Pro SharePoint 2007 Development Techniques

Chapter 7. Changing Code Privileges Using Impersonation, Elevation, and Delegation

Every web part is executed under a given identity. In most cases, this will be the identity of the current logged-on user. But there are times when a web part needs to be able to assume another user context in order to do its work. Normally speaking, changing identities is only a temporary situation. Assuming another user context is widely known as impersonation, although we prefer to use the term impersonation in a narrower sense. We will discern two types of user identity assumption: impersonation and elevation, which differ only in their intent. We talk about impersonation when a process does something on behalf of someone else. A well-known impersonation scenario ...