Administering Feature Scope


There are two scope considerations when creating and deploying Features. The first consideration is the scope of the Feature itself-that is, whether the Feature is made available to a server farm, Web application, site collection, or site (or Web). The second consideration includes any elements you will use in the Feature and the scope of those elements. For instance, some elements, such as a Content Type element, can only be used in a site-scoped Feature whereas other elements, such as a Custom Action element, can be used across all Feature scopes

Feature scope is defined in the image from book Feature.xml file, using the Scope attribute. Once a Feature is installed, the SharePoint Server 2007 administrative user interface includes the ability to administer Features for given scopes, as shown in Table 26-3. This includes the ability to activate and deactivate Features.

Table 26-3: Administering Features Through the User Interface
Open table as spreadsheet

Feature scope

Description

Administration UI path

Farm (denoted by Farm)

Specific to farm-level administrative tasks, such as application management. Farm-level Features are activated by default.

SharePoint Central Administration, Operations, Global Configuration, Manage Farm Features

Web Application (denoted by WebApplication)

Specific to Web application or virtual server requirements, such as Search

SharePoint Central Administration, Application Management, SharePoint Web Application Management, Manage Web Application Features

Site Collection (denoted by Site)

Specifies items that relate to an entire site collection, such as Web Parts or content types

Parent (or root) site of site collection, Site Settings, Site Collection Administration, Site Collection Features

Web or Site (denoted by Web)

Items that are specific to individual Web sites, such as list templates

Site, Site Settings, Site Administration, Site Features

Activation and deactivation of Features is not limited to the administrative user interface. You can also use Feature activation and deactivation through the stsadm.exe command-line tool, through the SharePoint object model, and by deploying the Feature as part of a site definition. The "Deploying Features" section of this chapter describes the deployment options. You will learn how to deploy a Feature as part of a site definition in the "Including Features in Site Definitions" section.

Figure 26-2 shows Features scoped at the farm level and visible in the administrative user interface page that can be activated and deactivated.

image from book
Figure 26-2: Farm-scoped Features shown in the administrative user interface

Note 

If a Feature is Hidden, it will not be visible in the administrative user interface. Farm-scoped Features, when installed, are activated by default.

Element Scoping

Not all elements are available at all scope levels. For example, the Custom Action element, which defines actions such as a link or additional toolbar button, is available at all Feature scope levels, whereas the Content Type element is available only within the scope of a site collection. A list of elements and respective scope allocation can be found in Table 26-4, and additional information concerning element scopes can be found in the Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 Software Development Kit on the Microsoft Download Center.

Table 26-4: Element Scoping
Open table as spreadsheet

Scope

Element

Farm

Control

Custom Action

Custom Action Group

Document Converter

Feature/Site Template Association

Hide Custom Action

Web Application

Control

Custom Action

Custom Action Group

Document Converter

Feature/Site Template Association

Hide Custom Action

Site Collection

Content Type

Content Type Binding

Control

Custom Action

Custom Action Group

Feature/Site Template Association

Field

Hide Custom Action

List Instance

Module

Workflow

Web or Site

Content Type Binding

Control

Custom Action

Custom Action Group

Feature/Site Template Association

Hide Custom Action

List Instance

List Template

Module

Receiver

In addition, Table 26-4 lists elements available for a given Feature scope. For example, to deploy Content Types as part of your Feature, you need to scope your Feature for a site collection by using the Scope attribute in the image from book Feature.xml file because deploying Content Types to a Web-scoped Feature is not supported. You would set the attribute as Scope="site", where site is the site collection.

An Example of a Site Collection-Scoped Feature

Here is an example of adding a simple site column to a site using a Feature. Both the image from book Feature.xml and image from book Elements.xml files are included. The Feature must be scoped to Site, as in a site collection, because this is the only scope to which you can deploy the Field element that is included in the associated image from book Elements.xml file.

image from book Feature.xml File

 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> <Feature xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/"   Id =""   Title="Project Vision Field"   Description =" A Field for Project Vision."   Scope="Site">   <ElementManifests>     <ElementManifest Location="Elements.xml" />   </ElementManifests> </Feature> 

image from book Elements.xml File

 <Elements xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">   <Field     DisplayName="Project Vision"    Type="Text"    Required ="TRUE"    Name="ProjectVision"    RowOrdinal="0"    ReadOnly="FALSE"    Group="Project Field" /> </Elements> 




Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server 2007 Administrator's Companion
MicrosoftВ® Office SharePointВ® Server 2007 Administrators Companion
ISBN: 0735622825
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2004
Pages: 299

flylib.com © 2008-2017.
If you may any questions please contact us: flylib@qtcs.net