There are several new features in SharePoint 2010 that make managing permissions a little easier for the site collection administrators. These are small things, but I can speak from experience and say that they have proven to be very helpful in day-to-day site management. In this article, I want to point out the new features, then link to some blog posts that describe them in additional detail.
1. Show Me Uniquely Secured Content — This option is available at the site level and is displayed in a message bar directly under the ribbon when applicable. Selecting this link will open a popup that displays the different locations where content has been uniquely secured and is not inheriting from the parent location. The popup provides information on lists that have unique permissions (applied to entire lists) and lists where items have unique permissions (item level security). If you access the site permissions page and do not see the warning message, that means that all the content within the site is inheriting the permissions of the parent.
2. Check Permissions — This option is available in the Permission Tools Ribbon, which is accessible whenever you are modifying permissions. When you select this option, you are able to provide a user account or group and check their permissions. When you select to check the permissions, you are shown what permission level that they have and how it was assigned (through a group or given directly).
3. Edit Group Quick Launch — This feature allows you to determine what groups you would like to have displayed as default on the People and Groups landing page. This will allow you to select the primary groups for display and allow you to hide the groups that are required for the site but aren’t managed on a regular basis. This feature provides some flexibility to the site that allows you to create a more user-friendly interface for the site administrators.
All of these features are valuable for saving time and making the management of sites easier for administrators. When users are having issues accessing content, the “Check Permissions” feature will allow you to quickly verify if they have access. If you see that they have been given limited permissions, then you should be able to use “Show Me Unique Content” to help identify what content has been secured uniquely. Definitely a huge improvement in process from what was available in SharePoint 2007!
To see these features in greater detail, including screenshots, you can refer to these blog posts.
• SharePoint 2010 – Check Permissions & Show Me Unique Content
• SharePoint 2010: Specify SharePoint Groups for the People and Groups Page Quick Launch
Jennifer Mason is a consultant with SharePoint911.
