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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.

In this article we can explore about the Active Directory Add-in of Squadron.

What is Active Directory Add-in?

Active Directory Add-in allows quick lookup of the Active Directory users & groups. For SharePoint installations, Active Directory is the directory service which stores security objects. While working with Permissions, we need to explore the available users & groups in Active Directory. This Add-in helps with the functionality.

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

Types of Active Directory Groups

I would like to emphasize that we are mainly focusing on 3 types entities in Active Directory.

1. User

2. Security Group

3. Distribution Group

A User is an entity representing an individual user.

A Security Group represents collection of users representing usually a Department. (Vertical)

A Distribution Group will be an email distribution group based on location. (Horizontal)

In SharePoint, we can only assign Permissions to User & Security Group.

Generating Report

After installing Squadron, you can execute it from Start Menu > SharePointCTO > Squadron. On loading the primary screen enter your SharePoint URL in the top text box.

You can see that the Domain name is automatically fetched. If you need to change it you can do so.

Now, click on the Active Directory item from the left pane.

You will get the following screen.

Click on the Execute button to generate the report. The Highlight Disabled option highlights the disabled users/groups in red color.

Saving Report

For saving the report, right click on the Grid & choose from the options:

1. Save as Excel

2. Save as CSV

After saving, you can see the file opened in associated application.

Properties Window

We can also use the Properties Window on the right hand side to explore properties of user/group. Click on the grid item to view the properties in the right hand side.

This completes our Active Directory Add-in information. I hope you like the functionality & beautiful lookNfeel.

References

http://bit.ly/10uiVpB

Summary

In this article we have explored about the Active Directory Add-in of Squadron. I believe this Add-in would be another needy too in the hands of a SharePoint Explorer.

In this article we can explore a new Add-in integrated into Squadron.

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

What is Diagnostics?

Diagnostics allows you to perform validations periodically. For example: Site Administrators run the following reports on monthly basis:

· Site Collection Size Information

· Permissions are set for Groups

· No obsolete workflows exists

· No obsolete alerts exists

· No dead accounts are in use

Etc.

How to view Diagnostics Screen?

After installing Squadron, you can execute it from Start Menu & click the Diagnostics item on the left side. Please ensure you entered the site url correctly.

I am explaining each of the visible Diagnostics items.

Dead Accounts

Dead Accounts are those with Active Directory Disabled Status. Periodically we might need to remove the dead accounts from SharePoint Permission Associations.

You can click the Execute button against Dead Accounts row to start the check.

If no problems found, the bar will be green. You can click the Details link for viewing further information. Using the Details screen we can manually locate the items & fix the problems.

Dead Alerts

Dead Alerts are those Alerts created by users & the users do not exists or being disabled. We can find the alerts through the Dead Alerts diagnostics item.

You can click the Execute button against Dead Alerts row to start the check.

If no problems found, the bar will be green. You can click the Details link for viewing further information. Using the Details screen we can manually locate the items & fix the problems.

Direct Permissions

Microsoft recommends Permissions to be assigned to SharePoint Groups instead of directly assigning to users. Groups enable more manageability, reusability & ease of clarity. We can find Direct Permission items through this diagnostic item.

You can click the Execute button against Direct Permissions row to start the check.

If no problems found, the bar will be green. You can click the Details link for viewing further information. Using the Details screen we can manually locate the items & fix the problems.

In the above case it is red and clicking the Details link, you can see the problem locations.

This concludes our overview of Squadron > Diagnostics.

References

http://www.sharepointcto.com/Squadron

Summary

In this article we have explored the Diagnostics Add-in of Squadron. Diagnostics are essentials to be executed on periodic basis like every one month. For SharePoint Governance enabled organizations, the need for more Diagnostics tools exists.

In future I hope to see more functionality integrated into Diagnostics add-in. You can also give inputs on your Diagnostics requirement.