Understanding the Default Feature Files

SharePoint Server 2007 includes a number of default Features that provide functionality offered as part of the base installation. The default Features are located under the 12 hive, 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\TEMPLATE\FEATURES

An example of one of the default Features is the document library (DocumentLibrary) Feature. This Feature is provisioned as part of the default STS site definition, or Team Site template, to create the default Shared Documents document library and also as the basis to create new document libraries within sites provisioned from the STS site definition.

The DocumentLibrary Feature is denoted by a globally unique identifier (GUID), which can be viewed in the browser URL when creating a new document library, such as http://server/_layouts/new.aspx?FeatureId={GUID}. This GUID is the Feature GUID, and if you open the  Feature.xml file located in the DocumentLibrary folder under the Features directory, you'll see the same GUID as that seen in the URL. Every Feature has its own GUID. As you create new Features, you generate a GUID for each of them. The next section looks at how to generate a GUID and include that in your Feature file, which is discussed in the "Creating Features in Visual Studio 2005" section in this chapter. Any custom Features you develop are added to the Features directory, where they are invoked by SharePoint.