WSPBuilder

The WSPBuilder was designed to be a SharePoint Solution Package (WSP) creation tool for WSS 3.0 & MOSS 2007.

The WSPbuilder is a console application that creates SharePoint Solutions files based on a folder structure. WSPBuilder will automatically traverse a "12" folder structure and creates a SharePoint solution manifest.xml and the wsp file based on the files it finds. Therefore you do not need the knowledge of how to create a solution manifest.xml and wsp file any more.

The folder structure that WSPBuilder uses to build the wsp file is actually the same folder stucture you will find in: "%Program Files%Common FilesMicrosoft Sharedweb server extensions12" So all that you have to do, is the create a 12 folder in your project and add your files to that folder matching the same structure as if you where to put them directly into the "%Program Files%Common FilesMicrosoft Sharedweb server extensions12" folder manually.

Lets say that you have created a SharePoint feature and you want to create a SharePoint Solution for this feature. Then you just need to create the following folder structure in you project directory: "[MyProject]12TemplateFeaturesMyCustomFeature" and put your feature files in the MyCustomFeature folder, that being your feature. Then run the WSPBuilder from the your project directory and it will automatically create the manifest.xml and pack it into a wsp file with the content of the "12" folder.

The WSPBuilder program fully supports the SharePoint Solution Schema meaning that it is possible to create any kind of manifest.xml just by using folders. If the Solution Schema supports it, then WSPBuilder can build it.