SharePoint: "Failed to extract the cab file in the solution"

Question

I'm receiving a "Failed to extract the cab file in the solution" error when I try to deploy my wsp using stsadm -o addsolution -filename...

I've open the wsp as a cab and checked that there are no duplicate files in there as I understand that can sometimes cause this issue.

The issue only started when I tried to include a custom field type as part of my solution, to do this I added the following to the ddf

..\CustomFields\ShortMonth\ShortMonthControl.ascx ..\CONTROLTEMPLATES\ShortMonthControl.ascx

..\CustomFields\ShortMonth\fldtypes_shortmonth.xml ..\XML\fldtypes_shortmonth.xml

and

<TemplateFiles>

<TemplateFile Location="CONTROLTEMPLATES\ShortMonthControl.ascx"/>

<TemplateFile Location="XML\fldtypes_shortmonth.xml"/>

</TemplateFiles>

to the manifest.

I've tried taking it back to just references to the ascx in both but it doesn't see to help.

Any ideas?

Answer 1

Check that you don't have any special characters in your files. They might have sneaked in as a result of copy-paste. For example, the way your code sample renders on this page, it has the (`), which shouldn't be there.

Answer 2

Do you need the "..\" in your DDF?

Answer 3

The issue is more likely due to invalid names for files you are deploying on SharePoint 14 hive folder. If you are using parenthesis ‘(‘, ‘)’ in file names or special characters like @ in file names, this issue will occur.

Remove it and issue should vanish.