Using Features and Solutions to do Deployment in MOSS / WSS

Overview

"Feature" is a new concept in MOSS / WSS 3.0, it defines a collection of functionality or site customization in a SharePoint site (For example, adding "Content Type", "Columns" or "Workflow"). Feature can be installed into a specific server machine, and then be activated or deactivated on specific sites.

A Feature must consists of a definition file (Feature.xml), plus any number of manifest files in XML format. Location of manifest files is specified in <ElementManifests></ElementManifests> tags in "Feature.xml" file.

"Solution" is used as a mean to deploy custom code, files and other components to SharePoint. With the Solution Framework, developers can deploy custom components such as Web Parts, Features, site definitions and templates, custom code access security (CAS) policies, and add assemblies to a specific SharePoint site's BIN directory or to the global assembly cache (GAC).

Each Solution contains one solution file, called a Windows SharePoint Package (WSP) file, which is essentially a cabinet (*.cab) file with (*.wsp) extension.

Reference

Creating a Custom Feature in Office SharePoint Server 2007

Creating a Solution