Delete web part from the web part gallery

In case you want to delete the web part as soon as a feature is deactivated, you can write a feature receiver for the same.

public override void FeatureDeactivating(SPFeatureReceiverProperties properties)
{

//Remove the web part from web part gallery
SPSite site = null;
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
try
{
using (SPWeb web = properties.Feature.Parent as SPWeb)
{
SPList list = web.Lists["Web Part Gallery"];//site.GetCatalog(SPListTemplateType.WebPartCatalog);

for (int i = list.ItemCount - 1; i >= 0; i--)
{
// format name to look like a feature name
string webpartName = list.Items[i].Name;

webpartName = webpartName.Substring(0, webpartName.IndexOf("."));
// delete web parts that have been added
if ((webpartName == "WPChat") || (list.Items[i].DisplayName.Equals("WPChat")))
{
list.Items[i].Delete();
break;
}
}
}
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
using (StreamWriter w = new StreamWriter("C:\\log.txt"))
{
w.WriteLine(ex.ToString());
}
}
finally
{
if (site != null)
site.Dispose();
}
}

Add entries to web.config using wsp

In order to use your solution to add web.config entries follow the below approach-


Step 1: Create feature folder

Step 2: Create Feature.xml file -

Feature Id="113AEEBD-97B0-411a-B118-F6FE6D232C5E"
Title="IMWEBCONFIG"
Description="This feature modifies the Web Application web.config"
Scope="WebApplication"
ReceiverAssembly="Eversheds.InstantMessaging, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=Neutral, PublicKeyToken=b0c7276684f0a390 "
ReceiverClass="Eversheds.InstantMessaging.FeatureReceiver.ReceiverWebConfig"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/"
/Feature

Step 3: Create feature receiver class
SPWebConfigModification webConfigModifications;

public override void FeatureActivated(SPFeatureReceiverProperties properties)
{

var oWebApp = properties.Feature.Parent as Microsoft.SharePoint.Administration.SPWebApplication;

try
{
if (!oWebApp.IsAdministrationWebApplication)
{
ModifyWebConfigEntries(oWebApp);
}
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
using (StreamWriter w = new StreamWriter("C:\\log.txt"))
{
w.WriteLine(ex.ToString());
}
}
}

public void ModifyWebConfigEntries(SPWebApplication oWebApp)
{
#region Http Module Section

webConfigModifications = new SPWebConfigModification();
webConfigModifications.Path = "configuration/system.web/httpModules";
webConfigModifications.Name = "add[@name='CustomHttpModule']";
webConfigModifications.Sequence = 0;
webConfigModifications.Owner = "addCustomModule";

webConfigModifications.Type = SPWebConfigModification.SPWebConfigModificationType.EnsureChildNode;
webConfigModifications.Value = @"";
oWebApp.WebConfigModifications.Add(webConfigModifications);

#endregion

SPWebService.ContentService.WebApplications[oWebApp.Id].Update();
//Applies the web config settings in all the web application in the farm
SPWebService.ContentService.WebApplications[oWebApp.Id].WebService.ApplyWebConfigModifications();
}

Structure of 12 hive folder in solution

Below is the structure of the 12 folder in the solution for usercontrols, features, images, css

Create list in Feature using list templates

Suppose you have your list templates ready with you. Now you want to deploy the same using a solution. How will you do that using a Feature.

Step 1: Create a Feature folder in your solution
Step 2: Create a folder for your templates say 'ListTemplates' and place all your stp files there.
Step 3: Create a Feature.xml file -

Feature xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/"
Id="93E56B63-EA76-43b7-9068-162DCFA1FAE4"
Title="IMEVUSERLIST"
Description="Deploy user list for Instant Messaging"
Scope="Web"
Hidden="false"
Version="1.0.0.0"
ReceiverAssembly="Eversheds.InstantMessaging,Version=1.0.0.0,Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=b0c7276684f0a390"
ReceiverClass="Eversheds.InstantMessaging.FeatureReceiver.ReceiverEVUserList"
ElementManifests
ElementManifest Location="Elements.xml"/
/ElementManifests
Properties xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/"
!-- Instant Messaging Lists --
Property Key="InstantMessagingLists" Value="EVChatImage,EVConfigInfo,EVUserList"/
/Properties
/Feature


Step 3: Create Elements file

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

Step 4: Create feature receiver

namespace Eversheds.InstantMessaging.FeatureReceiver
{
public class ReceiverEVUserList : SPFeatureReceiver
{}
}

Override all events. Below is the code for FeatureActivated

public override void FeatureActivated(SPFeatureReceiverProperties properties)
{
SPWeb parentWeb;
SPSite siteCollection;

if (properties.Feature.Parent is SPWeb)
{
parentWeb = (SPWeb)properties.Feature.Parent;
siteCollection = parentWeb.Site;
}
else if (properties.Feature.Parent is SPSite)
{
parentWeb = ((SPSite)properties.Feature.Parent).RootWeb;
siteCollection = (SPSite)properties.Feature.Parent;
}
else
{
throw new Exception("Unable to retrieve SPWeb - this feature is not Site or Web-scoped.");
}

string directory = properties.Definition.RootDirectory;

try
{
if (!directory.EndsWith("\\"))
directory += "\\";
directory += "ListTemplates";

if (System.IO.Directory.Exists(directory))
{
string[] templates = System.IO.Directory.GetFiles(directory, "*.stp", System.IO.SearchOption.TopDirectoryOnly);
SPDocumentLibrary listTemplates = siteCollection.GetCatalog(SPListTemplateType.ListTemplateCatalog) as SPDocumentLibrary;

UploadTemplates(listTemplates, templates);
// Add lists from the List Template Gallery


parentWeb.AllowUnsafeUpdates = true; //get the list of list templates from the web
SPListTemplateCollection customListTemplates = siteCollection.GetCustomListTemplates(parentWeb); //create the connection library using the uploaded list template
//Get list collection
SPListCollection listCollection = parentWeb.Lists;

//Create List EVConfigInfo------------------------
if (ListExists(listCollection, "EVConfigInfo"))
{
//get Guid for list
SPList l = parentWeb.Lists["EVConfigInfo"];
Guid listId = l.ID;
//delete list
parentWeb.Lists.Delete(listId);
}

SPListTemplate stpConfigInfo = customListTemplates["EVConfigInfo"];
parentWeb.Lists.Add("EVConfigInfo", "List for Config Info", stpConfigInfo);


//Create List EVUserList------------------------
if (ListExists(listCollection, "EVUserList"))
{
//get Guid for list
SPList l = parentWeb.Lists["EVUserList"];
Guid listId = l.ID;
//delete list
parentWeb.Lists.Delete(listId);
}

SPListTemplate stpUserList = customListTemplates["EVUserList"];
parentWeb.Lists.Add("EVUserList", "List for User Info", stpUserList);

//Create List EVChatImage------------------------
if (ListExists(listCollection, "EVChatImage"))
{
//get Guid for list
SPList l = parentWeb.Lists["EVChatImage"];
Guid listId = l.ID;
//delete list
parentWeb.Lists.Delete(listId);
}

SPListTemplate stpChatImage = customListTemplates["EVChatImage"];
parentWeb.Lists.Add("EVChatImage", "List for Chat image", stpChatImage);

parentWeb.Update();
}
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
using (StreamWriter w = new StreamWriter("C:\\log.txt"))
{
w.WriteLine(ex.ToString());
}
}
}

#region UploadTemplates
///

/// Method to create Sharepoint Lists from template files
///

///
///
private void UploadTemplates(SPDocumentLibrary templateGallery, string[] templateFiles)
{
if (templateGallery != null)
{
foreach (string template in templateFiles)
{
System.IO.FileInfo fileInfo = new System.IO.FileInfo(template);
SPQuery query = new SPQuery();
query.Query = string.Format("" + "{0}", fileInfo.Name);
SPListItemCollection existingTemplates = templateGallery.GetItems(query);
int[] Ids = new int[existingTemplates.Count];
for (int i = 0; i < existingTemplates.Count; i++)
{
Ids[i] = existingTemplates[i].ID;
}
for (int j = 0; j < Ids.Length; j++)
{
templateGallery.Items.DeleteItemById(Ids[j]);
} byte[] stp = System.IO.File.ReadAllBytes(template);
templateGallery.RootFolder.Files.Add(fileInfo.Name, stp);
}
}
}
#endregion

private static bool ListExists(SPListCollection collection, string title)
{
bool flag = false;
foreach (SPList list in collection)
{
if (list.Title == title)
flag = true;

}
return flag;
}

Step 5: Deploy using wsp builder. The lists will be created

Populate the web part gallery programatically

Suppose you are deploying everything using solutions. You have lots of webparts. How will you populate the web part gallery using your solution. This will allow the user to just add the web part to the page immediately after deploying wsp.

Step1 - Create a Feature.xml file

Feature Id="D34D00B1-EC5C-4da8-8C50-009CB4B8BB42"
Title="IMCHATFEATURE"
Description="This is the chat Webpart"
Version="12.0.0.0"
Hidden="FALSE"
Scope="Web"
DefaultResourceFile="core"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/"
ElementManifests
ElementManifest Location="elements.xml"/
ElementFile Location="WPChat.webpart" /
/ElementManifests
/Feature

Step 2: Create an Element File

Elements xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/"
Module Name="WebPartPopulation" Url="_catalogs/wp" RootWebOnly="TRUE" List="113"
File Url="WPChat.webpart" Type="GhostableInLibrary"
/File
/Module
/Elements

Step 3: Create a .webpart file for your webpart

webParts
webPart xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/WebPart/v3"
metaData
type name="Eversheds.InstantMessaging.WebParts.WPChat, Eversheds.InstantMessaging, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=Neutral, PublicKeyToken=b0c7276684f0a390 "/type
importErrorMessage>Can not import WPChat/importErrorMessage
/metaData
data
properties
property name="Title" type="string"WPChat/property
property name="Description" type="string"A web part which allows the user to chat/property
/properties
/data
/webPart
/webParts


Step 4: Lastly create the .cs file for your web part

namespace Eversheds.InstantMessaging.WebParts
{
public class WPChat : System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts.WebPart
{}
}

Place all files in step1,2 and 3 in your feature folder. Deploy using wsp builder. The cs file should be outside the 12 hive folder.

Your web part will be available for the user in the gallery.