TechNucleus

In SharePoint, we have an option (checkbox) to send a welcome email to newly added users and this checkbox is checked by default. In my case this option is vary annoying since in most cases we don’t send an email to newly added users but sometimes i forgot to uncheck the checkbox. So i started looking into ways to ease my life.

First thing i want to find is,  was there any global setting to flip the checkbox? but there is none. So my next option is modify/edit the aclInv.aspx page which is in Layouts folder in SharePoint hive.

1. Navigate to SharePoint Hive\TEMPLATE\LAYUTS folder.
2. Find the aclInv.aspx file.
3. This step is optional but I recommend to backup this file before making any changes.
4. open the aclInv.aspx in editor.
5. Search for “chkSendEmail”.
6. Change Checked property from True to False.
7. Save the page.

Repeat the same steps in all web front end servers.

Most of you already know that SharePoint gives you the ability to crate and host multiple separate web applications,for example, intranet site, internet/Extranet, Team site, etc. In MOSS 2007, Microsoft comes with a new concept of Shared Services Providers(SSP). The idea behind this concept is to manage and share certain services centrally instead of each web application level. The best examples are Profiles and Search service. Using Profile service, you can import all of the user information from Active Directory once and then use  that data within different web applications. In the same way you can also setup the search service one time and then share it across multiple web applications. It make prefect sense, right?

The major services that are handled by SSP are,

• Profiles
• Search
• Indexing
• My Sites
• Audiences
• Excel Services
• Business Data Catalog (BDC)

Another major advantage of SSPs is separation of roles. It is most common in medium to large server farms to have one group administrating the physical servers and another group maintain search/profiles. Since SSP is its own site collection, you can define a user access so that they can not access Central Administration site but they can access the SSP. Even in SSP you can limit then what they can access.

As a general rule, you use single SSP. But there are some scenarios you may want to create multiple SSPs. For example, you may need separate set of permissions and services for intranet site and extra net site. You have to be vary cautious about creating multiple SSPs.

Final Thoughts

Shared Service Providers (SSPs) are one of the great feature in MOSS 2007. Creations of SSPs should be part of your initial planning. In SSPs, You can grant permissions at a granular level or broad access.

I hope this was useful and you understand clearly what’s the purpose of SSPs?