View Effective Rights tool

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Topic Last Modified: 2016-11-14

The View Effective Rights tool is a utility in the Project Server 2007 Project Resource Kit (PRK). It enables Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 administrators to troubleshoot issues regarding security settings and access control.

You can use the View Effective Rights tool to:

• Check a user's access to a specific project or resource through a category permission

• Check a user's permission level for a specific global permission

• Check a user's access to a specific project or resource through a Project Web Access view

Click to download (https://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=A33D253C-6424-48E4-B87E-0861D1977BB7\&displaylang=en) the Project Server 2007 PRK from the Microsoft Download Center.

Requirements

The View Effective Rights tool has the following requirements for usage:

• Microsoft Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows Server 2003.

• Microsoft .NET Framework 2.x or 3.x.

• This tool must be able to access the Project Server 2007 instance's Project Server Published database. The user that is logged on to the computer on which the tool is running must have permissions to this database in Microsoft SQL Server.

Check user's access to a specific project or resource through a category permission

1. Run ViewEffectiveRights.exe to start the View Effective Rights tool.

2. On the What problem you are trying to resolve? page, select Why a user does/doesn't have the correct rights on a specific Project/Resource or the correct Global Permissions. Click Next.

3. Configure the Database Info section to connect to the Project Server Published database in SQL Server.

   

   1. In the Database Server box, type the SQL Server database server name that hosts the Project Server Published database. Enter a period character (.) to search for the database on the local computer. The tool accesses the database server that you specify and provides a list of Project Server Published databases available on that server.

      Important

      Failure to properly input the database server in the Database Server box will result in “Disconnected” being displayed to the right of Database Info.

   2. In the Database Name box, select your Project Server Published database. The tool automatically loads data for the selected database.

      The status of your connection to the database appears next to Database Info.

      Note

      The tool does not perform any writes or updates to the server and only requires read access to the database.

4. Complete the configuration settings on the next page that appears:

   

   • In the first drop-down list, select a specific category resource permission, category project permission, or global permission.

   • In the second drop-down list, select the user for which you want to check the permission.

   • In the last drop-down list, select a project or resource on the server. (This list does not appear if you selected a global permission in the first drop-down list.)

     Warning

     There is a known issue for the tool in which the list of databases returned for the “Check permission”, “for user”, and “on project” fields will automatically populate using the first database found alphabetically. The workaround is to restore the Project Server databases that you want to use the tool on, naming them with an initial letter that appears earlier in the alphabet than the default database populated. Alternatively, you can delete all of the Project Server databases that appear alphabetically before the one you wish to utilize.

5. Click Search to query the server for the effective permission that the specified user has on the system. The results of the query then appear.

   

   The query results show a breakdown of the possible ways in which a user could have permissions to an object allows or denied (for example, through a category or group to which the user is assigned). It also displays the effective right for the user on the object. In the picture above, the user has been denied access through the My Organization category assigned directly to the user. The effective right for the user on the object is Deny.

   The columns contained in the query results are as follows:

   Column Name	Description
   Object Present	Specifies whether the project or resource was explicitly added to the category. The object may still be available to the user via the category rules. Not relevant for global permissions.
   Right	Specifies whether the user has been allowed or denied access to the permission in that group or directly to the user.
   Category Name	Specifies the category that the user was allowed or denied permission on. Not relevant for global permissions.
   Group Name	Specifies the group that the user had the permissions set through. If the permission was applied to the user directly, then nothing shows in this list.
   Applicable Rules	Specifies the applicable category rules for that category. Not relevant for global permissions. Depending on the object type, this setting determines whether a project or resource maps to corresponding category options. Note For more information about category rules, see the MSDN article Using Project Server Security (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=110410&clcid=0x409).

Check a user's permission level on a specific global permission

1. Run ViewEffectiveRights.exe to start the View Effective Rights tool.

2. On the What problem you are trying to resolve? page, select Why a user does/doesn't have the correct rights on a specific Project/Resource or the correct Global Permissions. Click Next.

3. Configure the Database Info section to connect to the Project Server Published database in SQL Server.

   1. In the Database Server box, type the SQL Server database server name that hosts the Project Server Published database. Enter a period character (.) to search for the database on the local computer. The tool accesses the database server that you specify and provides a list of Project Server Published databases available on that server.

   2. In the Database Name box, select your Project Server Published database. The tool automatically loads data for the selected database.

      The status of your connection to the database appears next to Database Info.

      Note

      The tool does not perform any writes or updates to the server and only requires read access to the database.

4. Complete the configuration settings on the next page that displays:

   

   • In the first drop-down list, select a specific global permission.

     Note

     When you select the global permission, the third drop-down list is not needed and will no longer display.

   • In the second drop-down list, select the user for which you want to check the global permission.

5. Click Search to query the server for the effective permission that the specified user has on the system. The results of the query then appear.

   

The query results show a breakdown of the possible ways in which a user could have global permissions allows or denied (through a group to which the user is assigned, or directly to the user). The effective right is based on the results of the query and appears above the list. In the picture above, the user is allowed the global permission through four groups, as well as directly. The effective permission is Allow.

The columns contained in the query results are as follows:

Check a user's access to a specific project or resource through a Project Web Access view

Along with Category permissions, Project Web Access views can also affect which projects or resources are accessible to users. This can lead to situations where despite users having a relevant permission, they may not be able to access an object in specific views.

Use the following procedure to check a user's access to a project or resource through a Project Web Access view:

1. After downloading the Project 2007 PRK, in the directory in which the files were extracted you can run ViewEffectiveRights.exe to start the View Effective Rights tool.

2. On the What problem you are trying to resolve? page, select Why a user can/can't see a specific Project/Resource in a particular Project Web Access View. Click Next.

3. Configure the Database Info section to connect to the Project Server Published database in SQL Server.

   1. In the Database Server box, type the SQL Server database server name that hosts the Project Server Published database. Enter a period character (.) to search for the database on the local computer. The tool accesses the database server that you specify and provides a list of Project Server Published databases available on that server.

   2. In the Database Name box, select your Project Server Published database. The tool automatically loads data for the selected database.

      The status of your connection to the database appears next to Database Info.

      Note

      The tool does not perform any writes or updates to the server and only requires read access to the database.

4. Complete the configuration settings on the next page that appears:

   

   • In the first drop-down list, choose the type of view they want to check. The options are Project Center, Project Details, Resource Assignments, Resource Center and Team Builder.

     Note

     These are the Project Web Access views that can affect visibility of projects or resources.

   • In the second drop-down list, select a user.

   • In the third drop-down list, select a project or resource.

   • In the final drop-down list, choose from among the possible views for the relevant type that was selected in the first drop-down list.

5. Click Search to query the server for the effective permission that the specified user has on the system. The results of the query will display.

   

   The query results show a breakdown of the possible ways in which a user could have permissions allows or denied to an object through the selected view. The results are for a relevant permission used to view the object. The relevant permission is automatically selected based on the type of view specified, and it appears above the query results. Columns for the query results are identical to those described for the previous option, with the addition of a View Present column.

   Column Name	Description
   Object Present	Specifies whether the project or resource was explicitly added to the category. The object may still be available to the user via the category rules. Not relevant for global permissions.
   View Present	Specifies whether the view is in the category specified.
   Right	Specifies whether the user has been allowed or denied access to the permission in that group or directly to the user.
   Category Name	Specifies the category that the user was allowed or denied permission on. Not relevant for global permissions.
   Group Name	Specifies the group that the user had the permissions set through. If the permission was applied to the user directly, then nothing shows in this list.
   Applicable Rules	Specifies the applicable category rules for that category. Not relevant for global permissions. Depending on the object type, this setting determines whether a project or resource maps to corresponding category options. Note For more information about category rules, see the MSDN article Using Project Server Security (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=110410&clcid=0x409).

   Warning

   There is a known issue for the tool where it may crash immediately and for no apparent reason. To resolve this issue, select the first option in the first page of the tool, connect to your instance of SQL Server, and then click the back arrow at the top-left side of the tool in order to go back to the initial page. From there, toggle the option button to the second option and proceed by clicking Next. Because the connection attempt was successful using the first option, the status next to the Database Server should now say “Connected,” allowing you to use the tool without it crashing repeatedly.

Download this book

This topic is included in the following downloadable book for easier reading and printing:

• Technical reference for Office Project Server 2007

See the full list of available books at Downloadable content for Project Server 2007.

See Also

Concepts

Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 global permissions
Microsoft Office Project Server 2007 category permissions
Create a category