How to copy web part pages?

Question

I have an aspx page with a half dozen web parts on it (Area1Estimates). I'd like to create a copy of this (Area2Estimates) and then just go in make some very minor changes to the parameters on the web controls.

I've tried opening the "folder (?)" in sharepoint in explorer view and copying, pasting and renaming the files and have also tried "Send to | Download" and then renaming and uploading. No matter what I do, when I open the new page it is empty.

Im using sharepoint 2007 and trying to do this through the browser.

Whats the correct way to do this?

Answer 1

The reason you're seeing this behaviour is because the Web Part Manager (a nugget of software called a "User Control"), which keeps track of which web parts are in what web part zones, ties these settings to the Page itself by URL in the Content Database. Which means the settings aren't stored in the page (rather, the database refers to the page to find out which settings to load).

Lori's answer has came through when writing this, so she has captured a major point I was getting to - it depends on how the page was created - if someone made it "by hand" in the browser, or if a developer had written a feature that you switch on to generate the page.

Additional: Looks like you might just be able to do this within SharePoint Designer (Copying the web part page). Also, try this:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3506845/copy-webpart-page-aspx-page-with-web-parts

Answer 2

There are a couple of options here. If this is a publishing site, you can go in to the pages library (view all site content>Pages) and then open that library in explorer view, copy it and rename it and then go into the page and edit it and publish it with the changes.

If this is not a publishing site, you could consider creating a new page layout that will have the same look as the current one, but you will manually have to add all of the web parts.

If these are web part pages that are contained in a document library, you can use the same options as if this were the pages library.

Something you do not indicate is how this original page was created. Was it created from within the browser? Was it custom created? Are these web parts custom web parts? All of these may affect the ability to copy the page and create a new one.

Your best bet is to always create the content type first then create the pages from that content type so that they will be the same.

Answer 3

The short answer:

1. Use SPD to copy/paste multiple versions of the page
2. From the library, select the item -> send to -> download a copy, change the name, then upload the newly named file back into the library

The previous suggestions should work also (ie: explorer view, etc.)

Answer 4

You can use SharePoint Designer to copy the web part pages along with web parts. Here is the trick: http://salaudeen.blogspot.com/2012/02/copy-webpart-pages-between-sharepoint.html