UnderStanding Features and Solutions

Features:
Features allow reusable pieces of functionality to be created and deployed to other sites,without modifying site
templates.It is always better to deploy a feature in new site instead of directly embedding mountains of complex
XML.Using Features, you can do everything from adding a link to the Site Settings page to creating a complete, fully
functioning Project Management suite that can be added to any SharePoint site.

Features are organized in folders under the Features directory located under 12 hives; Where SharePoint Server
2007 puts all of its system files, at the following path: %SystemDrive%\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft
Shared\web server extensions\12.

The two files that are used to define a feature are the feature.xml and Elements.xml .

The feature XML file defines the actual feature and will make SharePoint aware of the installed feature. It usually
identifies the Feature itself and its element manifest file and sets the Feature scope to Web site.

Elements.xml file identifies the assembly, class, and method to implement in feature.

Add a Feature in Sharepoint:

You can use a direct deploy of a feature in sharepoint site with stsadm.exe with
stsadm -o installfeature -filename XYZEventHandler\Feature.xml
stsadm -o activatefeature -filename XYZEventHandler\Feature.xml -url http://Server/Site/Subsite
iisreset

Reference: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms453149.aspx

To Deploy it as solution package follow the Steps below:

*Create Manifest.XML file as part of the same project, which contains information Solution and path of feature files as
part of the overall solution.
*Create a DDF file, which contains information to compress files into a CAB file.
*In the windows command prompt, run MakeCab.Exe on the DDF file to generate the WSP file. Note: MakeCab.Exe
file can be downloaded from the Microsoft Site and should be copied into the same directory containing the Visual
Studio Project Files.
*Add solution to Sharepoint with stsadm.exe addsolution command.

Reference: http://www.codeproject.com/KB/sharepoint/ExtendingSPS.aspx

Solutions:
Solutions allow you to package Features in a cabinet (.cab) file and define important metadata about those Features.
After a Solution is installed on a server in the farm, you can then use SharePoint’s Solution management features to
automate the deployment of that Solution to other sites within the farm.

The solution manifest (always called manifest.xml) is stored at the root of a solution file.
This file defines the list of features, site definitions, resource files, Web Part files, and assemblies to process. It does
not define the file structure—if files are included in a solution but not listed in the manifest XML file, they are not
processed in any way.

Because the solution file is essentially a .cab file, use the makecab.exe tool to create the solution package. The
makecab.exe tool takes a pointer to a .ddf file, which describes the structure of the .cab file. The format of a .ddf file
is, declare a standard header and then enumerate, one file per line, the set of files by where they live on disk,
separated by where they should live in the .cab file.

Features & Solutions:

The Feature Framework has been extended to allow developers to create custom Features. Features can be
deployed by using SharePoint Portal Server 2007 new form of deployment, namely Solution Deployment.

Solutions are custom packages (e.g. WSP file) or redistributable CAB files, created by developers and deployed by
SharePoint Administrators. Administrator can deploy Features to the individual site or to all Web front End Servers.
 Features are a method for developers to package customisations and deploy them to the SharePoint portal. They can
then be activated and deactivated at the Site Collection level. Solutions are a way to bundle features together for
deployment.

How to: Create an Event Handler Feature

This example shows how to add a simple event handler that prevents items from being deleted
from a list. Two procedures are involved in this task:

• Creating an event handler in Microsoft Visual Studio

• Adding the event handler as a Feature in Windows SharePoint Services

To create the event handler in Visual Studio

1. Create a new project in Visual Studio by clicking File, pointing to New, and then clicking
Project.
2. In the New Project dialog box, select Visual C# in the Project types box, select Class
Library in the Templates box, type DeletingEventHandler in the Name box, and then
click OK.
3. In Solution Explorer, select DeletingEventHandler, and click Add Reference on the
Project menu.
4. In the Add Reference dialog box, select Microsoft.SharePoint on the .NET tab and
then click OK.
5. In the Code Editor, import the Microsoft.SharePoint namespace as follows.

using Microsoft.SharePoint;

6. Change the name of the class to DeletingAction and make it inherit from the
SPItemEventReceiver class, as follows.

public class DeletingAction : SPItemEventReceiver

7. Add the following code within the class to override the ItemDeleting method.

C#

public override void ItemDeleting(SPItemEventProperties properties)

{
properties.Cancel = true;
properties.ErrorMessage = "Deleting items from " +
properties.RelativeWebUrl + " is not supported.";
}

8. In Solution Explorer, right-click the DeletingEventHandler node, and then click

Properties.
9. In the Properties dialog box, click the Signing tab, select Sign the asembly, select
Choose a strong name key file, and then click <New…>.
 10. In the Create Strong Name Key dialog box, type DeletingEventHandler.snk in the
Key file name box, optionally specify a password for the key, and then click OK.
11. To build the project, click Build Solution on the Build menu, or press CTRL+SHIFT+B.
12. Find the \DeletingEventHandler\bin\Debug folder in the Visual Studio Projects
folder, and drag the DeletingEventHandler.dll file to Local_Drive:\WINDOWS\assembly
to place the DLL in the global assembly cache.

To add the event handler as a Windows SharePoint

Services Feature

1. Create a folder in Local_Drive:/Program Files/Common Files/Microsoft Shared/web server

extensions/12/TEMPLATE/FEATURES called DeletingEventHandler.
2. Create a Feature.xml file in this folder like the following that identifies the Feature and its element manifest file and
sets the Feature scope to Web site.

Xml

<Feature Scope="Web"
Title="Deleting Event Handler"
Id="GUID"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">
<ElementManifests>
<ElementManifest Location="Elements.xml"/>
</ElementManifests>
</Feature>

3. To replace the GUID placeholder in the previous Id attribute, generate a GUID by running guidgen.exe located in
Local_Drive:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8.
4. Create an Elements.xml file in the DeletingEventHandler folder that identifies the assembly, class, and method to
implement as the event handler. This example applies the event handler to all announcements lists of a site, as specified
by the ListTemplateId attribute. For the IDs of other default Windows SharePoint Services list template types, see the
Type attribute description of the ListTemplate element.

Xml

<Elements xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">
<Receivers ListTemplateId="104">
<Receiver>
<Name>DeletingEventHandler</Name>
<Type>ItemDeleting</Type>
<SequenceNumber>10000</SequenceNumber>
<Assembly>DeletingEventHandler, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral,
PublicKeyToken=a26b5449ac4a4cf3</Assembly>
<Class>DeletingEventHandler.DeletingAction</Class>
<Data></Data>
<Filter></Filter>
</Receiver>
</Receivers>
</Elements>

5. To get the Public Key Token of the assembly, in Windows Explorer find the DeletingEventHandler.dll file in the
Local_Drive:\WINDOWS\assembly, right-click the file, click Properties, and on the General tab of the Properties
dialog box, select and copy the token.
6. At a command prompt, navigate to \Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server
extensions\12\BIN on the local drive, and type each of the following commands to install the Feature in the
deployment, activate the Feature on a specified subsite, and reset Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) so that
the changes take effect:
7. stsadm -o installfeature -filename DeletingEventHandler\Feature.xml
8.
9. stsadm -o activatefeature -filename DeletingEventHandler\Feature.xml -url
http://Server/Site/Subsite
10.
iisreset

11. Try to delete an item in an announcements list on the specified Web site to see the effects of the event handler Feature.