Unable to Insatiate Module – SharePoint Error

Have you ever come across such error?  I faced.. and solved

This error is basically related to the module element and usually comes when you try to provision a file to the SharePoint site which never exists on physical path / file system of the server

Here is the example case:

I am trying to provision a page named stylish.aspx to pages library same as default.aspx in onet.xml

<Module Name="SampleModule" Url="$Resources:cmscore,List_Pages_UrlName;" Path="">

<File Url="Default.aspx" NavBarHome="false" Type="GhostableInLibrary">

  <Property Name="Title" Value="My Default Page" />

  <Property Name="PublishingPageLayout" Value="~SiteCollection/_catalogs/masterpage/MyPageLayout.aspx, ~SiteCollection/_catalogs/masterpage/MyPageLayout.aspx;" />

  <Property Name="ContentType" Value="$Resources:cmscore,contenttype_page_name;" />

</File>

     

<File Url="Stylish.aspx" NavBarHome="false" Type="GhostableInLibrary">

<Property Name="Title" Value="My Stylish Page" />

<Property Name="PublishingPageLayout"

Value="~SiteCollection/_catalogs/masterpage/ MyPageLayout.aspx, ~SiteCollection/_catalogs/masterpage/MyPageLayout.aspx" />

<Property Name="ContentType" Value="$Resources:cmscore,contenttype_page_name;" />

</File>

</Module>

If you try above case then you will get this error, unable to insatiate module ……

Well what’s the problem?

Yes , I was trying to add page named Stylish.aspx with virtual url Stylish.aspx which never exist

If you open any site template directory under [14]\Layouts\Template\SiteTemplate then you will find default.aspx and that’s the reason why SharePoint needs that

SharePoint searches file named default.aspx on file system and then provisions file to SharePoint site

Solution:

So above error can be solved like using a Name attribute of File Element

<Module Name="SampleModule" Url="$Resources:cmscore,List_Pages_UrlName;" Path="">

<File Url="Default.aspx" NavBarHome="false" Type="GhostableInLibrary">

  <Property Name="Title" Value="My Default Page" />

  <Property Name="PublishingPageLayout" Value="~SiteCollection/_catalogs/masterpage/MyPageLayout.aspx, ~SiteCollection/_catalogs/masterpage/MyPageLayout.aspx;" />

  <Property Name="ContentType" Value="$Resources:cmscore,contenttype_page_name;" />

</File>

     

<File Name="Stylish.aspx" Url="Default.aspx" NavBarHome="false" Type="GhostableInLibrary">

<Property Name="Title" Value="My Stylish Page" />

<Property Name="PublishingPageLayout"

Value="~SiteCollection/_catalogs/masterpage/ MyPageLayout.aspx, ~SiteCollection/_catalogs/masterpage/MyPageLayout.aspx" />

<Property Name="ContentType" Value="$Resources:cmscore,contenttype_page_name;" />

</File>

</Module>