Missing "Manage Permissions" in Document Library

While working on a site, I encountered a document library where it was showing fewer menus in Edit Control Block (EBC) (also referred as List Item Menu). I noticed there is absence of "Manage Permissions" menu. It was a clear indication that document library has been broken. I tried to figure it out looking at the list schema, field schemas, views etc. but of no use.

"Manage Permissions" is the essential menu item to manage the item level permissions. Client was also interested in it.

The document library was the only one which was misbehaving in the site.

After looking at various options, I realized that we can provide "Manage Permissions" link using Custom Action.

SharePoint Designer 2010 has made it very easy to create Custom Action. Custom Actions can be created to display the new/edit or display form, to initiate a workflow or to navigate to a url. Custom Actions also support URL tokens such as {ListId}. I just observed the "Manage Permissions" link in other document libraries and analyzed the URL with query string parameters.

"Manage Permissions" navigate to : _layouts/user.aspx (application page)
Query string comprises of obj (it has list id/GUID, item id and entity category), and list (it has list GUID).

URL looks like as below:
http://server/<weburl>/_layouts/user.aspx?obj=<list Id>,<item id>, LISTITEM&List=<list id>

Custom Actions support various URL tokens. I referred the below URL tokens.

1. {ListId} --List Guid
2. {ItemId} -- Item Guid

My URL for custom action :

http://server/<weburl>/_layouts/user.aspx?obj={ListId},{ItemId},LISTITEM&List={ListId}

That's it! I named my custom action as "Manage Permissions". This is just a workaround. We will investiagate the reason behind misbehave and update the post.

Filterable Multi-valued PeopelPicker Column using PowerShell

Recently I came across an error while filtering the multi-valued PeoplePicker column. The error reads "Cannot show the value of filter. The field may not be filterable, or the number of items returned exceeds the list view threshold enforced by the administrator." There are only four values in the column, surely it has no rleation to the list view threshold value.

Internally, SharePoint server uses "_layouts/filter.aspx" application page for filter values which are presented in an iFrame. I checked the ULS logs and copied the Request URL with filter.aspx. I pasted it in browser and hit "Enter". It returned no result.

What is multi-valued field?
The field which allows more than one values or which allows multiple selections. The multi-valued fileds are non-sortable, non-filterable. Multi-valued fields cannot be indexed.

Fix:
This behavior can be overridden. Every field has an associated schema. Multi-valued fields are marked as "Sortable =false" in the schema for performance reasons. Note: Apply the workaround wherever it is unavoidable.

If we mark the multi-valued PeoplePicker as "Sortable=true", the column turns filterable/ sortable. This can be achieved using SharePoint Server Object Model or using Windows PowerShell (I love it).

PowerShell Script to mark the column as Sortable:

$web=Get-SPWeb <weburl>

$list=$web.Lists[<list title>]
$field=$list.Fields[<field title>]
$strSchema=$field.SchemaXml
$str=Schema$strSchema.Replace("Sortable=`"FALSE`"","Sortable=`"true`"")
$field.SchemaXml = $strSchema
[Update: I noticed that multi-valued "person or group" coulmn in other web application was showing filter choices even though "Sortable=false". Googling did not help. I checked at various levels and found that "Online Presence" setting causes this error. If Online presence setting is turned OFF, SP 2010 starts showing this error for multi-valued columns when tried to filter. So turn it ON, and...no error, filter choices are shown back. The Online Presence setting is available in Web applications's General Settings.]

Powershell to find site collections with specific feature activated

This is a one liner Powershell to find site collections which have the specific feature activated. See the below example, it display URLs of site collections where "SharePoint Publishing Infrastructure" feature is activated. The "PublishingSite" is the name of publishing infrastructure feature.

Get-SPSite -Limit All| Where-Object {(Get-SPFeature "PublishingSite" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue -Site $_.Url) -ne $null } | Select Url

So the format is

Get-SPSite -Limit All | Where-Object { (Get-SPFeature <Feature Name> -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue -Site $_.Url) -ne $null } | Select Url

Note that it will only check for site collection scoped features. The above Powershell can be modified for web scoped features as below.

Get-SPSite -Limit All| Get-SPWeb -Limit All | Where-Object { (Get-SPFeature <Feature Name> -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue -Web $_.Url) -ne $null } | Select Url

e.g. To check Publishing feature activation status at web scope, it will look like as below. "PublishingWeb" is a web scoped feature.

Get-SPSite -Limit All| Get-SPWeb -Limit All | Where-Object { (Get-SPFeature "PublishingWeb" -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue -Web $_.Url) -ne $null } | Select Url

This powershell block can be extended for web application/Farm scoped features also.