point-n-click

Among the many requests we get to compose or decompose some of the basic functionality built into SharePoint 2007 - we get this one a lot.  For some very valid business reasons, Edit in Datasheet or Export to Spreadsheet (Excel / Access) violate some of the metadata rules or workflow customizations that may affect metadata.  I think this is due to the lack of robust field level security tied out to the users or groups in SharePoint.  It's not too hard to build this into SharePoint (most serious web applications have field level security), and I've even helped build field level security into a few widely employed web applications. So maybe its due to something else.  Either way, to disable the functionality, you basically gut SharePoint's webservices from the set of users you want to lock it down for. Go to [your site] > Site Settings > Permissions > Permission Levels Note: to do this for a single list, break permission inheritance at the list, th...

Two requests that are probably part of every SharePoint workflow design: Permit only the users who are assigned a WF tasks to edit (i.e. complete) them Record the user name of the person who completes a task (instead of the System Account) Not suprisingly, neither of these pretty simple, seemingly obvious design concepts can be done out of the box / without some customization.  Also, certain configuration screens might trick you into thinking you can do this directly within the SharePoint UI (you can't; more on this in the deeper blog posts). Part 1: Security of Workflow Tasks in SharePoint 2007 and Visual Studio 2008 Part 2: Audit Trail of Workflow Tasks in SharePoint 2007 and Visual Studio 2008   There are a couple of good blog sources for each of these customizations, but I didn't find any of them to be thoroughly detailed with screenshots, pitfalls, etc.  So what I hope to do in this two part blog post is cover some portions I think those...