Save SharePoint Publishing site as Template

Hello Floks,

In one of our project, we need to save template of Publishing site. Microsoft restrict saving SP2013 Publishing sites as Template(more info).

Earlier version of SharePoint (Below than 2013) supports SharePoint does not support Save Site as Template option with the Publishing features turned on. The supported method to create templates for publishing sites is to use a site definition template and using a feature XML.

If you want to save publishing sites as templates there is a workaround. Since its forbidden there is no "Save site as a Template"  link in "Site Settings" page of publishing site. But you can get access to that page by using following URL:

/_layouts/savetmpl.aspx

But, this workaround can work on earlier version of SharePoint, in SP2013 this URL will work perfectly only for sites that have publishing features not activated. For publishing sites you get an error like

saving publishing sites as template is not allowed.

To allow this features work perfectly you need to do either of following steps:

Using PowerShell Script

$web=Get-SPWeb http://sharepointsiteurl[/subsite]
$web.AllProperties["SaveSiteAsTemplateEnabled"] = "true"
$web.Update()

Using SharePoint Designer

Open publishing site in SharePoint Designer click on File Menu from Top Navigation.

Double Click or Click on Modify button once you select SaveSiteAsTemplateEnabled option.

 

By default value is false update it as True and click on OK button and then Apply Button and again click on OK button of parent window.

Now you can access following page for Saving Publishing site As Template by using following URL:

http://publishing_siteURL/_layouts/savetmpl.aspx. 

Enjoy..:) :) :)