A.8. Leveraging the SharePoint Solution Generator

The SharePoint Solution Generator (SPSolGen.exe) is one of the most powerful tools included with VSeWSS and the only included stand-alone Windows application. It allows you to package preexisting site and List Definitions, customize the content, and deploy it at will across an enterprise with ease, using embedded Solution Generator files. Thus, the main purpose of the SharePoint Solution Generator is to target a previously created Site or List Definition, provide integration by manufacturing a Visual Studio Project file, and finally wrap it in a deployable package with the embedded solution generation that can easily be provisioned at will.

A.8.1. Using the SharePoint Solution Generator to Reverse Engineer an Existing Site

The first step in using SPSolGen to reverse engineer an existing site is to choose the site that you wish to reverse engineer (see Figure A-8). There are some site templates that are not supported, such as the default News or Report Center sites. It is best to plan on using the Solution Generator with strictly Team, blank, or meeting workspace sites.

It is possible to also manually enter the URL as the argument that is passed if you are familiar with the site that you wish to package back into a project file. Next, you must define where you wish to store the new project file that will be generated (only C# is supported). By default, this will point to a Site Definition directory in the user's Documents folder, ...

Get Professional SharePoint® 2007 Development now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.