Feature Elements File

Question

I'm having some difficulty creating a Feature which contains a Web Part and a links.xml which is processed by the WP code-behind. My difficulty is in understanding the Feature XML config files and incorporating the links.xml file in the Feature:

(1) There is a Feature folder with an xml file called Feature1.Template.xml. Is is standard practice to rename this to something more meaningful?

(2) The Elements manifest file has some entries that I cannot find meaningful documentation for; for example the "property" element:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms465236.aspx

UPDATE:

I'm getting the following error: "Error occurred in deployment step 'Activate Features': Failed to instantiate file "links.xml" from module "WP_Resources": The specified list does not exist."

Can someone offer up an explanation?

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<Feature Id="4BB4B62C-4F2F-4BB5-A477-DF783B802DD5"
         Title="SecureLinksWP"
         Scope="Site"
         Version="1.0.0.1"
         Hidden="FALSE"
         xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">

    <ElementManifests>
        <ElementManifest Location="SecureLinks\Elements.xml" />
        <ElementFile Location="SecureLinks\SecureLinks.webpart" />

        <ElementManifest Location="WP_Resources\Elements.xml" />
        <ElementFile Location="WP_Resources\links.xml" />
    </ElementManifests>
</Feature>

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Elements xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sharepoint/">
    <Module Name="WP_Resources" Path="WP_Resources">
        <File Path="links.xml" Url="links.xml" Type="GhostableInLibrary" />
    </Module>
</Elements>

Answer 1

Answer to your question #1 - It's not advisable

Answer to your question #2 - Property is used for defining several metadata, I can give you some simple example to get a feeling of usefulness of Property, like in your example this means the group of you web part is custom, simply saying when you click on add web part, you can find your web part in the group 'Miscellaneous', you can also create your own group, give any name here and next time when you click on Add Web Part you can find a new group has been created with the custom name, and if you use that name for some other web part, that web part will list with other web part with same custom group, apart from grouping you can also specify other attributes like 'Title' for Web Part title, 'WebPartDescription' for description, just add

<Property Name="Group" Value="YourGroup" />
<Property Name="Title" Value="Your Webpart Title" />

like this.

And about the error, your xmls look like OK, did you try deleting and adding reference multiple times? you may delete the element.xml file, create an empty element and add your example file, as described here. Or if you are not too concerned about creating extra features you can also create a feature to deploy files only. But I think you should try with checking the file path first, if you have added your files in a right way and in a right structure.