Automatically creating a list and a folder when activating a feature in SharePoint 2007

Question

I'm developing a feature that will be provisioned to a SharePoint 2007 web. The feature config files are below.

What I want to happen when the feature is installed and activated:

1. A list named xxx to be created under the web where the feature is activated.
2. A folder named yyy to be created under that list.
3. The file page1.aspx to be placed under that folder.

For now I get errors when trying to activate the feature, but if I create the list and the folder manually then the file is placed there.

So the question is, how do I make sure the list and the folder are created automatically?

feature.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Feature  Id="5EAAAAD9-E885-43f8-B2FD-4C63271E7BAA"
          Title="ABC"
          Description="ABC"
          Version="1.0.0.0"
          Hidden="FALSE"
          Scope="Web"
          xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">
  <ElementManifests>
    <ElementManifest Location="elements.xml"/>

    <ElementFile Location="CustomPages/yyy/page1.aspx" />
  </ElementManifests>
</Feature>

elements.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<Elements xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">

  <Module Name="Module1" Url="xxx/yyy" RootWebOnly="TRUE" Path="CustomPages/yyy">
    <File IgnoreIfAlreadyExists="TRUE" Type="GhostableInLibrary" Url="page1.aspx"></File>
  </Module>

</Elements>

Answer 1

If you can use custom code you can override the FeatureActivated event receiver of the feature to create the list and folder.

You will need to create another feature to run before the feature that provisions the files and give the file provision feature a dependency on the first to ensure that the list is available.

Alternatively you can add a list definition and instance via xml. I personally avoid this route whenever possible but you can find guidance for this at MSDN - Creating List Definitions with Custom List Columns for SharePoint Server 2007

Example for adding a list via code (caveat - I don't have 2007 to test against but this does work on 2010 and I don't think I've used any 2010 specific code)

public override void FeatureActivated(SPFeatureReceiverProperties properties)
{

    SPWeb web = properties.Feature.Parent as SPWeb; // Assuming web scoped feature
    SPList customPagesList;
    bool listExists = true;
    //Check to see if the list exists, this method sucks but 2007 doesn't have web.TryGetList()
    try
    {
        customPagesList = web.GetList("/CustomPages"); // server relative url of the list
    }
    catch (FileNotFoundException e)
    {
        listExists = false;
    }

    if (!listExists)
    {
        // Create list and record returned guid
        Guid customPagesListGuid = web.Lists.Add("CustomPages",
            "Library to store web pages used in the site", SPListTemplateType.DocumentLibrary);
        //Get list from stored guid
        customPagesList = web.Lists[customPagesListGuid];
        // Set list properties and add required content types
        customPagesList.Title = "CustomPages";
        customPagesList.OnQuickLaunch = false; // Set to true to display on the quick launch
        customPagesList.ContentTypesEnabled = true;
        customPagesList.NoCrawl = true; // Set to false if you want pages indexed by search
        customPagesList.EnableFolderCreation = true;
        customPagesList.EnableSyndication = false; // Turn off rss
        SPContentType webPartPageCT = web.AvailableContentTypes[SPBuiltInContentTypeId.WebPartPage];
        SPContentType basicPageCT = web.AvailableContentTypes[SPBuiltInContentTypeId.BasicPage];
        customPagesList.ContentTypes.Add(webPartPageCT);
        customPagesList.ContentTypes.Add(basicPageCT);
        // Remove the default content type added on list creation if it is not needed
        DeleteContentType(customPagesList.ContentTypes, "Document");

        // Commit changes                   
        customPagesList.Update();

        //Get library from stored guid
        SPDocumentLibrary customPagesLibrary = (SPDocumentLibrary)web.Lists[customPagesListGuid];
        customPagesLibrary.Folders.Add("/Lists/CustomPages/yyy", SPFileSystemObjectType.Folder);
        string rootFolderUrl = customPagesLibrary.RootFolder.ServerRelativeUrl;
        SPListItem newFolder = customPagesLibrary.Folders.Add(rootFolderUrl, SPFileSystemObjectType.Folder, "yyy");
    newFolder.Update();
    }

}

private void DeleteContentType(SPContentTypeCollection ctCollection, string ctName)
{
    foreach (SPContentType ct in ctCollection)
    {
        if (ct.Name.Equals(ctName))
        {
            ct.Delete();
        }
    }
}