Making a sharepoint site (2007) read only

The problem you are having is the move from your original site collection to another. The site template does not store the complete definition of a site - only the differences from the underlying site definition. Move from one site collection to another and you lose the underlying site definition and run into problems such as the loss of your content types.

Site templates and site definitions are two separate customizations you can undertake. You need to make a decision based on your requirements as to which is best.

Site templates

Pro's:

• Easy to create and reuse through the SharePoint interface
• Ideal for end users
• A site template is a customization of the underlying default site definition

Con's:

• Dependency on underlying site definition means SharePoint updates could break your site templates
• Poor performance since the modifications are held in the database and are read from the DB and compiled on each request
• Limited customization options

Site definitions

Pro's:

• Harder to create: involves coding XML
• Made by developers and site administrators
• Independent of SharePoint default site definitions so not affected by SharePoint updates
• Limitless customization options

Con's:

• Difficult to modify when deployed
• Can be cached on the file system so is fast to load

Check out Google for info on creating custom site definitions.

Hope this helps!

Jonny

I think with VSeWSS 1.2 you can convert a site to an site definition.

Extract from the VSeWSS 1.2 announcement on the SharePoint Team blog:

SharePoint Solution Generator This stand-alone program generates a Site Definition project from an existing SharePoint site. The program enables developers to use the browser and Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer to customize the content of their sites before creating code by using Visual Studio.

So crating a site from a site template an then running VSeWSS 1.2 should do the trick.