Walkthrough: Create a basic site definition project

Article
02/02/2017

Applies to: Visual Studio Visual Studio for Mac

Note

This article applies to Visual Studio 2017. If you're looking for the latest Visual Studio documentation, see Visual Studio documentation. We recommend upgrading to the latest version of Visual Studio. Download it here

This walkthrough shows you how to create a basic site definition that contains a visual Web part with some controls on it. For the sake of clarity, the visual Web part that you create has only a few controls. However, you can create more sophisticated SharePoint site definitions that include more functionality.

This walkthrough demonstrates the following tasks:

Creating a site definition by using the Visual Studio project template.
Creating a SharePoint site by using a site definition in SharePoint.
Adding a visual Web part to the solution.
Customizing the site's default.aspx page by adding the new visual Web part to it.

Note

Your computer might show different names or locations for some of the Visual Studio user interface elements in the following instructions. The Visual Studio edition that you have and the settings that you use determine these elements. For more information, see Personalize the IDE.

Prerequisites

You need the following components to complete this walkthrough:

Supported editions of Microsoft Windows and SharePoint. For more information, see Requirements for Developing SharePoint Solutions.
Visual Studio.

Create a site definition solution

First, create the site definition project in Visual Studio.

To create a site definition project

On the menu bar, choose File > New > Project. If your IDE is set to use Visual Basic development settings, on the menu bar, choose File > New Project.

The New Project dialog box appears.
Expand the Visual C# node or the Visual Basic node, expand the SharePoint node, and then choose the 2010 node.
In the Templates list, choose the SharePoint 2010 Project template.
In the Name box, enter TestSiteDef, and then choose the OK button.

The SharePoint Customization Wizard appears.
On the Specify the site and security level for debugging page, enter the URL for the SharePoint site where you want to debug the site definition, or use the default location (http://System Name/).
In the What is the trust level for this SharePoint solution? section, choose the Deploy as a farm solution option button.

All site definition projects must be deployed as farm solutions. For more information about sandboxed solutions versus farm solutions, see Sandboxed solution considerations.
Choose the Finish button.

The project appears in Solution Explorer.
In Solution Explorer, choose the project node, and then, on the menu bar, choose Project > Add New Item.
Under either Visual C# or Visual Basic, expand the SharePoint node, and then choose the 2010 node.
In the Templates pane, choose the Site Definition template, leave the Name as SiteDefinition1, and then choose the Add button.

Create a visual web part

Next, create a visual Web part to appear on the site definition's main page.

To create a visual web part

In Solution Explorer, choose the Show All Files button.
Choose the SiteDefinition1 project node, and then, on the menu bar, choose Project > Add New Item.

The Add New Item dialog box appears.
Expand the Visual C# node or the Visual Basic node, expand the SharePoint node, and then choose the 2010 node.
In the list of templates, choose the Visual Web Part template, keep the default name VisualWebPart1, and then choose the Add button.

The VisualWebPart1.ascx file opens.

At the bottom of VisualWebPart1.ascx, add the following markup to add three controls to the form: a text box, a button, and a label:

<table>
  <tr>
    <td>
      <asp:TextBox runat="server" ID="tbName"></asp:TextBox>
    </td>
    <td>
      <asp:Button runat="server" ID="btnSubmit" Text = "Change Label Text" OnClick="btnSubmit_Click"></asp:Button>
    </td>
    <td>
      <asp:Label runat="server" ID="lblName"></asp:Label>
    </td>
  </tr>
</table>

Under VisualWebPart1.ascx, open the VisualWebPart1.ascx.cs file (for Visual C#) or VisualWebPart1.ascx.vb (for Visual Basic) , and then add the following code:

Protected Sub btnSubmit_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs)
    lblName.Text = tbName.Text
End Sub

protected void btnSubmit_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{            
    lblName.Text = tbName.Text;
}

This code adds functionality for the web part's button click.

Add the visual web part to the default ASPX page

Next, add the visual Web part to the site definition's default ASPX page.

To add a visual web part to the default ASPX page

Open the default.aspx page, and then add the following line under the WebPartPages tag:
```
<%@ Register Tagprefix="MyWebPartControls" Namespace="TestSiteDef.VisualWebPart1" Assembly="$SharePoint.Project.AssemblyFullName$" %>
```
This line associates the name MyWebPartControls with the Web part and its code. The Namespace parameter matches the namespace that's used in the VisualWebPart1.ascx code file.
After the </asp:Content> element, replace the entire ContentPlaceHolderId="PlaceHolderMain" section and its contents with the following code:
```
<asp:Content ID="Content1" ContentPlaceHolderId="PlaceHolderMain" runat="server">
    <MyWebPartControls:VisualWebPart1 runat="server" />
</asp:Content>
```
This code creates a reference to the visual Web part that you created earlier.
In Solution Explorer, open the shortcut menu for the SiteDefinition1 node, and then choose Set as Startup Item.

Deploy and run the site definition solution

Next, deploy the project to SharePoint, and then run the project.

To deploy and run the site definition

On the menu bar, choose Build > Deploy TestSiteDef.
Choose the F5 key.

Visual Studio compiles the code, adds its features, packages all of the files into a SharePoint solution (WSP) file, and deploys the WSP file to SharePoint Server. SharePoint then installs the files and then activates the features.

Create a site based on the site definition

Next, create a site by using the new site definition.

To create a site by using the site definition

On the SharePoint site, the New SharePoint Site page appears.
In the Title and Description section, enter My New Site for the title and a description of the site.
In the Web Site Address section, enter mynewsite in the URL name box.
In the Template section, choose the SharePoint Customizations tab.
In the Select a template list, choose SiteDefinition1.
Leave the other settings at their default values, and then choose the Create button.

The new site appears.

Test the new site

Next, test the new site to verify whether it works correctly.

To test the new site

On the default ASPX page, enter some text, and then choose the Change Label Text button next to the text box.

The text appears in the label on the right side of the button.

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