Microsoft MVP in SharePoint

1st of January 2011 was a day I could never forget. I stared the day with a pleasant surprise from Microsoft. I got awarded as a MVP (Most Valuable Professional). MVP in SharePoint.

Thank you God. Thanks Microsoft. Thank you Dinesh Priyankara, Gogula, Wela, Lilian, Susantha, Jinath and all who helped and guided me to come an MVP.

I have done few thing for the community and I have a lot to do.

SharePoint User Permissions

When SharePoint is installed, by default it will create a set of Permissions, which can be viewed by “Central Administration” => “Application Management” => “Manage WebApplications” => Highlight the WebApplication => Click on “User Permission”.



To secure the contents at various levels within SharePoint sites, it is these permissions that has to be enabled by the administrators. Each permission has a level of it’s own which can be; List, Site or Personal.

These Permissions are grouped/combined to create the Permission Levels. 

List level Permissions…

Permission	Description	Type	Permission Level
Manage Lists	Create and delete lists, add or remove columns in a list, and add or remove public views of a list.	List	Full Control, Design, Manage Hierarchy
Override Check Out	Discard or check in a document that is checked out to another user.	List	Full Control, Design, Approve, Manage Hierarchy
Add Items	Add items to lists, and add documents to document libraries.	List	Full Control, Design, Contribute, Approve, Manage Hierarchy
Edit Items	Edit items in lists, edit documents in document libraries, and customize Web Part pages in document libraries.	List	Full Control, Design, Contribute, Approve, Manage Hierarchy
Delete Items	Delete items from a list, and documents from a document library.	List	Full Control, Design, Contribute, Approve, Manage Hierarchy
View Items	View items in lists, and documents in document libraries.	List	Full Control, Design, Contribute, Read, Approve, Manage Hierarchy, Restricted Read
Approve Items	Approve a minor version of a list item or document.	List	Full Control, Design, Approve
Open Items	View the source of documents with server-side file handlers.	List	Full Control, Design, Contribute, Read, Approve, Manage Hierarchy, Restricted Read
View Versions	View past versions of a list item or document	List	Full Control, Design, Contribute, Read, Approve, Manage Hierarchy
Delete Versions	Delete past versions of a list item or document.	List	Full Control, Design, Contribute, Approve, Manage Hierarchy
Create Alerts	Create alerts	List	Full Control, Design, Contribute, Read, Approve, Manage Hierarchy
View Application Pages	View forms, views, and application pages; enumerate lists.	List	Full Control, Design, Contribute, Read, Approve, Manage Hierarchy

Site level Permissions…

Permission	Description	Type	Permission Level
Manage Permissions	Create and change permission levels on the website and assign permissions to users and groups.	Site	Full Control, Manage Hierarchy
View Web Analytics Data	View reports on website usage.	Site	Full Control, Manage Hierarchy
Create Subsites	Create subsites such as Team sites, Meeting Workspace sites, and Document Workspace sites.	Site	Full Control, Manage Hierarchy
Manage Web Site	Grant the ability to perform all administrative tasks for the website, as well as manage content.	Site	Full Control, Manage Hierarchy
Add and Customize Pages	Add, change, or delete HTML pages or Web Part pages, and edit the website using a Microsoft SharePoint Foundation compatible editor.	Site	Full Control, Design, Manage Hierarchy
Apply Themes and Borders	Apply a theme or borders to the entire website	Site	Full Control, Design
Apply Style Sheets	Apply a style sheet (.CSS file) to the website.	Site	Full Control, Design
Create Groups	Create a group of users that can be used anywhere within the site collection.	Site	Full Control
Browse Directories	Enumerate files and folders in a website using SharePoint Designer and WebDAV interfaces.	Site	Full Control, Design, Contribute, Approve, Manage Hierarchy
Use Self- Service Site Creation	Create a website using Self- Service Site Creation	Site	Read, Contribute, Design, Full Control
View Pages	View pages in a website.	Site	Full Control, Design, Contribute, Read, Approve, Manage Hierarchy, Restricted Read
Enumerate Permissions	Enumerate permissions on the website, list, folder, document, or list item.	Site	Full Control, Manage Hierarchy
Browse User Information	View information about users of the website.	Site	Full Control, Design, Contribute, Read, Limited Access, Approve, Manage Hierarchy
Manage Alerts	Manage alerts for all users of the website.	Site	Full Control, Manage Hierarchy
Use Remote Interfaces	Use SOAP, Web DAV, the Client Object Model, or SharePoint Designer interfaces to access the website.	Site	Full Control, Design, Contribute, Read, Approve, Manage Hierarch
Use Client Integration Features	Use features that launch client applications. Without this permission, users must work on documents locally and upload their changes.	Site	Full Control, Design, Contribute, Read, Limited Access, Approve, Manage Hierarchy
Open	Allow users to open a website, list, or folder in order to access items inside that container.	Site	Full Control, Design, Contribute, Read, Limited Access, Approve, Manage Hierarchy, Restricted Read
Edit Personal User Information	Allow a user to change his own user information, such as adding a picture.	Site	Full Control, Design, Contribute, Approve, Manage Hierarchy

Personal level Permissions…

Permission	Description	Type	Permission Level
Manage Personal Views	Manage Personal Views	Personal	Full Control, Design, Contribute, Approve, Manage Hierarchy
Add/Remove Personal Views	Add or remove personal Web Parts on a Web Part page.	Personal	Full Control, Design, Contribute, Approve, Manage Hierarchy
Update Personal Web Parts	Update Web Parts to display personalized information	Personal	Full Control, Design, Contribute, Approve, Manage Hierarchy

A blog post on Permission levels soon to be released.

Manage SharePoint Farm Administrators

To Manage SharePoint 2010 Farm Administrators, follow the steps given below.

Go to “Central Administration”, select “Security” and go to “Manage the Farm Administrators Group”. Within this screen we can manage the Farm Administrators.

To remove a user, select the user by clicking on the checkbox on the leftmost column, go to “Actions” and click on “Remove Users from Group”.

(The reason why I wrote this simple blog post is, in one of the popular SharePoint 2010 Administration books I read recently, they have guided the reader in a wrong path)

Corporate portal with classic authentication or with claims-based authentication

These design samples illustrate a typical corporate deployment, with the most common types of SharePoint sites represented. The two samples differ only in the mode of authentication that is implemented -- one uses classic authentication and one uses claims-based authentication.

You can download it in PDF, Visio or in XPS formats from here.

Fortune 500 Companies Using SharePoint

Below text is extracted from an article written by Julian Corlaci about Fortune 500 companies using Microsoft SharePoint.

“Microsoft is still claiming SharePoint Server as the fastest growing product in company history, which is very impressive coming from such a diversified software maker powerhouse.”

“According to Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM) one in two corporations are now using SharePoint Server and in 22% of the companies, every employee uses this popular Microsoft collaboration tool. SharePoint usage is widely spread due to its complex collaboration structure and its flexibility. From enterprise search, enterprise content management (ECM), Business Process Management, business intelligence, records management, archiving, Intranet/Extranet, file sharing to public-facing websites, which will be covered in this article.”

Read More

Nothing But SharePoint ( www.nothingbut sharepoint.com)

www.nothingbutsharepoint.com, a wonderful community site, totally dedicated to SharePoint. Public launch happened today.

Give it a try.

Free Sessions - Claims Based Authentication and Visio Services in SharePoint 2010

Sri Lanka .NET Forum

.NET User Group Meeting – December 2010

Session1: Claims based authentication SharePoint Server 2010 utilizes a new authentication model called claims-based authentication(CBA). CBA is based on the concept of identity and utilizes open source standards and protocols so that it works with any corporate identity system, not just Active Directory and not just Windows-based systems. Lean how SharePoint 2010 has expanded its authentication mechanism beyond Windows Authentication and Forms Authentication. Session 2: Visio Services in SharePoint 2010 A picture is worth a thousand words, and Visio provides the canvas and the tools to create drawings that represent ideas and concepts ranging from network topologies to landscape design, and process diagrams to UML. Using Visio you can connect the information stored across disparate repositories to shapes, and now the drawing is dynamic instead of static.   Speaker: Prabath Fonseka Software Architect - IronOne Technologies MSc. in Advanced Software Engineering MCPD, MCTS, MCP Date: 3rd December 2010 (Thursday) Time: 6.00 PM Onwards Venue: Training Room (Sithuvili) , 11th, DHPL Building, Colombo 02 Entrance: Free