Does stsadm -o deploysolution automatically installs the feature contained within the solution file? It seems every time I follow deploysolution with installfeature, I get the "the feature with id {} already exists on this farm" error. Following that with activatefeature activates the feature with no problem. So it seems the installfeature is not needed when you deploy a feature within a solution file correct? Thanks,

Hi, Please check the below excellent video. "How Do I: Work With Solutions Packages? ". This should answer your question. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsserver/sharepoint/dd776090.aspx I LOVE MS..... Thanks and Regards, Kshitiz (Posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.)

stsadm -o deploysolution will deploy the solution. The feature will exist but will not be active until the user manually navigates to the feature and turns it on. However, depending on the scope of the feature, (Site level or site colletion level) and on the type of feature (webpart, workflow, event handler) the answer will be slightly different. So for a more precise answer we'd need to know what type of feature it was and what the scope was. Kevin

Kevin, The solution contains a web part feature scoped at the site collection level.

If I were installing that feature this is how I would do it: run stsadm -o addsolution -filename "name of file" //This will add the solution to the solution store run stsadm -o deploysolution -name "name of file" -immediate -allowgacdeployment // This will deploy the solution globally Navigate to the site collection you want the web part on and activate the feature in the site collection features The feature will push the web part into the site collection it is activated on You can then click on Add a Web Part and your web part should be available. Kevin

With the steps you outlined, you pretty much answered a "Yes" to my question even though you did not say it explicitly. After deploying the solution, you went and activated (through the UI) without installing the feature, which means that deploysolution automatically installed the feature for you.

Im still waiting for confirmation on this. How come this is not documented anywhere, or atleast no where that I have seen so far????

I found the confirmation to my question on another thread, Thanks to Randy Williamshttp://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sharepointgeneral/thread/81c20160-6a79-446f-8a3b-41954ba59f8c