Styling a 2010 publishing site using a feature - Not enough information to determine a list for module

Question

I've got a site collection which currently only has one web site (the root web). The styling comes in a Site level feature with a few modules to deploy the master page, the CSS, and other resources, and an event receiver to switch the master pages when the feature is activated/deactivated. This all works fine.

I've now added a publishing site to this site collection, and I want it to use the same styling. However, whenever I try to activate the styling feature on this new web, I get the following on-screen error:

Failed to instantiate file "MyStyles.css" from module "StyleSheets": The specified list does not exist.

and in the ULS I see

Not enough information to determine a list for module "StyleSheets". Assuming no list for this module.

Although this is a publishing site, the Style Library appears to be missing from the All Site Content view, but it does appear (although empty) when viewing the site in the designer. The publishing feature is active for the whole site collection, what have I missed?

Answer 1

Is the publishing feature enabled at the site collection level? A publishing site normally starts at the site collection level and that is also where the Style Library should live, which holds files that apply to all sites in the site collection.

A publishing site uses page layouts and other things that are also defined at the site collection level, not in the sub site. So turn on publishing at the site collection level and populate the Style Library in the root site.

Sub sites normally don't have Style Libraries. SharePoint Designer will show placeholders in the navigation for some sites. If you then click on these in SPD, the libraries will be created. This is a messy approach, though.