Is it possible to retrieve a web template (not a site template) in SharePoint Online?

Question

You can get a site template in SharePoint Online by going to site settings and clicking save as template (it will be stored in the solution gallery).

I have seen articles on how to create custom web templates, but is there a way to generate them for a web that already exists?

Forgive me if this is a silly question. I am still reading up on web templates.

Answer 1

A web template is persisted in the SharePoint database as a Microsoft SharePoint Foundation Solution, which is a file that has a .wsp extension. The .wsp file is stored in the Solutions Gallery of the site collection. The solution can also be deployed as a sandboxed solution.

Users create web templates on the Save as Template page (or through code that uses the SaveAsTemplate method of the Microsoft.SharePoint.SPWeb class).

Source: Web Templates

Issue: Unfortunately, the SaveAsTemplate method is not available in SharePoint Online.

Solution:

In SharePoint Online, you can use Get-PnPProvisioningTemplate using PnP PowerShell to generate a provisioning site template from a web.

References:

1. Get-PnPProvisioningTemplate
2. Introducing the PnP provisioning engine