Release Notes for Group Redirect

Release Notes for Group Redirect

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WSSv3/MOSS SharePoint 2010 SharePoint 2013 SharePoint 2016
Release Notes Release Notes Release Notes Release Notes
Microsoft ended mainstream support for SharePoint 2007 in October 2012. See Microsoft’s Lifecycle Support Policy.
At that time, Bamboo stopped enhancements to our SharePoint 2007 product line, but continues to provide support and bug fixes to customers with active support contracts until October 2017. Previously purchased licenses will continue to function after October 2017, but support for these products will end, and no additional bug fixes will be provided beyond that time. Bamboo plans to cease selling new licenses and annual support contacts for its SharePoint 2007 products in October 2016 to ensure customers will be eligible to receive support for at least one year after purchase.
Microsoft plans to end mainstream support for SharePoint 2010 in October 2015. See Microsoft’s Lifecycle Support Policy. At that time, we will stop any enhancements for our SharePoint 2010 product line but will continue to provide support and bug fixes for our SharePoint 2010 products to customers with active support contracts until October 2020. Previously purchased licenses will continue to function after October 2020, but support for these products will end, and no additional bug fixes will be provided beyond that time. Bamboo plans to cease selling new licenses and annual support contacts for its SharePoint 2010 products in October 2019 to ensure customers will be eligible to receive support for at least one year after purchase.

Visit our website where you can get the latest info about each of our products for SharePoint 2013.

A separate installation package and license key is required for SharePoint 2013 deployment. For additional details, review the following knowledge base articles:

Bamboo Solutions has also begun releasing products for SharePoint 2016. For additional details, check the product release notes in the link above, or contact us.

For details on migration, see the Knowledge Base Article “Migrate Bamboo Products from SharePoint 2013 to SharePoint 2016”

Understanding Bamboo Releases:

  • Bamboo offers Trial, Basic and Premium support.
    • Free Trial support expires after 30 days.
    • For more information about Basic and Premium support, please see the Support Plans page.
    • There may be a fee to upgrade from a major version to another.

See Also:

Overview of User Redirect Web Part

Overview of User Redirect Web Part

Microsoft’s Windows SharePoint Technology and Services, which includes SharePoint Portal Server (SPS) and Windows SharePoint Services (WSS) allows teams to create Web portals for information sharing and document collaboration that helps increase individual and team productivity. It also serves as a platform for application development, providing IT resources as portals, team workspaces, e-mail, presence awareness, and Web-based conferencing. SharePoint enables developers to quickly build collaborative applications based on a robust set of out-of-the-box functionalities.

As a collaboration platform, information stored in SharePoint is often shared with immediate team members as well as corporate employees, and external people such as clients, vendors, and partners. While it is very easy to share information in SharePoint to a wide audience, the other important factor is to restrict access to certain information in the portal by set up appropriate user security access. This is especially important with external users such as clients and partners where you want them to only “need-to-know” pages. As the system admin, you can create a security structure to enforce user access to the system by several methods:

  • User authentication through IIS. This is the first level of security. SP does not perform its own authentication, but rather rely on IIS. Authentication is the process of verification of identity of a person or process that needs access to SP server. IIS authentication mechanism requires an NT account, either local machine or Active Directory (AD) account.

  • Site Groups Permissions. Site groups let you specify which of your users can perform specific actions in your site. For example, a user who is a member of the Contributor site group can add content to Windows SharePoint Services lists, such as the Task list, or a document library.

  • Per-list Permissions. You can manage permissions more finely by setting unique permissions on a per-list basis. For example, if you have a document library containing sensitive financial data for the next fiscal year, you can restrict access to that list so that only the appropriate users can view it. Per-list permissions override site-wide permissions for the lists.

  • Site Collection Permissions. You can also manage user at the Site Collection level. A Site Collection is a set of logically related Web Sites that can be collectively managed, and each Site Collection has a single top level Web Site. Site Collection permission is managed trough setting up Cross Site Groups. Users can be added to cross site group where they are rolled up at the site collection level, and can be managed at that level and are scoped to the site collection level.

From a practical implementation level, implement access policy for external users can be complicated and time consuming affair due to:

  • All users have access to home page and top level menu by default, so limiting a sub site or a page to a set of user have to be well designed and throughout tested.
  • Site Group and Cross Site Group can be used to enforce security access, but will often break down when users belongs to multiple groups, especially when there are mix use of these group both as security and functional areas.
  • It is a tedious process to set up the security and test all possible combination of navigation, especially for a larger site where site administrator have the freedom to create links to other sites within the portal.

The User Redirect Web Part will provide the portal admin a simple way to route users from the sites where they are not suppose to have access.

Overview of User Redirect Configuration Tool Pane

Overview of User Redirect Configuration Tool Pane

User Redirect displays the list of users, allowing the administrator to define redirect paths. When a user accesses a page in SharePoint, the web part redirects the user to the specified destination URL if the user is on the redirect list. A different redirect page can be identified for each specified user. With User Redirect, you can have pages that are restricted for most users but allow certain users to access them.

After User Redirect is added to the page, you have three configuration decisions to make:

  1. Determine if you want to allow or restrict access for selected user(s)
  2. Identify users to be allowed or restricted
  3. Identify the page to which users will be redirected.

To customize User Redirect, edit the web part.
The tool pane is displayed on the right side of the screen:

Step Action Result
1. Allow Access – Select Allow to allow specified users to access the page. All other users will be redirected. Allow.jpg
Users who have access to your page will appear in the Users list below. Highlight a user name and click Apply
2. Restrict Access and Redirect – Select Restrict and Redirect to redirect members but allow everyone else. Be careful not to add a user twice with different redirect pages. At runtime, only the last entry for the user will be acted on. RestrictRedirect.jpg
3. Users – The list of users and groups in your site appear; highlight a name and click Apply.
4. Redirect Page – Enter the path and page to which the user will be redirected if he/she should not access the page.
5. User Name This is the name you highlighted above.
6. Redirect Page This shows the page the user to which the users is being redirected.
7. Delete Selected Lines

DeleteSelectedLInes.jpg
If necessary, you can delete an entry:

  • Check the box next to the user’s name(s)
  • Check Delete Selected Lines
  • Click Apply
8. Language See Localize Bamboo Web Parts for your Language.

Migrating Group Redirect from SharePoint 2010 to SharePoint 2013

Migrating Group Redirect from SharePoint 2010 to SharePoint 2013

Be sure you have at least the Minimum SharePoint 2010 Product Release (shown in the table below) installed before migrating. If not, upgrade your Bamboo product release before migrating. For more information, see Upgrading your Bamboo Web Part. Also, the target SharePoint 2013 farm requires at least the Minimum SharePoint 2013 product release shown.

Icon-WarningIMPORTANT: When migrating from SharePoint 2010 to SharePoint 2013, the Database Attach Upgrade Method is the only method supported.

Minimum SharePoint 2010 Product Release 20.3.27 Minimum SharePoint 2013 Product Release 20.3.32.2013
Database Attach Upgrade Method
Issues The Group Redirect migrates without any errors or additional steps required.
Resolution N/A

Migrating Group Redirect from SharePoint 2007 to SharePoint 2010

Migrating Group Redirect from SharePoint 2007 to SharePoint 2010

Be sure you have at least the Minimum SharePoint 2007 Product Release (shown in the table below) installed before migrating. If not, upgrade your Bamboo product release before migrating. For more information, see Upgrading your Bamboo Web Part. Also, the target SharePoint 2010 farm requires at least the Minimum SharePoint 2010 product release shown.

Icon-Warning IMPORTANT: When migrating from SharePoint 2007 to SharePoint 2010, you MUST select the option to change existing SharePoint sites to use the new user experience. Your Bamboo products will not perform as expected with the old look and feel.

Minimum SharePoint 2007 Product Release 2.3.11 Minimum SharePoint 2010 Product Release 20.3.14
In-Place Upgrade
Issues The Group Redirect Web Part migrates without any errors or additional steps required.
Resolution N/A
Database Attach Upgrade Method
Issues The Group Redirect Web Part migrates without any errors or additional steps required.
Resolution N/A

How to Prevent Access to Sensitive Information

How to Prevent Access to Sensitive Information

hw12014.jpgAssuming that you have a corporate portal with sites for projects, clients, divisions, etc. In the portal structure, you want only users who are members of the “Financial” and “Management” SharePoint groups to access the Financial Site and keep out users who are not members of either group.

The following steps describe how to redirect users who are not members of the Financial or Management groups to a warning page, and thus control access to the financial information of the company.

Step Action Result
1. Using the Site Actions button, create a new page to redirect users to. Save the page as GoAway.aspx or anything you wish to name it.
AddPage2010.jpg

In SharePoint 2013, your site actions button looks like a gear icon on the top right of your page.
AddPage.jpg

CreatePage.jpg
Typically, new pages are housed in your Site Pages library.
2. When you create a new page, SharePoint takes you there immediately. Enter the warning message directly on the page and save it. GoAway.jpg
Icon-TipProvide the reader with some context as to why s/he arrived at this page; perhaps the site is not restricted but certain pages within the site are and the user hit an unrestricted area. Include a link to take him/her to a different site or a different page. Add some information if it is relevant to your environment about how to gain access and why their access is restricted.
3. Add Group Redirect to your new page and configure it to redirect users to your warning page. RedirectTo.jpg
You could also redirect users to a completely different site by entering the URL to the other site in the Redirect to: box.
4. Log into the system as someone who is not a member of the Financial or Management group to test access to the financial page. You will be redirected to the GoAway.aspx page.

The OR logic operator allows us to redirect everyone who doesn’t meet a very specific set of criteria, in this case, membership in both the Financial and Management groups. Here’s a visual representation of how each rule is applied.
Questions.jpg
By the time the Web Part reaches the final step, the only users who haven’t been redirected are members of the Financial group. Using AND/OR logic, you can direct very specific groups to different sites – and by using the Add More Criteria button, you can create as many rule sets (and therefore as many unique redirects) as you need.