title: Debugging feature activation in SharePoint 2007
body: <p>I have a SharePoint feature that is activated under 'Site Collection Features' that is having some issues being activated. I've activated it through the stsadm as well as the SharePoint UI, both unsuccessful. The feature toggles from deactivated to activated, but the result that should be there is not. The result is some pages that should be created. So my question is does anyone know of a way to step through the activation of features process? I'd like to be able to attach Visual Studio 2008 to the browser and step through a few breakpoints that I've set.</p>
  <p>I've narrowed the error down to the <code>FeatureReceiver</code>'s <code>FeatureActivated(SPFeatureReceivrProperties properties)</code></p>
  <p>Pages that I've been referencing:</p>
  <p><a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee231550.aspx" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee231550.aspx</a>
  <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20101206110907/http://blogs.msdn.com:80/b/sharepoint/archive/2007/04/10/debugger-feature-for-sharepoint.aspx" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Link</a></p>
  <p><strong>EDIT:</strong> The solution was resolved by looking at the errors created in Logs folder under 12 hive, starting with the first error of importaning a web-part, and referencing <a href="http://www.dotnetmafia.com/blogs/dotnettipoftheday/archive/2008/10/06/troubleshooting-cannot-import-web-part-error.aspx" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://www.dotnetmafia.com/blogs/dotnettipoftheday/archive/2008/10/06/troubleshooting-cannot-import-web-part-error.aspx</a></p>
  <p>The issue was resolved by adding two missing binaries. I was unable to attach to SharePoint feature activation by attaching to w3wp and SP Timer Service process.</p>
  <p>Thank you all for your tips!</p>