What are SharePoint features and how can they be activated using PowerShell and the site itself?

SharePoint features are like add-ons or tools that you can use to make your SharePoint site more powerful and customized. They provide extra functionalities such as document libraries, workflows, web parts, and templates. You can activate these features to add specific capabilities to your SharePoint site, making it more useful for collaboration, content management, and automation. Built-in features come with SharePoint, while custom features can be created to meet specific business needs. SharePoint features enhance the functionality of your site and allow you to tailor it to your organization's requirements.

Activate SharePoint Feature from SharePoint Site

To activate SharePoint features, follow these steps:

• Navigate to the site or site collection where you want to activate the feature.

• Click on the gear icon or the "Settings" button, usually located in the top-right corner of the site

• From the dropdown menu, select "Site Settings" or "Site Collection Settings" (depending on your desired level of activation)

• On the settings page, locate the section titled "Site Collection Administration" or "Site Administration"

• Click on the "Site features" or "Manage site features" link within that section

• You will see a list of features available for activation. Find the feature you want to activate and click on the "Activate" button next to it

• SharePoint will begin activating the feature, and you may see a progress indicator.

• Once the feature is activated, you will receive a confirmation message, and the feature will be ready to use

Activate Site Collection Feature

Note that the steps may vary slightly depending on the version of SharePoint you are using and your access permissions. Additionally, some features may require administrative privileges to activate.

It's important to note that features can be activated at both the site level and the site collection level. Activating a feature at the site level will make it available for that specific site only, while activating it at the site collection level will make it available for all sites within that site collection.

Activate SharePoint Feature using PowerShell

To activate SharePoint on-premises site or site collection features using PowerShell, you can use the following script:

# Load the SharePoint PowerShell Snap-in
Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

# Connect to the SharePoint farm
$spWebApp = Get-SPWebApplication "<WebApplicationURL>"

# Activate a site feature
$site = Get-SPSite "<SiteURL>"
$featureId = "<FeatureID>"
Enable-SPFeature -Identity $featureId -Url $site.Url

# Activate a site collection feature
$siteCollection = Get-SPSite "<SiteCollectionURL>"
Enable-SPFeature -Identity $featureId -Url $siteCollection.Url

Replace '<WebApplicationURL>' with the URL of your SharePoint web application, '<SiteURL>' with the URL of your SharePoint site, '<FeatureID>' with the ID of the feature you want to activate, and '<SiteCollectionURL>' with the URL of your SharePoint site collection.

This script uses the SharePoint PowerShell Snap-in to connect to the SharePoint farm and activate the specified feature at the site or site collection level. The Enable-SPFeature cmdlet is used to activate the feature, with the -Url parameter specifying the URL of the site or site collection.

Make sure you have the necessary permissions to execute the PowerShell commands and activate features within your SharePoint environment.

Note that the script is applicable for SharePoint on-premises installations and may vary slightly depending on the version of SharePoint you are using.