Are Sharepoint template files actually stored on the file system?

Question

I'm new to Sharepoint and just starting to poke around with Sharepoint Designer. I'm curious about the file system I see in Sharepoint designer which doesn't seem to appear anywhere else.

When I open a Sharepoint site in Sharepoint Designer, and I see folders for all my lists, and the Web forms created within them -- am I actually looking at the Windows file system? Or are these virtual-ish files that don't actually exist on the file system?

Put another way, when I create a new List in Sharepoint, do a bunch of template files ("AllItems.aspx," "DispForm.aspx," etc.) get written to the file system somewhere? If so, where?

I ask because I searched and I can't find any of the files I see in Sharepoint Designer anywhere on the actual file system.

Answer 1

I think they are on [server]/wwwroot/wss/virtualdirectoryofyoursharepoint and the information about each list is saved in the database of Sharepoint content.

Answer 2

Deane,

In essence, you're looking at a hybrid view. When you open SharePoint Designer, you're actually looking at a combination of files that exist in two different places:

1. The local file system of the SharePoint web front-end (WFE) to which you're connected.
2. The content database (within SQL Server) that houses the site you have open.

Generally speaking, knowing where any given file resides is a function of whether or not the file is customized. Uncustomized files (such as those that are provisioned through site defintions and Features) do, in fact, live within the server file system. If these files should become customized through editing (e.g., through SharePoint Designer), the edited copy ends up in the content database within SQL Server and is tied to the site.

MSDN has a good article describing SharePoint's virtualized file system and the customization process I'm describing (I'm representing it without going into a lot of detail). I'd recommend checking out the article:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc406685.aspx

I hope this helps!