1. Feature and Solution Framework in SP2010 Ayman El-Hattab Technology Solution Professional MEA Center of Expertise SharePoint MVP ayman@aymanelhattab.com www.aymanelhattab.com

2. Session Objectives Become familiar with the Feature framework Understand how Solutions work Farm Solutions Vs. Sandboxed Solutions

3. Features Provide the primary deployment unit for SharePoint Can deliver functionality for Farms (SPFarm), Web Applications (SPWebApplication), Sites (SPSite) and Webs (SPWeb) Defined using CAML Allow .NET execution on Installation, Uninstallation, Activation, Deactivation and Upgrade.

4. Capabilities of Features Install files Modify user interface elements Define data structure and storage elements Columns Content Types Lists and Libraries Create Site Definitions Define Workflows Apply properties Almost everything you see and you don’t see in SharePoint

5. Features in the SharePoint Root 14emplateeatures Subdirectory for each feature (14emplateeaturesFeature Name]) Feature.xml (Manifest, Scope,…) 0 or more Elements (Fields, Content Types, etc…) 0 or more feature resources or element files (Master Page, Web Part,…)

6. Feature and Solution Framework in SP2010 Exploring OOB Features in SharePoint Root (14 hive) Demo

7. Installation and Activation It’s not enough to just put some XML files on the disk to make use of the feature Install WSP (Best Practice). STSADM or PowerShell Activate Feature Site Administration STSADM or PowerShell

8. Feature and Solution Framework in SP2010 Manually Create, Install and Activate a Module Feature Demo

9. Demo Recap We manually created a feature with a module element. A module element can be used to deploy any files ( Master Pages, CSS Files, Images,…) We manually installed the feature using stsadm command line utility. We manually activated the Web-scoped feature from Site settings page.

10. Other feature elements Site Columns Content Types (Reusable collection of site columns) List Definitions List Instances Content Type Binding Web Parts Site Templates Workflow / Workflow Association Event Handlers (Triggers) Others

11. Defining Data Structures Field element defines a Site Columns ContentType element defines a Site Content Type ListInstance defines an instance of a list definition ContentTypeBinding element binds a content type to a list

12. Defining Data Structures (The easy way!) Prototype and extract CAML definitions using SharePoint Manager 2010 Create a site collection for prototyping and another one for development http://spm.codeplex.com

13. Feature and Solution Framework in SP2010 Defining Data Structures Using Features Demo

14. Solutions Package features and other resources into one package for deployment (cabinet file) Can contain assemblies (Receivers, Code Behind for pages or user controls, Web Part code,…) WSPBuilder for SharePoint 2007 (http://wspbuilder.codeplex.com ) Easily created with Visual Studio 2010.

15. Farm SolutionsHow does it work in detail MySolution.wsp(WSS Solution Cab) ConfigDB add Feature Manifests delete Site definitions Assemblies UI, CommandLine, OM“deploy”command Deploy/Upgrade Pages retract Farm Servers

16. Sandboxed SolutionsSolution catalog Great choice for hosted scenarios. Uploaded to the Solution gallery available at the site collection level and can be monitored and tracked by admins (No more infinite loops).

17. Feature and Solution Framework in SP2010 Creating solutions by saving a site as a template! Demo