Microsoft released the "Fantastic" 40 earlier this year for WSS 3.0 which also works for Office SharePoint Server 2007. I had trouble implementing a few of these templates given the sparse instructions provided by Microsoft.
Here are the steps I used to successfully deploy the templates and create a site using the templates. I’m going to focus on just the server admin templates (.wsp) or solutions and not the site admin .stp files.
- Download all the application templates. You can also download them individually. Given the small size, I downloaded the package containing all the templates.
- Running the EXE extracts the files. Do so on a SharePoint server where the deployment will occur. Make sure you create a new folder.
- You have to install each template individually. I suggest creating a batch file if you want to install all of them. I only needed to see the help desk related templates so I did this individually.
- The first step is to make sure Windows SharePoint Services Administration service is running. Open the Services MMC and start it. This is the timer job that installs the template.
- Install the ApplicationTemplateCore template. I missed this the first time. It is required to make any of the other templates work.
- Navigate to the directory containing the stsadm utility. Do not try to copy and paste these commands. For some reason this doesn’t work.
- To install a wsp file first run the following command: stsadm -o addsolution -filename c:swapplicationtemplatecore.wsp. Use your file path location.
- Next run stsadm -o deploysolution -name applicationtemplatecore.wsp -allowgacdeployment -immediate
- Repeat these steps for any other template you want to deploy. The template is not deployed until the timer job runs. I found that was not good enough.
- To run the timer job immediately, run stsadm -o execadmsvcjobs
- The next command to run is stsadm -o copyappbincontent
- Finally, run an iisreset
When you go to a site and create a new site, there is a new template tab called "Application Templates". Click on the tab and you will see the new application templates. Good luck.
