Hello Daniel,

We've experienced some issues with DNN templates as well. Pre-DNN 6 we used them extensively without fail. However, more recently, we can't get an exported template to be applied...even from a fresh, default install that is exported. Here are the steps we used:

1. Created new instance (template.t-worxsite.com)
2. Exported the site as a template, including content, via Host>Site Management
3. Admin>Site Wizard
4. Build your site from a template
5. Select my new, exported template (NewTemplate2) from the template list
6. Select Replace
7. Click Next

At this point we get the following error immediately: "NewTemplate2.template is not a valid Website Template File."

The default templates can be applied np. But our exported templates seem like they are getting blocked.

I'm not sure what you mean by "server application property for the troubled dnn install was set to recycle at 512m - which was just after starting to create a new site..."

I would appreciate any help you could provide...even if it's a work-around at this point.

Thanks!

The 'work-around' for us was to mechanically edit the newly exported template so that it matches the xml format found in the dnn 6.23 'default.template'

In your file [mynewsite.template] look for and update the following lines:

add line 1:  {?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?}

modify: {settings sku="CE"}

For every TAB NODE delete the content and contentkey lines:

{tab}
      {content}Home{/content}
      {contentKey /} 

So it follows the layout pattern you find in the DNN 6.23 default.template: like this:

{tabs}
    {!-- EE Starter Pages --}
    {!-- PE Starter Pages --}
    {!-- CE Starter Pages --}
    {tab sku="CE"}
      {containersrc /}
      {cultureCode /}
     etc...