Custom Site definition with custom masterpage

Site definition can be considered as a  blueprint of a SharePoint site. When developing business solutions on WSS platform sometimes we will have to create our own site definitions to incorporate functional business modules. Site Definitions gives you lots of flexibility in terms of maintaining and upgrading your solutions compared to Site Templates. Its also gives us the flexibility of choosing custom layouts and the ability to pre program the sequence of the feature activation order when  you create a new site based on the definition.

To create a site definition follow given steps:

1)  Open Visual Studio 2010, click New on the File menu, and then click Project. In the Templates pane, select the Site Definition project template under SharePoint 2010 templates folder. In the Name box, provide a name for your solution. In the Name box, input DemoSiteDefs and then click OK (See below Figure).



2) At this point, the SharePoint Customization Wizard will appear (See below screenshot).You will see a SharePoint Customization Wizard asking for a local site for debugging and deployment. Enter the URL for the SharePoint server site where you want to debug the site definition, or use the default location (http://system name/). Select Deploy as a farm solution for "What is the trust level for this SharePoint solution?" Click Finish. The project appears in Solution Explorer.


A new solution will be created as shown in the image below. Note that two .xml files are created (WebTemp_DemoSiteDefinition.xml, ONet.xml). As well, Features and Package folders are created. (See Below Figure)



3) Add MasterPage Module: To do this, right-click the project node in Solution Explorer, point to Add, and then click New Item.Within the Add New Item dialog box, in the list of SharePoint templates, select Module. Give the module a name, input MasterPageModule. In the module, delete the default Sample.txt file.

Download starter master page from http://startermasterpages.codeplex.com/.

Add the master page under the masterpage module. To do this, select the module node and then, on the Project menu, click Add Existing Item. Locate the master page and select it. Master page files have a .master file name extension. I added MyCustom.master file. See the following figure.



Now double click on element.xml file and replace the below code:

Note: Please note that feature id should be replaced with your project feature id.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Elements xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">
<Module Name="MasterPageModule" Url="_catalogs/masterpage" List="116" RootWebOnly="FALSE">
<File Path="MasterPageModule\MyCustom.master" Url="MyCustom.master" Type="GhostableInLibrary" IgnoreIfAlreadyExists="FALSE"/>
</Module>
</Elements>

Open the Onet.xml file and place the code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project Title="DemoSiteDefinition" Revision="2" ListDir="" xmlns:ows="Microsoft SharePoint" xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">
<NavBars>
<NavBar
Name="$Resources:core,category_Top;"
Separator="&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;"
Body="&lt;a ID='onettopnavbar#LABEL_ID#' href='#URL#' accesskey='J'&gt;#LABEL#&lt;/a&gt;"
ID="1002" />
<NavBar
Name="$Resources:core,category_Documents;"
Prefix="&lt;table border='0' cellpadding='4' cellspacing='0'&gt;"
Body="&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;table border='0' cellpadding='0' cellspacing='0'&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;img src='/_layouts/images/blank.gif' id='100' alt='' border='0'&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td valign='top'&gt;&lt;a id='onetleftnavbar#LABEL_ID#' href='#URL#'&gt;#LABEL#&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;/table&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;"
Suffix="&lt;/table&gt;"
ID="1004" />
</NavBars>
<ListTemplates>
<ListTemplate
Name="meetings"
DisplayName="$Resources:xml_onet_mwsidmeetingDisp;"
Type="200"
BaseType="0"
Unique="TRUE"
Hidden="TRUE"
HiddenList="TRUE"
DontSaveInTemplate="TRUE"
SecurityBits="11"
Description="$Resources:xml_onet_mwsidmeetingDesc;"
Image="/_layouts/images/itevent.gif">
</ListTemplate>
<ListTemplate
Name="agenda"
DisplayName="$Resources:xml_onet_mwsidagendaDisp;"
Type="201"
BaseType="0"
FolderCreation="FALSE"
DisallowContentTypes="TRUE"
SecurityBits="11"
Description="$Resources:xml_onet_mwsidagendaDesc"
Image="/_layouts/images/itagnda.gif">
</ListTemplate>
</ListTemplates>

<DocumentTemplates>
<DocumentTemplate
Path="STS"
DisplayName="$Resources:core,doctemp_Word;"
Type="121"
Default="TRUE"
Description="$Resources:core,doctemp_Word_Desc;">
<DocumentTemplateFiles>
<DocumentTemplateFile
Name="doctemp\word\wdtmpl.dotx"
TargetName="Forms/template.dotx"
Default="TRUE" />
</DocumentTemplateFiles>
</DocumentTemplate>
</DocumentTemplates>

<Configurations>
<Configuration ID="0" Name="DemoSiteDefinition" CustomMasterUrl="_catalogs/masterpage/mycustom.master"
MasterUrl="_catalogs/masterpage/mycustom.master">
<Lists>
<List
FeatureId="00BFEA71-E717-4E80-AA17-D0C71B360101"
Type="101"
Title="$Resources:core,shareddocuments_Title;"
Url="$Resources:core,shareddocuments_Folder;"
QuickLaunchUrl="$Resources:core,shareddocuments_Folder;/Forms/AllItems.aspx" />
</Lists>
<SiteFeatures>
<Feature ID="f6924d36-2fa8-4f0b-b16d-06b7250180fa"></Feature>
</SiteFeatures>
<WebFeatures>
<Feature ID="3d3245a5-6277-4dc7-848a-911fe1aa2247"></Feature>
<Feature ID="94c94ca6-b32f-4da9-a9e3-1f3d343d7ecb"></Feature>
</WebFeatures>
<Modules>
<Module Name="DefaultBlank" />
</Modules>
</Configuration>
</Configurations>
<Modules>
<Module Name="DefaultBlank" Url="" Path="">
<File Url="default.aspx">
</File>
</Module>
</Modules>
</Project>

Press F5 to run and deploy the project.

Create a Site. In the new Site, you can see the custom master page as shown in the following figure.



To add more components refer to the onet.xml basics :http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms474369.aspx

Thanks for time:)