Cannot enable feature with feature receiver via PowerShell

Question

Hi guys,

I've got a problem where I can enable a feature the UI and everything works as expected through site settings, but if I try and enable the feature via powershell (which we are doing as part of a scripted deployment), I get the following:

Enable-SPFeature : Failed to create receiver object from assembly "xxxxx, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=967e6960f5af91e6 ", class "xxxxx.EventReceiver" for feature "xxxxx.Public.Search" (ID: 026d7c45-a359-4550-822d-1a6c35e58e0 d).: System.ArgumentNullException: Value cannot be null. Parameter name: type

Does anyone know why this would occur, or some things I should check? The feature definition is definitely correct (since deploying it through the UI works as expected, and I've also double checked the PublicKeyToken is correct etc etc), and restarting the services and iisreset doesn't enable me to use Enable-SPFeature either.

Answer 1

I had this yesterday, turns out the feature name and the feature receiver name werent matching. To resolve it I copied the FeatureActivated code into notepad (entire code block) or whichever events it is you have coded.

1. Copy the entire event code that you have written I.e. the FeatureActivated method (including signature)
2. Remove the EventReceiver from your project.
3. Add a new event received to your project (you can double check the name for changes)
4. Paste the Event code back into the event receiver.

I use the following code to deploy using powershell

    if(($Solution -ne $null) -and ($Solution.ContainsWebApplicationResource))
    {
        if ($FeatureScope -eq "Web")
        {
            Install-SPSolution $SolutionName -url $siteUrl -GACDeployment -Confirm:$false
        }
        else
        {
            Install-SPSolution $SolutionName -AllWebApplications -GACDeployment -Confirm:$false
        }
    }
    else
    {
        Install-SPSolution $SolutionName -GACDeployment -Confirm:$false
    }
    while($Solution.Deployed-eq$false)
    {
        Start-Sleep 2
        Write-Host "." -NoNewline
    }