Can't activate feature because of an existing column in a child site

Question

I have a site collection without the publishing feature activated (Id: f6924d36-2fa8-4f0b-b16d-06b7250180fa).

I want to activate it, but it fails :

Enable-SPFeature : The field with Id {51d39414-03dc-4bd0-b777-d3e20cb350f7} defined in feature {aebc918d-b20f-4a11-a1db-9ed84d79c87e} was found in the current site collection or in a subsite.

After some digging, I discover that one of the subsite already have the columns of the publishing features. Thus, the feature activation can't create the column.

If I try to -Force the activation, it does not fail, but the columns are not created.

How can I properly enable the feature at the top level site, without breaking the subsites ?

FYI :

• Feature with Id {aebc918d-b20f-4a11-a1db-9ed84d79c87e} is "PublishingResources", a hidden feature
• Field with Id {51d39414-03dc-4bd0-b777-d3e20cb350f7} is "PublishingStartDate". It's the first field defined in the feature PublishingResources
• {f6924d36-2fa8-4f0b-b16d-06b7250180fa} is the Id of the publishing feature.

[Edit] After some search, I was able to activate the feature using this script :

Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell -EA 0

$urlSite = "http://server/sitecollection"
$urlSubWeb = "http://server/sitecollection/subweb"
$tempPath = "d:\temp"
$featId = "f6924d36-2fa8-4f0b-b16d-06b7250180fa" # Publishing feature

# Backup the site collection in case something goes wrong
Backup-SPSite -Identity $urlSite -Path "$tempPath\sitecoll.bak"

Export-SPWeb -Identity $urlSubWeb -Path "$tempPath\subweb.cmp" -IncludeUserSecurity -IncludeVersions All

# Delete all subwebs. Error "Cannot delete top-level" can be ignored
Get-SPWeb -Site $urlSite | Sort-Object -Descending Url | Remove-SPWeb -confirm:$false

Enable-SPFeature -Identity $featId -Url $urlSite 

New-SPWeb -Url $urlSubWeb -Language 1033

Import-SPWeb -Identity $urlSubWeb -Path "$tempPath\subweb.cmp"  -IncludeUserSecurity

Please note that this scripts works, because I have only one subweb at the root, and this is the one which defines the columns. A more complex script should be written if topology is different.

Unfortunately, when I try to instantiate a new subweb using Enterprise Wiki template, I get a similar error :

InitializePublishingWebDefaults failed. System.InvalidOperationException: Failed to compare two elements in the array. ---> System.ArgumentException: Invalid field name. {b510aac1-bba3-4652-ab70-2d756c29540f}  /sitecollection/_catalogs/masterpage    

Answer 1

A bit ugly, but here is a full working script that solved the problem and create my wiki site (which was actually my first goal):

Add-PSSnapin Microsoft.SharePoint.PowerShell -EA 0

$urlSitecol = "http://server/sitecoll"
$urlsubweb = "http://server/sitecoll/subweb"
$tempPath = "d:\temp"
$featId = "f6924d36-2fa8-4f0b-b16d-06b7250180fa"
$urlWiki = "http://server/sitecoll/subweb/wiki"


Backup-SPSite -Identity $urlSitecol -Path "$tempPath\sitecoll.bak"

Export-SPWeb -Identity $urlsubweb -Path "$tempPath\subweb.cmp" -IncludeUserSecurity -IncludeVersions All

$site = Get-SPSite $urlSitecol
$owner = $site.Owner

Remove-SPSite -Confirm:$false -Identity $urlSitecol

New-SPSite -Url $urlSitecol -OwnerAlias $owner -Language 1033 -Template "STS#1"


Enable-SPFeature -Identity $featId -Url $urlSitecol

New-SPWeb -Url $urlsubweb -Language 1033

Import-SPWeb -Identity $urlsubweb -Path "$tempPath\subweb.cmp"  -IncludeUserSecurity

New-SPWeb -Url $urlWiki -Language 1036 -Template "ENTERWIKI#0".

This script works because the top level site was empty... If it had content, it would have been far more complex.