How to Activate Feature in a SharePoint Online Site Using Client-Object Model

Here’s how to activate a feature in a SharePoint Online site (Office 365), via client object model (CSOM).

/// <summary>
/// Activates the feature.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="webUrl">The web URL.</param>
/// <param name="featureId">The feature identifier.</param>
/// <param name="forceActivationFlag">if set to <c>true</c> [force flag].</param>
/// <param name="featureScope">The feature scope.</param>
/// <returns></returns>
public bool ActivateFeature(string webUrl, Guid featureId, bool forceActivationFlag, FeatureDefinitionScope featureScope)
{
    var output = true;
    try
    {
        using (var clientContextToken = new ClientContext(webUrl))
        {
            // retrieves a list of the features 
            // and add activate the one with the specified ID
            var listOfFeatures = clientContextToken.Web.Features;
            clientContextToken.Load(listOfFeatures);
            clientContextToken.ExecuteQuery();

            listOfFeatures.Add(featureId, forceActivationFlag, featureScope);
            clientContextToken.ExecuteQuery();
        }
    }
    catch(Exception ex)
    {
        output = false;
        //If something goes wrong, you can catch it here and
        // display on a page, message, add to log etc.
    }
    return output;
}

There is a Catch…

This only works for Site and Farm scopes; doesn’t work for Web scope. You can have a look at the FeatureCollection signature here and see that FeatureDefinitionScope does not have Web as an option for SharePoint 2010.

Update: There is a Web property in the FeatureDefinitionScope for SharePoint 2013


by Edge Pereira