You can provision the page in ONET.XML.
First add a web part page template to your site definition.
Then provision an instance of the page (with the web parted added) in your ONET.XML.
This stuff is described fully in Ted Pattison's book Inside Windows SharePoint Services 3.0
default.aspx
<%@ Assembly Name="Microsoft.SharePoint,Version=12.0.0.0,Culture=neutral,PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" %> <%@ Register Tagprefix="SharePoint" Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint.WebControls" Assembly="Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" %> <%@ Register Tagprefix="Utilities" Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint.Utilities" Assembly="Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" %> <%@ Import Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint" %> <%@ Register Tagprefix="WebPartPages" Namespace="Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages" Assembly="Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c" %>
<%@ Page language="C#" MasterPageFile="~masterurl/default.master"
Inherits="Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages.WebPartPage" %>
<asp:Content ContentPlaceHolderId="PlaceHolderMain" runat="server">
<table cellspacing="0" border="0" width="100%">
<tr>
<td class="ms-pagebreadcrumb">
<asp:SiteMapPath SiteMapProvider="SPContentMapProvider" id="ContentMap" SkipLinkText="" NodeStyle-CssClass="ms-sitemapdirectional" runat="server"/>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<table width="100%" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 style="padding: 5px 10px 10px 10px;">
<tr>
<td valign="top" width="70%">
<WebPartPages:WebPartZone runat="server" FrameType="TitleBarOnly" ID="Left" Title="loc:Left" />
</td>
<td> </td>
<td valign="top" width="30%">
<WebPartPages:WebPartZone runat="server" FrameType="TitleBarOnly" ID="Right" Title="loc:Right" />
</td>
<td> </td>
</tr>
</table>
</td>
</tr>
</table>
</asp:Content>
<asp:Content ID="Content1" ContentPlaceHolderId="PlaceHolderPageTitle" runat="server">
<SharePoint:ProjectProperty ID="ProjectProperty1" Property="Title" runat="server"/>
</asp:Content>
<asp:Content ID="Content2" ContentPlaceHolderId="PlaceHolderPageTitleInTitleArea" runat="server">
<label class="ms-hidden"><SharePoint:ProjectProperty ID="ProjectProperty2" Property="Title" runat="server"/></label>
</asp:Content>
ONET.xml snippet
<Module Name="Default" Url="" >
<File Url="default.aspx" Type="Ghostable">
<!-- Add a Web Part to left zone -->
<AllUsersWebPart WebPartZoneID="Left" WebPartOrder="0">
<![CDATA[
<WebPart
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WebPart/v2"
xmlns:cewp="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WebPart/v2/ContentEditor">
<Assembly>Microsoft.SharePoint, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c</Assembly>
<TypeName>Microsoft.SharePoint.WebPartPages.ContentEditorWebPart</TypeName>
<Title>Working with Site Definitions</Title>
<FrameType>TitleBarOnly</FrameType>
<cewp:Content>
This Web Part was added through declarative logic in ONET.XML
</cewp:Content>
</WebPart>
]]>
</AllUsersWebPart>
</File>
</Module>
You can use the SPLimitedWebPartManager class to manipulate Web parts on a Web part page. An instance of this class can be obtained from an SPFile object as follows:
using (SPSite site = new SPSite("<site url>")) // e.g. http://server/sites/asite
using (SPWeb web = site.OpenWeb())
{
SPFile file = web.GetFile("<page url>"); // e.g. /sites/asite/default.aspx
SPLimitedWebPartManager lwpm = file.GetLimitedWebPartManager();
SPLimitedWebPartCollection webParts = lwpm.WebParts;
WebPart wp = webParts[<id, index or Guid>];
// Add your code to update the Web Part
lwpm.SaveChanges(wp);
}
You can also add or delete web parts with the SPLimitedWebPartManager.
Best Answer
A while ago I did something similar but then with Publishing Pages. Using a Feature I was provisioning Publishing Pages to the Pages library. Although it's not exactly the case you've described it might give you some idea of how to approach it. I have described my findings on my blog @ http://blog.mastykarz.nl/provisioning-publishing-pages-features-declarative-markup/