Jean Paul's Blog

In SharePoint, we can classify content through:

· Folders

· Columns

· Metadata

I have noticed that users are extensively using Folders for Content Classification. Although this approach is providing a solution, there are some draw backs to it. Let us analyze those in this article.

What is Folder?

The ‘Folder’ I am referring here is List / Library folder. We can create a list/library & create folders inside it. Folders allow classification of the underlying item/documents.

Folders are represented by SPFolder server object model.

Sample Folder

You can have an Articles document library. We can create multiple folders inside for each Technology classification. Use the Library > New Folder toolbar item to create folder.

Your library looks like below:

You can store multiple documents in each folder respectively. In this case the Folder provided a good way of Classifying documents.

Now let us see the challenge.

Challenge: How to create a document which has 2 technologies?

Let us say there is a document named SharePoint Programming in C# which will be of technology C-Sharp & SharePoint. How you will classify it? Which folder to use?

This problem will happen in the Life Cycle of a SharePoint deployment.

Solution: Use Metadata

Metadata allows assigning multiple attributes on a particular document or item. This makes us tag C-Sharp & SharePoint on the above document.

Additional to multiple attribute assignment, metadata are indexed so that the search result will be more accurate & faster.

Folders are Hierarchical so Complex Relationships are not possible. But complex relationships are possible with Metadata.

Although Folders provides only Primitive Classification mechanism, they can be used for Permissions.

Solution Implementation

Now let us implement the solution using Metadata. Following are the steps involved:

Step 1: Ensure Managed Metadata Service (MMS) is running

Open Central Administration, Manage Service Applications & ensure the Managed Metadata Service is running.

Step 2: Create Terms

Open Site Actions > Site Settings > Term store management.

In the appearing page, create the Technology term set& terms SharePoint & C-Sharp.

Step 3: Create Metadata Column

Back to our Articles library > Library Settings > Create a column of type Managed Metadata.

Choose the Allow Multiple Values for the column.

Plus, choose the Managed Term Set as Technology & click Ok.

Step 4: Add Document with Metadata

You can try uploading a new document into the Articles library. Do not forget to enter the Metadata tags in the upload page.

Click the Save button to create document.

You can see the new document with Metadata tags assigned. Metadata terms are Indexed, so faster & prioritized results can be achieved through proper usage of Metadata.

In short Metadata provides better Classification, Search & Navigation.

Metadata is an Excellent Solution for Content Classification. We can organize & search content easily once we apply Metadata to the document/item.

Please note that Improper Metadata assigning can yield to improper data retrieval.

References

http://bit.ly/eNMtWF

Summary

In this article we have explored the possible usage of folders in SharePoint & its limitations in Content Classification. To summarize with:

1. Folders can be used for Classifications, but not the Best Solution

2. Folders are good for Permissions Assignment

3. Folders are good for Simple Hierarchy & Navigations

4. Metadata could be a right solution for Multiple Classification

5. Searching based on Metadata is better than Folders.

Out-of-the-box solutions are recommended in SharePoint, than custom solutions.  The advantages are many:

1. Less Deployment Hassles
2. Less Maintenance Hassles
3. Familiar Interfaces

Following is the Free ebook from Microsoft on ‘No Code Solutions’

Location

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/fp161345

 

Summary

The book provides an overview & usage of:

1. SharePoint Composites
2. SharePoint Apps
3. Solution Life Cycle
4. Composite Design Patterns
5. Web Parts
6. Workflows
7. Project Site Template
8. Document Management Infrastructure
9. Records Management Infrastructure
10. Intranet, Internet Sites
11. Business Intelligence
12. BCS
13. JavaScript, REST
14. 40 Free Templates Information
15. Visio Diagrams & Solution Life Cycle

Depending on the Feature Scope, we need to Activate it from different locations.

Feature Activation Matrix

Following is the Feature Scope & Activation location.

Scope	Location
Site	SharePoint Site > Site Actions > Site Settings > Manage Site Features
Site Collection	SharePoint Site > Site Actions > Site Settings > Site Collection Features
Web Application	Central Administration > Manage Web Applications > Manage Features
Farm	Central Administration > Manage Farm Features

Feature Scopes

As you know we have 4 types of scope:

1. Site (web site)

2. Site Collection

3. Web Application

4. Farm

To view it, open your project in Visual Studio & double click on the Features item from Solution Explorer.

After deploying the soluiton, you can Activate/Deactivate feature from the corresponding page.

For activating Site scoped feature, open SharePoint site & go to Site Actions > Site Settings > Manage Site Features page.

You can Activate / Deactivate corresponding feature.

For activating Site Collection scoped feature, open SharePoint site collection top-level site & go to Site Actions > Site Settings > Site Collection Features page.

For activating Farm scoped feature, open Central Administration > Manage Farm Features page.

For activating Web Application scoped feature, open Central Administration > Manage Web Applications page & then Select web application, Manage Features from the Toolbar.

You can also activate features using PowerShell. For more information on Feature Scope & Items, see the References section.

References

http://bit.ly/YMyINQ

Summary

In this article we have explored the Feature Activation locations based on the Scope.

In the life time of a SharePoint deployment, we need to restructure sites like:

1. Copy one site to another parent

2. Move one site to another parent

Surely there are PowerShell, STSADM, and Server Object Model ways of doing it. But here I am going through the SharePoint Web Interface way of doing it.

The advantage is that we can do it without the help of SharePoint Administrator & Central Administration.

Content Database

Each site collection resides in a content database. In the case of web application, there could be multiple content databases.

Copying Site

Now let us see how to copy a site from one location to another. Open your SharePoint site & choose Site Actions > Site Settings.

Choose the Site Administration > Content and Structure item. In the appearing page, choose the sub site & context menu, then Copy item.

You will get the following dialog to choose the destination site.

We are copying site from one parent to another parent.

Choose your Destination Parent & click the Ok button. Your Copy operation should begin now..

Wait for a few minutes until the contents are copied. You can see the new site is created.

You can try accessing it using the URL.

The site appears as shown below.

Moving Site

For moving site, you can use the Move context menu item & then choose destination parent site.

If you cannot see the Site Content and Structure link, you need to activate the SharePoint Server Publishing Infrastructure feature from Site Settings > Site Collection features

References

http://bit.ly/102VB0C

Summary

In this article we have seen how to move/copy site without using PowerShell.

In this article I would to summarize the Best Practices in SharePoint Permissions assignments.

Best Practices

For more information on Permissions, please find the articles below:

1. SharePoint Permissions Part 1 of 3

2. SharePoint Permissions Part 2 of 3

3. SharePoint Permissions Part 3 of 3

References

Free Tool for Permissions Management >> Squadron

Summary

In this article we have explored SharePoint Permissions Best Practices & associated Articles.

While working with SharePoint, we might need to switch to Windows Explorer View using the Library Settings > Open in Windows Explorer view.

The above feature for SharePoint 2010 is only available with Internet Explorer.  Please see the Browser Compatibility Matrix for more details.

               

Problem

While copying files between folders in this Explorer View seems to be very slow.

Solution

You can increase the speed by changing the following setting of Internet Explorer

• Automatically Detect Settings

Uncheck the above setting.

Open Internet Explorer > Options > Connections tab

Open LAN settings & uncheck the Automatically detect settings

Click the OK button to continue.

Now retry the Explorer View copying & pasting, you should see the speed is increased now.

Core

SharePoint supports Explorer View through the local machine (client) WEBDAV service.  WEBDAV represents Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV) is an extension of HTTP enabling managing of files over the HTTP protocol.

This is a continuation article of the 3 part series. In this article I would like to summarize the Best Practices for SharePoint Permissions.

Best Practices

Following are some of the best practices:

1. Always use SharePoint Groups to assign Permission Levels

2. Add new Active Directory users & groups to SharePoint Groups

3. Create custom Permission Levels based on scenario

4. Run Permissions Audit Report & Cleanup deviations on periodic basis

5. Create unique permissions only after valid justification

6. If multiple items have same set of unique permissions, try to create new list with the items

7. Set appropriate Site Collection Administrators & Access Request emails

8. Integrate Permissions Request & Assignment through proper SharePoint Governance Policies

Following are the depiction of the same:

You can refer the Part 1 & 2 of article in References section below.

Tools

In a large farm scenario, we often require tools to manage & automate tasks. I will discuss some of the scenarios & tools available to solve it.

Copy Permissions

Imagine that you have a SharePoint farm consisting of 10 site collections, 50 sites & 100 lists & libraries. There are above 100 employees in the organization. A new employee is arriving & requires same permission of Accountant named ‘Joe’. How you will perform it?

In the non-tool scenario, you have to manually go & find each site / library to get permissions of ‘Joe’. After that you need to add new employee for the same location. Is it time consuming? Yes! Plus it is error prone too.

In the above scenario, we can use SharePoint Tools for addressing the problem. Following is a screen shot of Squadron > Permissions > Copy Permissions module.

We can enter the source & destination users to copy permissions.

Delete Permissions

Imagine a scenario where an employee is quitting the organization. We need to disable his access to all the SharePoint resources. How to achieve this?

In the manual way, we disable the Active Directory account & thus user cannot login to the SharePoint site. But his user account remains in SharePoint sites as Dead Account. The best way is to delete the user from all permissions assigned.

In the automated way, we can use Squadron to find account usage & delete it in less than 5 minutes.

More Tools

In the market, there are dozens of tool for the same purpose. Although priced, they provide better speed & cost advantage for high traffic farms. Some of them are:

LightningTools > DeliverPoint > Permissions Management

Idera > SharePoint Admin Toolset > Permissions Analyzer

References

Part 1 http://www.jeanpaulva.com/?p=5242

Part 2 http://www.jeanpaulva.com/?p=5289

http://www.sharepointcto.com/Squadron

Summary

In this article we have explored about Best Practices & Tools for SharePoint Permissions Management. I hope the article series was useful to you. Please let me know your comments & feedbacks.

In this article we can explore the Permissions tool bar items. Please note that this article is a part of article series. Following is the Site Permissions screen accessible from Site Actions menu.

Now let us explore each menu item.

How to Grant Permissions?

For assigning permissions to a user or group, you can use the first menu item Grant Permissions.

You can enter the user name, check the required permission levels in the appearing dialog.

How to create SharePoint Group?

For creating SharePoint Group, use the second menu item named Create Group.

Microsoft recommends using SharePoint Groups, instead of directly assigning permissions to users. You can enter the group name, description & Group Owner in the appearing dialog.

How to Edit Permission?

For editing a permission assigned, select the permission item & click the Edit User Permissions item.

You can check / uncheck the permission levels in the edit dialog appearing.

How to Remove Permission?

For removing a permission assigned, select the permission item & click the Remove User Permission item.

How to Check Permission?

For checking the permissions assigned to a user or group, you can use the Check Permissions item.

How to create Custom Permission Levels?

For creating custom permission levels, you can use the Permission Levels item.

You can use the Copy Permission Levels button in appearing screen to quickly create a Permission Level.

How to Manage Access Requests?

For automating Access Requests, the Manage Access Requests item can be used.

In the appearing dialog you can enable the request for access feature. Requests will be forwarded to the email specified.

How to Set Site Collection Administrators?

Multiple site collection administrators can be set through the Site Collection Administrators item.

We can add multiple site collection administrators without going to central administration.

References

http://bit.ly/10uiVpB

Summary

In this article we have explored the toolbar items of Permissions.

Based on consultant requests, I have added the following functionality to Squadron.

· Document Site Hierarchy

What is Site Hierarchy?

Site Hierarchy represents the parent-child relationships between sites. A site can have number of sub sites under it. For example a site collection will be having SiteA, then SiteB under SiteA and so.

Site Collection

Site A

Site B

Site C

Let us see how to create such a documentation using Squadron.

Squadron is a Free SharePoint Administration tool available at www.sharepointcto.com.

Step 1: Open Squadron, Explorer

After installing Squadron, execute it from start menu. In the appearing screen enter the URL & choose Explorer add-in from the left.

Step 2: Expand Menu Item

Now right click on the Explorer root node, choose Expand > Up to Site menu item.

This will expand all the nodes up to Site. Please note that there are Site Collection, Site, List & Item types.

Now we need to discard the Library items from the display. We can do it in next step.

Step 3: Hide Menu Item

Right click again & choose the Hide > All Lists option.

This option will hide all the List items from the display.

This completes our Site Hierarchy Documentation. For exploring new SharePoint Installations, the above hierarchical view should be useful.

Note on Refresh

For retrieving the items back, you can use the Refresh menu item. You can even manually expand the nodes to view all children.

Please note that the Menu is Context Sensitive. You can choose the particular node for the behavior.

References

http://www.sharepointcto.com/Squadron

Summary

In this article we have explored the Site Hierarchy Documentation feature of Squadron.

In this series article I am trying to reveal the Important Permissions Aspects of SharePoint 2010. Please note that this would be a subset of Security.

Here you can learn the associated Jargons of Permissions.

What is Permission?

Permission is the term used to describe a secured action. Some of the Permissions are:

· View Item

· Open Site

· Read Item

· Delete Item

Why Permissions are needed in SharePoint?

As SharePoint is a sharing & collaborative platform, without permission the usage will lead to inappropriate data, file sharing issues, content manipulations etc.

What are the Permissions Types?

In SharePoint there are 2 types of Permissions:

1. Unique

2. Inherited

The Unique Permission (Custom Permission) is assigned for a particular securable object like site collection. Inherited Permission is the ones inherited from its parent. Inherited Permission is easier to manage, but Unique Permissions gives more granularities in control.

Often the terms Break Permissions &Break Inheritance are also used to define Unique Permissions. This is because we use the Break Permissions button on the particular item to provide unique permissions.

How to set Permissions?

For setting site permissions use the Site Actions > Site Permissions menu item:

For setting list permissions use the List tab > List Permissions button:

For setting item, document, folder permissions use the context menu > Manage Permissions menu item:

What are Permissions Levels?

Permission Levels are group of Permission Items. We can associate Permission Level to a user. Three of the pre-existing & most commonly used Permission Levels are:

1. Full Control

2. Contribute

3. Read

Permission Levels provide easier manageability through grouping of Permissions. We can also create custom permission levels.

What is SharePoint Group?

SharePoint Group is a group of users. Grouping multiple users into single group is the recommended way from Microsoft. By default, SharePoint groups are not nest able. (In contradiction to Active Directory groups which are nest able)

Following are the default recommended groups in SharePoint:

1. Owners

2. Contributors

3. Visitors

We can assign Permission Levels to groups. The recommended permission level to groups is:

1. Owners group can be assigned Full Control permission level

2. Members group can be assigned Contribute permission level

3. Visitors group can be assigned Read permission level

How to assign Permissions?

For assigning permissions, open the permission page.

For granting permission to a particular user, choose the Grant Permissions button. In the appearing dialog enter the user/group name, resolve it, select permission levels & click the OK button.

In the permissions page, you can see the new item is added.

What are the securable objects in SharePoint?

Following are the Securable Objects in SharePoint:

1. Site

2. List

3. Library

4. Item

5. Document

6. Folder

SPGroup & SPUser

Inside the Server Object Model, SharePoint Groups are represented through type SPGroup. SharePoint Users (Active Directory User/Group, Windows User) are represented through SPUser.

References

http://bit.ly/YoKoX8

Summary

In this article we have explored an overview of Permissions. In the upcoming chapters you can see the Permission Toolbar items, Best Practices & Free Tools to work with Permissions.