SharePoint 2010 for Project Management, 2nd Edition

Customizing Permissions

Defining permissions in SharePoint can be done at the site level. Permissions can also be customized for a list, a library, a list item, or a specific document. Defining site access requires you to consider which site members require what level of access to the contents. For example, suppose that a stakeholder already has the contribute permission for the entire site, but you want to limit her access to the document library to read-only. You can do this by updating the list permission of the document library. To update this permission for the library or for a list, you:

1. Access the appropriate document library.

2. In the Library Tools, Library ribbon, click the Library Settings button. This will open the Document Library Settings page (see Figure 4-8).

   

   Figure 4-8. Document Library Settings page

3. In the “Permissions and Management” section, click “Permissions for this document library”.

   If the document library inherits permission from the parent, you have to stop inheriting permissions to customize permissions. Click on the Stop Inheriting Permissions button.

4. Enable the checkbox of each SharePoint group or site member that you wish to assign to this document library (Figure 4-9).

   

   Figure 4-9. Document library permissions

5. Click on the Edit User Permissions button on the Permission Tools ribbon.

6. Update the Permission Settings (Figure 4-10).

7. Click OK.

Figure 4-10. Editing document library permissions

You can further refine access restrictions by setting permissions for individual items in the library:

1. Access the appropriate document library.

2. Hover the mouse over the desired document and click the drop-down menu (Figure 4-11).

   

   Figure 4-11. Document library item-level menu

3. Click Manage Permissions.

   Stop inheriting permissions from the parent by clicking on the Stop Inheriting Permissions button on the Permission Tools ribbon.

4. Select the site member(s) or group(s) that will have access to this library item.

   Click on the Edit User Permissions button on the Permission Tools ribbon.

5. Select the desired permission level.

Dux Quax: With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility

Being able to customize various levels of access permissions in SharePoint is quite powerful. However, it can be challenging to keep it current and to maintain it if you have many stakeholders. Be warned: never, ever get overly excited about tweaking permissions for every single person and for every single scenario.

In SharePoint, there is no central view that shows you who has what kind of permission on the entire site. For example, let’s say you’ve defined that the CEO has read-only access to the entire site, contributor access in the Shared Documents document library, and full control access to the Announcements list. If you forget his permissions, the only way you will find them is to go to the permissions settings page of the site, the document library, and the Announcements list individually. Imagine if you had to do this for every single user of your PMIS.

There are third-party tools that can help you manage user permissions in SharePoint. I have used the User Management Solution Accelerator from Bamboo Solutions (see http://www.bamboosolutions.com), and it works quite well. Your IT/IS department will have to install this tool onto your SharePoint server.