Mark Eichenberger's SharePoint Blog

Sometimes, you just don't want certain people adding web parts to a page. Content Editor and Image Viewer web parts are no big deal, but there are circumstances where the editing settings for certain web parts are beyond the skills of many page/site designers.

In SharePoint 2003/WSS v2, you could only remove the web parts and add them in later via the Import command. You can still do that, but with the advent of item level security in MOSS 2007/WSS v3, why not alter the permissions in the Web Part Gallery?

The Web Part Gallery is just another type of SharePoint library. It allows you to add items, modify properties -- and manage permissions. The Web Part Gallery exposes web parts to the entire site collection so managing permissions will apply to the top level site and any sub sites.

For example, let's say you don't want Designers adding the SAP IView web part to a page because it may require additional settings that are not readily available to anyone outside the SAP group. (Another good example would be any of the BDC web parts because you're really creating a mini-application by combining these on a page.) When you go to add a web part to a zone, you see something similar to the following screenshot.

To hide the IView web part -- or any others -- from specific people or roles, follow these steps.

• Click Site Actions / Site Settings
• If you are not already at the top level site collection, click on Go to top level site settings under the Site Collection Administrator heading.
• Under the Galleries heading, click Web Parts and you will see a list of available web parts (.dwp files) in the list (see below).

• Click the Edit icon next to IViewWebPart.dwp file
• Click the Manage Permissions toolbar button
• Click Actions / Edit Permissions and click OK when prompted
• Check the box(es) next to any users/groups you do not want to see the web part
• Click Actions / Remove Permissions and click OK when prompted

Next, have someone else with the demoted permissions go to one of the sites within the site collection, edit the page, and click to add a web part. When scrolling through the list, the IView web part should be gone and should appear as shown below.

****IMPORTANT NOTE****

This set of actions will hide the web part when someone wishes to add a part to a page. After the web part is on the page, anyone with edit page permissions will be able to alter the web part properties, and they retain the right to remove the web part from the page.