Site templates

Site templates could then be used to provision new sites, with modified templates. Site templates were database-only copies of Site Definitions, and they could include content such as SharePoint document libraries, lists, and even files within document libraries. The challenge with Site templates was (and still is) that they are only supported in non-publishing sites, meaning sites that do not use SharePoint Publishing Features capabilities. This would include site templates (not Site Templates, note the capitalization difference here) such as Developer Site, Team Site, and Blank Site. A Site Template would, upon creation, save itself, and a reference to the original site definition it was based on, and create a .STP file within the SharePoint content database. As you might guess, this proved to be problematic as well, since content in the database was strictly only accessible through a set of (then) very-limited APIs or through the user interface of SharePoint. For developers, this was not adequate.