Default permission levels in SharePoint 2010

PERMISSION LEVEL		DESCRIPTION
Full Control	This permission level contains all permissions. By default, the Site name Owners group has Full Control. This permission level cannot be customized or deleted.
Design	Can create lists and document libraries, edit pages and apply themes, borders, and style sheets in the Web site. Not assigned to any group by default An administrator must assign this permission level explicitly..
Contribute	Can add, edit, and delete items in existing lists and document libraries. By default, the Site name Members group has Contribute permissions..
Read	Read-only access to the Web site. Users and groups that have this permission level can view items and pages, open items, and documents. By default, the Site name Visitors group has Read permission..
Limited Access	By design, the Limited Access permission should be combined with fine-grained permissions. You can use this permission to give users access to a specific list, document library, item, or document, without giving them access to the whole site. However, to access a list or library, for example, a user must have permission to open the parent Web site and read shared data such as the theme and navigation bars of the Web site. The Limited Access permission level cannot be customized or deleted. Note   You cannot assign this permission level to users or security groups. Instead, the system automatically assigns this permission level to users and security groups when you grant them access to an object on your site that requires that they have access to a higher level object on which they do not have permissions. For example, if you grant users access to an item in a list and they do not have access to the list itself, the system automatically grants them Limited Access on the list. If the user also requires access to the site, the system automatically grants Limited Access to the site..
Manage Hierarchy	Can create sites and edit pages, list items, and documents. by default, the Hierarchy Managers group has Manage Hierarchy permissions..
Records Center Web Services Submitters	Can submit content to the named site by using Web Services. By default, the Records Center Web Services Submitters group has this permission..
Approve	Can edit and approve pages, list items, and documents. By default, the Approvers group has this permission..
Restricted Read	Can view pages and documents, but cannot view historical versions or user permissions.

Site collection backup/restore vs. site export/import

Site collection backup

PowerShell command to backup a site collection

Backup-SPSite -Identity "site collection url" -Path "backup file path"

More information for Backup-SPSite: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff607901.aspx

Site collection restore

PowerShell command to restore a site collection

1	Restore-SPSite -Identity "site collection url" -Path "backup file path"

More information for Restore-SPSite: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff607788.aspx

Restore results:

The results are the same when restoring on the same location or another location, in the same web application or another web application.

Results:

-          The restored site collection has new site ID (GUID).

-          All items versions and workflows are restored successfully.

-          Audit events are lost. This happens because of the new site ID (GUID). This can be fixed by updating Audit table in the content database. If the site collection is restored in the same location or another location that uses the same content database then rows in Audit table should be updated by writing the new Site ID in the rows that have the old Site ID. If the restore is done on another location that uses another content database then new rows must be created in the Audit table in the new content database by reading the old audit events from the Audit table in the old content database.

Site Export

PowerShell command to export SPWeb:

1	Export-SPWeb [-Identity] "site url or GUID" -Path "backup file path"

More information for Export-SPWeb: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff607895.aspx

Important: Export-SPWeb does not export the running workflows.

Site import

Powershell command to import SPWeb:

1	Import-SPWeb [-Identity] "site url or GUID" -Path "backup file path"

More information for Import-SPWeb: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff607613.aspx

Import in the same location

If there are event receivers running custom code in the lists it’s recommended to remove all of them before import to avoid any failure caused by the event receiver logic. Depending on the logic of the event receivers import may completely fail or the imported web may have wrong items version history and other problems. After import event receivers can be added back. For removing/adding event receivers with PowerShell check one of my older posts Add, Modify or Delete List Event Receivers with PowerShell

Import results:

-          Import operation does not import the workflows (as expected, because they don’t get exported with Export-SPWeb).

-          Import does not affect the currently running workflows but import of the document versions fails for those documents with running workflow.

-          Versions are correctly imported only for document with no workflows in running state when importing.

-          Audit events are not affected by the import, so all events are retained including those registered between export and import

Import in another sub site

The following must be done before importing the exported site:

-          Create new site using the same template and same language as the exported site

-          As explained above, removing event receiver is strongly recommended

Import results:

-          All running workflows are lost

-          All custom site properties and custom item properties are lost (properties in SPWeb.Properties and SPItem.Properties hashtables)

-          All workflow associations are lost

-          Document versions are imported successfully

-          Audit events are lost

-          Workflow tasks are lost

Conclusion:

Database attach of a backed up content database is superior for custom SharePoint solutions that contain custom workflows, custom web and item properties, custom event receivers, version history etc. To avoid big content database and long backup times its better the custom solutions to be installed in a site collection that has its own content database instead of sharing one content database with other site collections. That way backup/restore space and time will stay in normal and manageable boundaries. In that case you can stick to database backup as the best backup/restore plan for highly customized and big SharePoint solution.

Site collection backup/restore is better than SPWeb export/import but not as trouble free as database backup/restore plan. The problems are caused by the new Site ID (GUID) generated. That causes lose of audit events, or more precisely additional work to correct the Audit table after the restore.

Site export/import is almost useless for custom solutions that contain custom workflows, event receivers, custom web and item properties, custom event receivers, version history etc. It has problems even if it’s used for simple sites that use only SharePoint out of the box functionality if it has lists with workflows and versioning enabled.

How to find the name of your configuration database in SharePoint 2010.

1. Remote into your server in the farm where central admin is installed.
2. Open regedit [Start > Run > "regedit"]
3. Navigate to [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shared Tools\Web Server Extensions\14.0\Secure\ConfigDB]
4. Open the [dsn] key.
Done! You now have your config database name.
It should look something like this.

1	Data Source=sp2010srv;Initial Catalog=SharePoint_Config_StyledPoint;Integrated Security=True;Enlist=False;Connect Timeout

SharePoint 2010 search overview

Search is one  of the core component of the SharePoint Platform . Recently we have seen hell lots of issues in our farm .While troubleshooting those issues I learnt the below points regarding SharePoint search which I feel like to share .

SharePoint Search is comprised of three main functional process components:

Crawling (Gathering): Collecting content to be processed

Indexing: Organizing the processed content into a structured/searchable index

Query Processing: Retrieving a relevant result set relative to a given user query

How Search Works :

A server running a SharePoint Search Crawl Component (e.g. a “Crawl Server”) performs the act of crawling by making web requests such as HTTP GET to the applicable web front ends (WFEs) hosting the hosting the content. More simplistically, the Crawler makes requests for content and the WFE responds with the requested documents/pages/data. After the content has been gathered by the Crawler, it then gets filtered and processed into the final end product as an index. Regardless of SharePoint Search or FAST Search for SharePoint 2010, the component responsible for crawling (aka “gathering”) content-to-be-indexed is the SharePoint Crawl Component.

By default, the SharePoint Server 2010 crawler crawls all available Web front-end computers in a SharePoint farm through the network load balancer in that farm. Therefore, when a crawl is occurring, the crawler can cause increased network traffic, increased usage of hard disk and processor resources on Web front-end computers, and increased usage of resources on database servers. Putting this additional load on all Web front-end computers at the same time can decrease performance across the SharePoint farm.

This decrease in performance occurs only on the SharePoint farm that is serving user requests, and not on the SharePoint search farm. This decreased performance can cause delayed response times on the Web front-end computers and delayed response times for the overall farm. The decreased performance might not be diagnosed by specific logs, resource counters, or standard monitoring.

You can reduce the effect of crawling on SharePoint performance by doing the following:

·         Redirect all crawl traffic to a single SharePoint Web front-end computer in a small environment or a specific group of computers in a large environment. This prevents the crawler from using the same resources that are being used to render and serve Web pages and content to active users.

·         Limit search database usage in Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2, SQL Server 2008 with Service Pack 1 (SP1) and Cumulative Update 2, and SQL Server 2005 with SP3 and Cumulative Update 3 to prevent the crawler from using shared SQL Server 2008 R2, SQL Server 2008 with SP1 and Cumulative Update 2, and SQL Server 2005 with SP3 and Cumulative Update 3 disk and processor resources during a crawl.

Enumerating Content from the WFE

Assuming http://foo:80 as the URL of a Web Application in a SharePoint Farm and a Search Content Source specifies that specifies this start address http://foo, the Crawl Component would gather items from this content source by essentially browsing each item from the web server hosting this content. When starting the crawl of SharePoint content, the Crawler would first look for http://foo/robots.txt to determine if any items are being disallowed. It then browses the default page for the URL and from the response, looks for the response header ‘MicrosoftSharePointTeamServices’. If this response header does not exist, the crawler will proceed as if this were generic web content and perform a “spider crawl”. If the response header does exist, then the SharePoint crawler begins enumerating all of the items in this site by targeting the Site Data web service for this URL - in this case, http://foo/_vti_bin/sitedata.asmx. Simplistically, the Crawler leverages the Site Data web service to ask the WFE, “Hey, WFE… what content do you have for this URL?” The Crawler stores the enumerated items into a queue and then begins retrieving each of the items from the WFE.

More specifically, the Crawler enumerates the content through a series of iterative SOAP calls through the Site Data web service. It first asks the WFE, “For this URL [Virtual Server], what Content Databases do you have?” Through a SOAP response, the WFE enumerates the applicable Content DB[s] along with the identifying GUID for each content DB. The Crawler then asks the WFE, “For the Content DB with the GUID [XYZ], what Site Collections do you have?” Again, the WFE responds with another SOAP response containing each of the Site Collection[s] along with other metadata applicable to each Site Collection. The Crawler and WFE continue this conversation to drill down on each of the Webs (e.g. the Top level site and all sub-sites) in the Site Collection, each of the lists/libraries in a Web, and items from lists/libraries have been enumerated for the URL.

It’s worth noting that for a Full Crawl, all of the items within this Web Application will be enumerated and queued by the Crawler for processing. However, with an Incremental Crawl, the Crawler will also pass along a Change Log Cookie (that it received from the WFE on the previous crawl) to the WFE. A Change Log Cookie would resemble the following 1;0;5e4720e3-3d6b-4217-8247-540aa1e3b90a;634872101987500000;10120 and contains both the identifying GUID for the applicable Content DB (in this case, 5e4720e3-3d6b-4217-8247-540aa1e3b90a) as well the row ID from the EventCache table (e.g. row 10120) in the specified Content DB. With this, the WFE can identify all events that have occurred for this Content DB since this point and thus, identify any content that has changed since the last crawl.

SharePoint 2013: 7 Features Users are Going to Love

Unlike the continual release model of its cloud based competitors, Microsoft releases a major version of SharePoint every three years. There are some downsides to this approach (see later in this article), but one definite upside is that when the releases do come around, those of us who work with SharePoint every day tend to get a bit excited. (As in, excited like first graders at a raspberry cordial party.)

So it was with much anticipation that I took a close look at the recently released SharePoint 2013 Preview. My initial take is that this is a significant release with a ton of great new features to talk about. However, for this article I wanted to identify the seven new features that I think SharePoint users are going to love the most.

My Documents — My "SkyDrive for Work"

The idea of storing personal documents in My Sites, rather than local drives, has always made sense to me: I can access my files from multiple devices as well as easily share files with teammates using links, rather than sending copies via email. Using a My Site for storing my documents also ensures that files are in a managed environment, rather than residing on intrinsically fallible local hard drives. Despite these potential advantages, the My Site documents experience in SharePoint 2010 is clunky, overly reliant on constant availability and, more often that not, is not used. The good news is that in SharePoint 2013 saving documents into My Sites is going to get a lot easier. In fact, it is the default location for saving documents from Office 2013. There is a single document library, not two as in SharePoint 2010, and the permissions have been simplified, making it a cinch to share documents with colleagues. Better still, the My Site document library can be synced with a local drive to enable offline access so you can access your documents even when the server is unavailable. With this capability SharePoint 2013 My Documents can mount a strong case to be your "SkyDrive for Work."

App Store

In an interesting move that will at one stroke empower end users, reduce load on overworked IT operations departments and add fuel to the already active after-market for SharePoint add-ons, Microsoft is introducing an Apps Store model with SharePoint 2013. Initial app offerings are already being promoted by Microsoft. Site owners used to being turned down by IT or having to endure extended waits when seeking new capabilities will love the new-found independence the Apps store promises.

Social Enterprise

Perhaps the most exciting changes in SharePoint 2013 relate to social capabilities. The list of new features is extensive: micro blogs, activity feeds, community sites, Following, Likes and Reputations are the standouts Of these I really like Following, which adds the ability to "follow" people, sites, documents and topics, with subsequent actions of the followed entity appearing in the user's activity stream. Keeping up to date with the activities of colleagues in SharePoint has never been easier.

Mobility

Clearly recognizing the massive rise in use of mobile smart devices, Microsoft has done some nice work to make it easier to access SharePoint content from a mobile device. Adding to the existing classic view, SharePoint 2013 offers two new views for mobile devices, including a contemporary view for optimized mobile browser experience and a full-screen view which enables the user to have a full desktop view of a SharePoint site on a smartphone device. These new views will be well received by smartphone users, as the existing experience, using mobile apps or the browser, is a little ordinary.

Site Permissions

A key selling point of SharePoint is the ability to have a distributed governance model, pushing the management of sites out to the business units. In practice though, the processes of granting or requesting access to a site in SharePoint 2010 are overly complex and a major source of confusion for site owners. With SharePoint 2013 site owners are going to love the new, simplified sharing-based model for site permissions management. For IT help desk staff, used to spending a disproportionate amount of their time sorting out permission issues, this should come as a welcome relief.

Themes

The ability to have some control over the visual styling of a site is important to site owners. Everybody would like to have a site that looks great! SharePoint 2010 standard styling options are a little on the dull side. SharePoint 2013 will bring richer themes and even the ability to add a background image to the page. I have to say that the early screen shots look pretty good.

Metro

Last, in this super 7 list is Metro, the Microsoft’s big user interface bet that’s easier to use, snazzy and well, different (in a good way). While there appears to be some uncertainty over the ongoing use of the name "Metro" to describe its new, radical UI design, there is no doubt that the concept itself will be around for a while — Microsoft are planning to use Metro as the default UI for SharePoint as well as user tools like Office, Windows, Xbox and mobile devices.

SharePoint 2013: Fast Search Features Drive Enterprise Productivity

In the year 2008, Microsoft acquired a technology company called Fast Search & Transfer ASA for a whopping US$ 1.2 billion. With this acquisition, Microsoft capitalized on the reputation Fast Search had built for itself in the field of enterprise search and tightened its grip on the workspace collaboration ecosystem by introducing the Fast Search feature in SharePoint 2013.

Initially launched as a separate component, Microsoft has since invested considerable effort, time and money to integrate “FAST solution” into SharePoint. And the integration is complete in the latest version of SharePoint 2013 where the best components of Search Server Express, SharePoint Enterprise Search and FAST Search Server are brought into a single SharePoint Search platform

Save Time Using SharePoint 2013 Search Capabilities

While earlier versions of SharePoint facilitated content search via content web query, it had its limitation when the searches were out of Site collections. Now SharePoint 2013 can be used to index content from a wide variety of sources (websites, file shares, exchange folders, lotus notes, etc.) using third party connectors. SharePoint 2013 builds a single respository of index which allows users to provide a single enterprise search center experience and avoid the need for going to different applications to search for the same type of information.

Fundamental architectural changes help overcome the earlier version’s limitations and the user can now index content from multiple site collections thereby fortifying SharePoint’s existing WCM capabilities. These improvements along with new features such as query syntax, query suggestions and results preview pane (hover for full content previews) helps users be more productive by getting faster and more precise search results.

Precise and Centralized Search Results

By leveraging Fast Search content capabilities and fusing it with SharePoint's native search features, Microsoft SharePoint 2013 now renders a centralized dynamic interface. These interfaces are easy to navigate and have a more appealing social user interface making User Experience more productive and engaging. Inbuilt content and usage analytics processing components bring better relevance to search results.

Query suggestions in these features make it much easier to use SharePoint search functionality. These query suggestions offer smart guessing and intuitive assistance that saves time by rendering right search results and assists in preventing typos. If enterprises wish to extend search capabilities to anonymous users, SharePoint 2013 allows integration with Mavention Query Suggestions for public facing SharePoint websites.

Search Latest Documents as Soon as they are Added

In SharePoint 2010 we had to schedule crawls to index the latest content sets being added on a continuous basis. In case the content sets were huge and exceeded the crawl slot, the next scheduled crawl had to wait for the pervious crawl to finish indexing the content set. Due to this time lapse the indexing process would become involved and time consuming.

To ensure that search results are updated at the same rate as that of content addition in an enterprises’s SharePoint site, Microsoft has introduced a continuous crawl feature with Sharepoint 2013. It allows multiple incremental indexing jobs to process paralleling ensuring that no content is missing from the search results.

In order to keep the content sources and search index fresh, SharePoint 2013 facilitates continuous and automatic crawling which eliminate the need to schedule incremental crawls and authentication by allowing administrators to configure crawl schedules. SharePoint 2013 also enables users to remove items from the search index by using crawl logs.

SharePoint 2013 Integration with Office Web Apps

SharePoint 2013 offers smart documents and web pages’ previews and eliminates the redundant task of surfing through files to find the correct one. SharePoint 2013 smart document viewing enables users to get a preview of any document or file by simply resting the cursor on them. This saves a lot of time and helps users become more productive.

SharePoint 2013 allows smart integration with the Office Web Apps both for viewing and editing office content and search previews of documents. Users can choose a document from SharePoint 2013 library or SkyDrive, and edit documents with all Microsoft office functionality or on supported mobile applications. Office web apps, when integrated with SharePoint 2013, render hosts of other features like co-authoring, change tracking, quick preview and more.

With these enhanced search capabilities, SharePoint 2013 can help enterprises with best in class and high end search practices and help their workforce become more productive.

Getting access denied when trying to save survey as template, even though you are having full control in SP2010

Reason : While trobleshooting this case we found that the user is having only "read" permission in the solution gallery .

Solution  : The issue was fixed after providing full control in the List template gallery .