Moving SharePoint (MOSS 2007) Sites

Question

I have a site collection with the following structure:

• Sales Dept Site (site collection top-level site)
  • Sales Dept Sub-Site 1
  • Sales Dept Sub-Site 2

We now have a need to insert a new top-level site so that the new structure will look like the following:

• Sales Public Site (site collection top-level site)
  • Sales Dept Site
    • Sales Dept Sub-Site 1
    • Sales Dept Sub-Site 2

So, I need to shove all the existing content down a level and insert a new content at the site collecteion top-level site.

What is the best approach to accomplish this? My thought is to create a new site collection with the top-level site created as I need it (Sales Public Site). I can then export the content of the Sales Dept Site and import it into the new site collection as a sub-site.

Answer 1

You can move entire sites via the 'Manage Content And Structure' from the 'Site Actions' menu on the top level site, so there is no need to export and import sites.

Follow this guide for getting access to the 'Manage Content And Structure' if it doesn't exist in the 'Site Actions' menu.

Answer 2

That approach should work. The easiest method is to export a site template, but that does have a fairly small size limit. For larger sites you may be able to get something working with the content deployment wizard.

Of course any customization of the site that assumes the current structure can't be guaranteed to continue to work. Is it an option to simply change the url and navigation to look like a part of the main site?

Answer 3

You approach is the right one. However if you are using MOSS you should use use Manage Content and structure feature instead of exporting sites. This feature allows you to move your sites and restructure your collection. Learn more...

If you created your site collection as pure collaboration site you will have to activate SharePoint standard Publishing features on the top level site to enable this option.

Please note: This feature is not available in WSS.