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SharePoint 2007 Deployment: Module Features

André Vala

Summary

This post is about developing features to deploy files in a SharePoint site (module features). Check the first post SharePoint 2007 Deployment: Overview for an introduction and the series index.

Package Structure

As I mentioned previously in the post SharePoint 2007 Deployment: Creating and Using Features, to build a feature you need to create the following files:

The feature manifest file contains the generic information about the feature package, and the element manifest files contain the information about each specific type of element that makes up the feature. Since I already explained all the possible contents of the feature manifest file in the above mentioned post, I will focus this one the element manifest that allows the provisioning of files (modules) in a SharePoint site.

You can then place these two files inside a Solution following the instructions in the post SharePoint 2007 Deployment: Creating Solutions, to provide an easy way to deploy the feature (or upgrade it).

Modules

Modules are collections of files that must be provisioned in a SharePoint web site. This type of feature element can be used to:

According to the documentation, WSS 3.0 supports provisioning a maximum of 1000 files through module feature elements (whether using a single module element with 1000 files, or 1000 module elements each with a single file).

Allowed Scopes

The scopes to which a feature can be deployed, are dictated by the types of elements included in it. A feature with module elements can be deployed to Site Collection and Web Site scopes, since they represent files that are to be placed in web sites.

Feature Manifest

I will only present a simple feature manifest, since the additional options were presented in the above mentioned post.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<Feature
  xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/"
  Title="My Module Feature"
  Id="17E94729-EF3E-4f43-9385-88E1201F91E0"
  Description="This feature adds files to the web site."
  Version="1.0.0.0"
  Scope="Web"
  Hidden="FALSE"
  DefaultResourceFile="core">
    <ElementManifests>
        <ElementManifest Location="Modules.xml" />
        <ElementFile Location="default.aspx" />
        <ElementFile Location="MyMasterPage.master" />
        <ElementFile Location="MyDocument.docx" />
        <ElementFile Location="MyWebPart\MyWebPart.webpart" />
        <ElementFile Location="MyStyles.css" />
    </ElementManifests>
</Feature>

Notes about this feature manifest:

Element Manifest

The element manifest file can have any name you wish (in this example it’s called Module.xml), but it’s root element must be <Elements>. Inside this root element, you can place any number of feature element descriptions. In this example I will present the use of the <Module> element which is used to deploy Files to SharePoint web sites.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Elements xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">
    
    <!-- Page Module -->
    <Module Name="Pages" Url="" Path="">
        <File Url="default.aspx" 
              NavBarHome="True" 
              IgnoreIfAlreadyExists="TRUE" 
              Type="Ghostable">

            <!-- Places Web Part on Page -->
            <AllUsersWebPart WebPartZoneID="Left" WebPartOrder="1">
                <![CDATA[
                  <webParts>
                    <webPart xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WebPart/v3">
                      <metaData>
                        <type name="MyWebPart, 
                                    MyWebPart.MyWebPart, 
                                    Version=1.0.0.0, 
                                    Culture=neutral, 
                                    PublicKeyToken=1255988569cf0248" />
                        <importErrorMessage>
                            Cannot import My Web Part.
                        </importErrorMessage>
                      </metaData>
                      <data>
                        <properties>
                          <property name="Title" type="string">
                            My Web Part
                          </property>
                        </properties>
                      </data>
                    </webPart>
                  </webParts>
                ]]>
            </AllUsersWebPart>
            
            <!-- Places a List View for a Discussion Board -->
            <View List="Lists/Discussions" 
                  BaseViewID="4" 
                  Name="Discussions" 
                  WebPartZoneID="Left" 
                  WebPartOrder="2"/>

            <!-- Places a List View for a Document Library -->
            <View List="MyDocuments" 
                  BaseViewID="10" 
                  Name="My Documents" 
                  WebPartZoneID="Left" 
                  WebPartOrder="3"/>

            <!-- Customizes Navigation -->
            <NavBarPage Name="$Resources:core,nav_Home;" 
                        ID="1002" 
                        Position="Start" />
        </File>
    </Module>
    
    <!-- Master Page Module -->
    <Module Name="Master Pages" List="116" Url="_catalogs/masterpage">
        <File Url="MyMasterPage.master" Type="GhostableInLibrary" />
    </Module>

    <!-- Document Module -->
    <Module Name="Documents" List="101" Url="MyDocuments">
        <File Url="MyDocument.docx" Type="GhostableInLibrary" />
    </Module>

    <!-- Web Part Module -->
    <Module Name="WebParts" List="113" Url="_catalogs/wp">
        <File Path="MyWebPart\MyWebPart.webpart"
              Url="MyWebPart.webpart"
              Type="GhostableInLibrary" />
    </Module>

    <!-- Style Sheet Module -->
    <Module Name="Stylesheets" List="101" Url="Style Library">
        <File Url="MyStyles.css" Type="GhostableInLibrary" />
    </Module>
</Elements>

The example above provisions five different files in a SharePoint web site:

The Module Element

The <Module> element is used to specify a Module. There can be any number of modules in a single element manifest. Here is a summary of the possible attributes of this element:

The File Element

The <File> element is used to specify a file inside a module. There can be any number of <File> elements inside a <Module> element. See below a list of the possible attributes of this element:

The AllUsersWebPart Element

The <AllUsersWebPart> element is used when you want to add a generic web part (non-List View web part) to a web part page. It can only be used inside a <File> element that provisions a web part page file. It has only two attributes:

Inside this element, you can place a CDATA element with the web part’s XML description, either using the DWP file schema (also called V2) or the WEBPART file schema (also called V3).

The View Element

The <View> element is used when you want to add a List View Web Part to a web part page. It can only be used inside a <File> element that provisions a web part page file. It has a lot of possible attributes, but I will only list the most common:

The NavBarPage Element

The <NavBarPage> element is used to define how the navigation items should be created so that other pages link to this one. It can only be used inside a <File> element that provisions a web page file. It has three attributes:

The Property Element

The <Property> element is used only inside the <File> element, to define the value of one or more properties of that file, once it is provisioned. It’s mostly used to set properties of web part files or document files. It has only two attributes:

Additional Notes

The files included in a module feature element are provisioned in the web site where the feature is activated. However, when the feature is deactivated, the files that belong to the module element are not removed.

You can learn a lot about modules by looking inside the onet.xml files included in each site template (look in C:\Program Files\...\12\TEMPLATE\SiteTemplates). These files include a <Modules> element which shares the same schema as the Module Features.