemplates" Value=""/>
        <Property Key="AvailablePageLayouts" Value=""/>
        <Property Key="SimplePublishing" Value="true" />
      </Properties>
    </Feature>

It's a "Office SharePoint Server Publishing Infrastructure".