Default page and Default Page Layout of a Custom Site Template

When we create a site based on one of the SharePoint site templates and visit the site, usual behavior is to automatically redirect to the default.aspx page of the new site. (<NewSiteURL>/Pages/default.aspx), which is sometimes not what we want. When creating custom site templates we can change this behavior in the SharePoint Server Publishing feature as this default page is created automatically by publishing feature.

Set about-us.aspx as the Default page (Welcome page)

Create a new module for the custom default page like shown below and put the about-us.aspx page beside the default.aspx in the SiteTemplate folder.

<Module Name="AboutUs" Url="$Resources:osrvcore,List_Pages_UrlName;" Path="">

  <File Url=" about-us.aspx " Type="GhostableInLibrary" >

    <Property Name="Title" Value="AboutUs" />

    <Property Name="Comments" Value="About Us Page" />

    <Property Name="PublishingPageLayout" Value="~SiteCollection/_catalogs/masterpage/PageLayout1.aspx, PageLayout 01 Title" />

    <Property Name="ContentType" Value="My Article Page" />

  </File>

</Module>

Then set WelcomePageUrl property in the Publishing feature as below.

<Property Key="WelcomePageUrl" Value="$Resources:osrvcore,List_Pages_UrlName;/about-us.aspx"/>

Set PageLayout1.aspx as the Default PageLayout

Use DefaultPageLayout property in the Publishing feature as below.

<Property Key="DefaultPageLayout" Value="~SiteCollection/_catalogs/masterpage/PageLayout1.aspx"/>

So the publishing feature with a custom default page and a custom default Page Layout will look like this.

<!--Publishing feature-->

<Feature ID="22A9EF51-737B-4ff2-9346-694633FE4416">

  <Properties xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">

    <Property Key="ChromeMasterUrl" Value="~SiteCollection/_catalogs/masterpage/MyAboutUs.master"/>

    <Property Key="WelcomePageUrl" Value="$Resources:osrvcore,List_Pages_UrlName;/about-us.aspx"/>

    <Property Key="SimplePublishing" Value="false" />

    <Property Key="DefaultPageLayout" Value="~SiteCollection/_catalogs/masterpage/PageLayout1.aspx"/>

  </Properties>

</Feature>