SharePoint Tools by ITEgypt Corp

Hosam from ITEgypt Corp is a very passionate SharePoint developer. I got to know him quite recently and he's always been very excited about SharePoint and has delivered several tools to customers in Egypt. Here's the last article from his blog:

SharePoint Tools

Many customers who use Sharepoint Portal Server 2003 addresses some problems when managing and administering the portal environment they have.

For example,

There is no way to view or manage all of Sherepoint Portal Hirarchy containing areas and wss sites from one window or one user interface. You must navigate to each site or area and configure its security.
In some cases the administrator needs to give security administration privileges to specific users without gives them any privileges on others settings.

There is no direct solution to online registration for the Sharepoint portal site.

many customers ask me about extending the SharePoint search engine to allow it to search about specific documents (.doc , .xls,.pdf,…..) or search in specific site , area , document library , list from any page or site in the hirarchy.

for the above problems i will provide in this blog my solutions which i developed and provided to my clients to solve all of these problems.

First I will will start with

Central Security Administration Module.

This following guide consists of three sections
1 – Managing Security for portal site
2- Managing security for an area
3- Managing security for wss site

Figure (1)

 Figure Interface
1 - Site hierarchy.
2- Selected site.
3- Selected site url.
4- Selected site type (Area or Site).
5- Security mode used for the site (Inherited or Unique).
6- Site groups for the selected site.
7- Site users for the selected site.
8- Security mode for the selected site (Inherited or Unique).
9- Context Toolbar.

1. Managing Portal Site Security

The portal site is actually a top level site, so it uses the same security administration techniques as a normal windows sharepoint site (wss).
It contains site groups and users.
It always uses the unique permissions mode because it is a top level site in the site collection and doesn’t have a parent site to inherit its security.
The figure (1) displays that the (https://localhost:6000) site was selected and displays its site groups.

1.1. Managing site groups fro Portal Site

You can manage (add, edit, delete) site groups for portal site.
Click on the portal site node from the site hierarchy on the left hand and then click on Site Groups button.

1.1.1. Create site groups for portal site

To create new site groups in the portal site should be follow the following instructions:-
1) Click on Create Groups button. The window display will be changed as the you will see in the following figure(1.1.1).

 2) The window displays two text boxes for group name, group description and Portal Site permissions collection.

Important note

The permissions collection will be changed according to the type of the selected site. For the current context it displays the Portal Site Permissions
3) Enter the name and description for the new group
4) Select the desired portal site permissions.
5) Click Save to complete the operation or Cancel to cancel the operation. 

1.1.2. Delete site groups from Portal Site

 1) Select site groups you need to delete.
2) Click on Delete Selected Group(s) button.
3) Click OK in the confirmation message to complete the operation or Cancel to cancel the operation.  

1.1.3. Change current site group permissions

1) Select group(s) you want to change its permissions.
2) Click Change Group(s) right button.
3) The window display will be change as you see in figure (1.1.3)
4) Select the desired rights you want to assign to the selected group(s).
5) Click Save button to complete the operation or cancel button to cancel the operation.

1.2. Managing users for Portal Site

 Click Site Users tab to view site users’ interface as shown in the following figure

 

The site users’ display consists of the toolbar that has management functionality and users view.
The users view consists of the following data:-
a) Users: Display Name for the user.
b) User Name: Display the logon name for the user.
c) Groups: display the site groups associated with the user.
d) Is Sec Admin: display if the user has right to use the Central security administration module. 

1.2.1. Add users to portal site

 

 1) Click on the Add Users buttons. The view will be changed to above figure (1.2.1)
2) The find by list contains the list for criteria that can be user by the search (Name of user, Alias of user, Name of security, and Alias of security group).
3) If you want to restrict the result returned from the search you can enter text in the starts with text box.
4) Click on find user’s button, the window display will be changed to the following figure 1.2.1.b

6) Select user(s) you want to add to the site.
7) Select the site groups (from site groups list) you want to assign to selected users.
If you want to assign deferent groups to any user you can click on set roles button for the desired users, the window display will be display to the following Figure (1.2.1.c)

 8) Select the desired groups and then press OK.
9) Click on Save button to complete and finish the operation or Cancel button to cancel the operation.

1.2.2. Delete users from the Portal Site 

1) Select users you want to delete.
2) Click on Delete Users button.
3) Click OK in the confirmation message to complete the operation.

1.2.3. Change users groups

1) Select the desired users you want to change their groups.
2) Click on Change Groups button.
3) Select or deselect groups for each selected user.
4) Click Save button to complete the operation

1.2.4. Set or remove security admin right

1) Select users you want to set or remove security admin right to them.
2) Click Set as security admin to set security admin right to selected users.
3) Click Remove security admin to remove security admin right  

The users view displays users who have and don’t have security admin right.

2. Managing Area Security

Important notes:-

1) Change security mode button is enabled if the selected site type is area or sub site.

2) You can’t create new site group for an area.

3) You can add new users for an area and assign some area permissions for them

4) You can’t assign site groups for area users. Just assign area permissions as shown in the following figure (2.b).


Important note
The permissions collection will be changed according to the type of the selected site. For the current context it displays the Area Permissions

3. Managing WSS Site Security

The windows share point services site use the same techniques as portal site for security administration see section (1)
Important notes:-

  1. Change security mode button is enabled if the selected site type is area or sub site.
  2. If the selected site is a top level site for a site collection the Change security mode is disabled.
  3. You can add new users for the selected site and assign some site groups for them.
  4. The permissions collection will be changed according to the type of the selected site. For the current context it displays the WSS Permissions