Paul Schaeflein

SharePoint Access Checker and DeliverPoint

Paul Schaeflein — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 19:21:00 GMT

One of Microsoft's field engineers posted about a community project, the Access Checker. The project will show a site collection's hierarchy with an overlay showing if a specific user account has the specified permission. For an administrator, it is a very helpful tool.

The blog post references DeliverPoint, and in fact we do help discover the permissions of a security principal (user or group) as well as the assignments on a securable object (site collection, site, list, list item). I want to point out a few key differences:

DeliverPoint has a cache of your SharePoint farm, so we do not need to catch all the Access Denied exceptions
This cache provides for much better performance
DeliverPoint is security trimmed (just like SharePoint), so sites to which the target user does not have access are not shown. In addition, the permissions of the current user are considered as well. In other words, sites that the current user does not have the View Permissions right are not displayed.
However, DeliverPoint has an "operator" feature that will override the current users permissions

The Access Checker project has a very intriguing interface. Would you like to see this added to DeliverPoint?

SharePoint Guidance from patterns & practices

Paul Schaeflein — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 10:34:00 GMT

Did you know that Microsoft's patterns & practices group is working on SharePoint guidance? You can view their work as it is developed on the CodePlex site: http://www.codeplex.com/spg. In addition to a reference implementation, they are working on documentation that discusses the trade-offs and decisions that go into a SharePoint-based development project. There are many decision points, so they cannot obviously cover everything. So be sure to post your questions and comments so the team knows where to go next! I had the privilege of meeting with them this week along with a few MVPs and together we brainstormed some areas to pursue. But your feedback is just as important -- please speak up.

Upcoming events

Paul Schaeflein — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 10:43:00 GMT

Listed below are upcoming events that I will be attending. If you're there, please say hi!

Sep 6 Codeapalooza 2008 (Chicago)

Sep 15-17 SharePoint Best Practices conference (Washington DC)

Oct 4 Indy TechFest (Indianapolis)

Dec 3 NYC SharePoint User Group

SharePoint community just got bigger and better

Paul Schaeflein — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 12:22:00 GMT

There is a new International SharePoint Professionals Association. Bob Fox has the information in his announcement post. I am a regional evangelist for this association, which means I will be working with user groups in the midwest to build their communities.

Also announced today is the online SharePoint Magazine, edited by Arno Nel.

IndyNDA is a great group

Paul Schaeflein — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 13:39:00 GMT

I want to thank Dave and Brad and everyone who attended the IndyNDA meeting last night.

You need to know that this is no ordinary user group. They average 100 attendees each month (130+ for my SharePoint talk); they host and sell-out an annual weekend conference (Indy Tech Fest - October 4th) and most importantly they give back. The housekeeping items before I started were:

Bring a friend giveaway -- a prize for the member who brings a friend for the first time. This month, the prize was a control suite worth >$1,000
IndyGiveCamp -- developers creating solutions for charities. Paul Hacker of Radio TFS is behind this effort.
Food Drive -- At the August meeting, bring $10 worth of canned or dried goods and get entered in a drawing for an MSDN Premium subscription. WOW!!!

Indianapolis is not a large market, so they don't get a lot of press. Show some love next time you're there. I guarantee you will be impressed.

Speaking tonight in Indianapolis

Paul Schaeflein — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 05:10:00 GMT

I will be presenting SharePoint for ASP.NET Developers tonight a the Indianapolis .Net Developers Association. If you're in the area, we're starting at 6:00pm.