How to create web template based on Moss 2007 web site in sharepoint 2010

Question

I have a small requirement.. We are migrating moss2007 to sharepoint 2010 online ( cloud)

I have a Moss 2007 web site with some of the webparts( both out of box webparts (list view webparts) and one custom webpart) on it . Now I need to create a web template based on that site in sharepoint 2010. Web template exactly should look like same( look and feel) and also should have the webparts on it.

Simply I can say when user click create new site and select the custom web template. It should create a site exactly as it look in 2007 with out any modification or configurations.

site defination used in 2007 is STS.

I have seen some of the blogs creating the web template using the features, onet.xml etc.. but i didn't find anything about webparts in it.

Is it possible to include webparts in web template???

I don't want to migrate or move the 2007 site to 2010 and then save site as template(.wsp) and then create a solution based on the wsp....

Any suggestions on it will help me a lot... Thanks in advance

Answer 1

Yes, you can provision web parts as a part of your WebTemplate. Sincy you are talking about SPO, your limited to the Sandbox, so your options are somewhat limited (since you cannot use the SPLimitedWebPartManager). What you can do is to provision a file (Web Part page) using a Module and then use the AllUsersWebPart and View elements to add the Web Parts to the file.