Update to this article with SharePoint Solution (.wsp) file is available here!

A past customer called me today, frantically going nuts because they have a large MOSS deployment (~ 15,000 users) that was planned for production push out tomorrow, and needed a redirection strategy.

Eh, what? What the hell does a redirection strategy mean?

The problem with their sandboxed / user acceptance SharePoint environment was that although there were intuitive navigation controls, and a good navigation strategy supplemented by intuitive custom WebParts, some users were somewhat resisting the adaption of SharePoint, complaining it was over 2 clicks to get to what they wanted. Although I think that this is a rather stringent benchmark to get to the information that you require in an enterprise EIM system, he really needed a way to cut down on the clicks. The only real good part of the requirements is that a majority of users only went to certain site collections, rarely crossing collections, so it should be easy to redirect the users on entry to the portal to certain site collections, right?

It turns out, yes, it really wasn’t that difficult. Since I owed him a favor, I got started developing the SharePoint Redirector WebPart, which after gets tested tomorrow in production, I am going to release for free!

It works pretty simply. Basically, it takes an Active Directory operator (pretty much whatever you want since is a freeform text box property), something that exists in the user profile, and redirects based on whether that condition is met. Like if in my user profile I have the field “squadron” and in the “squadron” field, I met condition “101st SharePoint Squadron”, I can be redirected immediately to http://www.sharepointsecurity.com/101squad or any other URL of my choosing. There is the provisioning in the WebPart properties to handle up to 10 redirections, and once I get the chance I will expand this to hold any number of redirections.

Administrators and general users don’t see the same thing, as administrators shouldn’t immediately be redirected if they met that profile operator, they still have to manage the root of the SharePoint implementation. Rather, they should see a small dashboard saying whether there are redirections conditions that have been setup, and the appropriate redirection parameters that are bound to those conditions.

The exception handling is pretty good, and will create a new event source in the event log, to a local .log file, and will output major errors to the screen. I use a standard exception handling class that I use for all WebPart development with it.

The Redirector WebPart Properties Toolpane

Global WebPart Settings

Redirection Settings

Condition Activation Management

Redirection Dashboard

Error Handling

Article Or Research Filed Under SharePoint Development.

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22 Comments »

1. [...] Frantic Redirection SharePoint WebPart [...]

   Pingback by Links (4/22/2007) « Steve Pietrek’s SharePoint Weblog — April 22, 2007 @ 5:23 pm

2. [...] Frantic Redirection SharePoint WebPart [...]

   Pingback by SharePoint 2007 link dump 4-23-2007 at Virtual Generations — April 23, 2007 @ 12:01 am

3. [...] Frantic Redirection SharePoint WebPart (tags: sharepoint moss2007 webparts) [...]

   Pingback by links for 2007-04-23 » mhinze.com — April 23, 2007 @ 8:32 am

4. [...] Encontrei num post do blog do JOPX, este conjunto de tools para SharePoint 2007. SharePoint Tips Utility Pack – package of  SharePoint 2007 utilities for administrators and developers. Floating ToolPane for SharePoint 2007 SharePoint 2007 RSS Aggregation web part Dan and Teds web part solution package template STP Language converter – SharePoint Site Template Language Converter enables you to convert an  Site Template that was created in one language to another language SharePoint Frantic Redirection webpart - Allows you to redirect users to a specific site depending on a specific user profile property. Microsoft IT Delete Capture 1.0 – http://www.codeplex.com/governance Chatterbox – persistent chat session for SharePoint Server 2007 Generic SharePoint 2007 solution installer – allows you to install and deploy SharePoint solution files using a nice UI. SPCAMLViewer – Uses SharePoint webservices to provide inside into the CAML used in SharePoint lists and views . You migth also want to take a look at similar tool CAML Builder. Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar – provides a variety of tools for creating, understanding and troubleshooting web pages.  (Final Release) Fiddler HTTP Debugger – Fiddler is a HTTP Debugging Proxy which logs all HTTP traffic between your computer and the Internet. Fiddler allows you to inspect all HTTP Traffic, set breakpoints, and “fiddle” with incoming or outgoing data. Fiddler is designed to be much simpler than using NetMon or Achilles, and includes a simple but powerful JScript.NET event-based scripting subsystem. Upgrade toolkit for Windows SharePoint Services – Guidance and white papers to upgrade customized site or site template to WSS 3.0 BDC MetaMan – Tool to generate Business Data Catalog application definition files for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server. MOSS 2007 utility for import/export of user profiles – allows you to populate your SharePoint Server user profile database using basic XML files as source. Cross-browser editor for SharePoint 2007 (Telerik) – RadEditor for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS) is a cross-browser alternative to the default rich-text editor in MOSS and WSS v3. The product is developed in an agreement between Telerik and Microsoft and is provided free of charge to registered clients of SharePoint 2007. MOSS Query Tool – Next version of the SharePoint Query Tool, designed for MOSS (SharePoint 2007). It has a similar feature set to the SharePoint Query Tool – it allows you to use a point and click interface to gather information such as search scopes and properties, type in search terms, and click a button to create both the search SQL syntax as well as the Xml document that is needed to run a query against MOSS. You can see results in plain text, structured Xml and now a dataset view. It supports FREETEXT and CONTAINS as well as wildcard searching. A very valuable tool for those trying to write custom SharePoint queries. Forms Based Authentication Setup Helper for MOSS 2007 – Utility to ease the process of setting up and configuring Forms Based Authentication for MOSS 2007. Download all documents from document library feature - allows you to generate a zipfile containing all the documents in the list and provides it as a download to you. CAML.Net – Another tool which builds CAML queries dynamically in code while preserving the syntactic structure of the native CAML language. You might also want to take a look at this introducion article – Working with CAML.Net Part I . Site Provisioning Assistant – Public beta – SPA provides you with centralized management for controlling how new SharePoint 2007 sites are requested and provisioned in your organization. Based on provisioning profiles that you define, users are presented with an easy-to-use interface for requesting a new site. Site requests can be associated with custom workflows that match your organization’s approval process. Upon succesful workflow completion, SPA automatically provisions the SharePoint site, and notifies the requesting user. SPClientUtilities feature – allows you to switch any SharePoint page into edit mode or show the Web Part toolpane SharePoint Builder on CodePlex SharePoint Inspector – free tool to browse your WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007 farm. You can see objects composing its structure, get their properties by reflection, which can be very useful when you want to check if your code does what it should do.You can use also some advanced features like activate/deactivate SharePoint features, add/remove event receivers, manage your recycle bin. AppPool recycler for SharePoint Devs SharePoint Features Project at GotdotNet – This project contacts the next features: Presence Contact List v1.0: This is a contact list modified to show presence information as a drop-down associated with the e-mail field Content Type Hierarchy Viewer v1.0 :This Feature presents the site content types in a hierarchical view. It shows the relationships between the content types, including hidden types. The Feature appears as the first link in the “Galleries” section of the Site Settings page. Log Viewer v1.0 : This is a Feature for viewing the Unified Logging Service (ULS) logs through the SharePoint Central Administration site. It adds a new “Utilities” section to the “Operations” tab with a link to the ULS viewer. Debugger feature for SharePoint - When activated, the Debugger Feature adds an “Attach Debugger” menu item to the Site Actions menu. Posted: Saturday, May 26, 2007 9:38 AM by misidoro Filed under: Sharepoint 2007, WSS [...]

   Pingback by Miguel Isidoro : SharePoint 2007: Tools Collection — May 26, 2007 @ 6:41 am

5. [...] So, I am making available to the public the Redirector SharePoint WebPart that I wrote for a buddy who works at a fairly large financial firm (read this post for the complete story on that one), it’s not very fancy, and the functionality that it introduces into a SharePoint is relatively simple in purpose. I had talked about it before in this post, but only had released the WebPart assembly and not the actual SharePoint solution file which is pretty significant for getting the thing off the ground in your environment.The code itself I will most likely look at optimizing /refactoring at a later date, but for the time being the functionality is there and you can put it to use (as always, I would recommend that you test the WebPart in a staging or development environment before you push it to production). Anyways, it’s free and you can use it at your own discretion, there is no license limit that is placed on it etc. (as with everything distributed on this site), and it is distributed via a SharePoint solution file (.wsp). [...]

   Pingback by SharePoint Shelter » Blog Archive » Redirector WebPart SP Solution File Download — May 30, 2007 @ 2:42 pm

6. [...] SharePoint 2007 Tools Collection v2 Another update: SharePoint Tips Utility Pack – package of  SharePoint 2007 utilities for administrators and developers. Enhanced Content Query Web Part project (beta1) Microsoft IT Team Site Life Cycle Management Beta 1 - This workspace on Codeplex is intended to provide governance and manageability samples and tools designed to help IT Professionals management SharePoint Products and Technologies deployments.  Upcoming tools include an implementation of site/web lifecycle management based on the Site Delete and Confirmation feature, the Microsoft IT Site Delete Capture 1.0 feature, and additional out-of-the-box functionality.  A sample auditing configuration solution deployment package will be introduced in the September-October timeframe that provides guidance on auditing and the management of content types across site collections Floating ToolPane for SharePoint 2007 SharePoint 2007 RSS Aggregation web part Dan and Teds web part solution package template Extended Content Query web part with marquee SharePoint list based authentication provider – implementation of a custom authentication provider that uses a SharePoint list as its source Echo for SharePoint – tool to manage customisations in a SharePoint environment and push them down to multiple sites (currently beta phase) SharePoint Spy  – free tool from the guys who created Echo for SharePoint – allows you to examine  the structure of your SharePoint 2007 sites. SharePoint Solution Builder tool (WSPBuilder)   STP Language converter – SharePoint Site Template Language Converter enables you to convert an  Site Template that was created in one language to another language SharePoint Frantic Redirection webpart - Allows you to redirect users to a specific site depending on a specific user profile property. Microsoft IT Delete Capture 1.0 – http://www.codeplex.com/governance Chatterbox – persistent chat session for SharePoint Server 2007 Generic SharePoint 2007 solution installer – allows you to install and deploy SharePoint solution files using a nice UI. AccRepair For SharePoint Designer - Addin for SharePoint Designer which allows you to check your MOSS sites for compliancy with compliancy regulations. AccMonitor - server-side application that provides accessibility checks and which can be integrated with SharePoint Server’s content authoring workflow. SPCAMLViewer – Uses SharePoint webservices to provide inside into the CAML used in SharePoint lists and views . You migth also want to take a look at similar tool CAML Builder. Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar – provides a variety of tools for creating, understanding and troubleshooting web pages.  (Final Release) Fiddler HTTP Debugger – Fiddler is a HTTP Debugging Proxy which logs all HTTP traffic between your computer and the Internet. Fiddler allows you to inspect all HTTP Traffic, set breakpoints, and “fiddle” with incoming or outgoing data. Fiddler is designed to be much simpler than using NetMon or Achilles, and includes a simple but powerful JScript.NET event-based scripting subsystem. Upgrade toolkit for Windows SharePoint Services – Guidance and white papers to upgrade customized site or site template to WSS 3.0 BDC MetaMan – Tool to generate Business Data Catalog application definition files for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server. MOSS 2007 utility for import/export of user profiles – allows you to populate your SharePoint Server user profile database using basic XML files as source. Cross-browser editor for SharePoint 2007 (Telerik) – RadEditor for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 (MOSS) is a cross-browser alternative to the default rich-text editor in MOSS and WSS v3. The product is developed in an agreement between Telerik and Microsoft and is provided free of charge to registered clients of SharePoint 2007. MOSS Query Tool – Next version of the SharePoint Query Tool, designed for MOSS (SharePoint 2007). It has a similar feature set to the SharePoint Query Tool – it allows you to use a point and click interface to gather information such as search scopes and properties, type in search terms, and click a button to create both the search SQL syntax as well as the Xml document that is needed to run a query against MOSS. You can see results in plain text, structured Xml and now a dataset view. It supports FREETEXT and CONTAINS as well as wildcard searching. A very valuable tool for those trying to write custom SharePoint queries. Forms Based Authentication Setup Helper for MOSS 2007 – Utility to ease the process of setting up and configuring Forms Based Authentication for MOSS 2007. Download all documents from document library feature - allows you to generate a zipfile containing all the documents in the list and provides it as a download to you. CAML.Net – Another tool which builds CAML queries dynamically in code while preserving the syntactic structure of the native CAML language. You might also want to take a look at this introducion article – Working with CAML.Net Part I . Site Provisioning Assistant – Public beta – SPA provides you with centralized management for controlling how new SharePoint 2007 sites are requested and provisioned in your organization. Based on provisioning profiles that you define, users are presented with an easy-to-use interface for requesting a new site. Site requests can be associated with custom workflows that match your organization’s approval process. Upon succesful workflow completion, SPA automatically provisions the SharePoint site, and notifies the requesting user. SPClientUtilities feature – allows you to switch any SharePoint page into edit mode or show the Web Part toolpane SharePoint Builder on CodePlex SharePoint Inspector – free tool to browse your WSS 3.0 and MOSS 2007 farm. You can see objects composing its structure, get their properties by reflection, which can be very useful when you want to check if your code does what it should do.You can use also some advanced features like activate/deactivate SharePoint features, add/remove event receivers, manage your recycle bin. AppPool recycler for SharePoint Devs SharePoint Features Project on Codeplex – This project contacts the next features: Presence Contact List v1.0: This is a contact list modified to show presence information as a drop-down associated with the e-mail field Content Type Hierarchy Viewer v1.0 :This Feature presents the site content types in a hierarchical view. It shows the relationships between the content types, including hidden types. The Feature appears as the first link in the “Galleries” section of the Site Settings page. Log Viewer v1.0 : This is a Feature for viewing the Unified Logging Service (ULS) logs through the SharePoint Central Administration site. It adds a new “Utilities” section to the “Operations” tab with a link to the ULS viewer. Debugger feature for SharePoint - When activated, the Debugger Feature adds an “Attach Debugger” menu item to the Site Actions menu. Published Wednesday, June 20, 2007 2:36 PM by walterst Filed under: Office Systems [...]

   Pingback by Walter Stiers - Academic Relations Team (BeLux) : SharePoint 2007 Tools Collection v2 — June 20, 2007 @ 5:41 am

7. 

   Has anyone seen the following error and know how to fix it?

   I have installed in two different WSS 3.0 sites and still have the same problem.

   The “RedirectorWebPart” Web Part appears to be causing a problem. Could not load file or assembly ‘Microsoft.SharePoint.Portal, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c’ or one of its dependencies. The system cannot find the file specified.

   Comment by Alistair — August 8, 2007 @ 12:07 pm

8. 

   The error that you are getting is because you are attempting to use the Redirector WebPart on a WSS site, whereas it requires SharePoint profiles, which is a feature of MOSS.

   Comment by Adam Buenz — September 4, 2007 @ 12:59 pm

9. 

   What must one do to make this redirector usable on a WSS 3.x site??

   OR would you please modify it so it can work on WSS 3.x sites??

   Thank you, Tom

   Comment by Tom — October 1, 2007 @ 12:26 pm

10. 

    Hi Adam – firstly thanks for taking the time to make this webpart available. This looks to be exactly what I’m after, I have a couple of questions…

    I saw in your other posts about this that you had a version available that could redirect based on group membership, but I couldn’t see where to download it – could you direct me to it (if it’s available) – thanks.

    Also, I’m potentially going to need to redirect to one of approx 60 sites based on group membership – did you ever make the changes you mentioned to cope with more rules?

    Any help you can spare would be very much appricated Thank you, Andy.

    Comment by Andy — October 10, 2007 @ 2:25 am

11. 

    Hello Adam,

    I’am very interested in your webpart if it will work with more then 100 sites. Is it possible to make one rule based on groupmembership and with variable parameter – like %group%. And after this, make use of scripts in the redirect to read the variable parameter, like: ‘if member of %group% then URL is ‘ …. ‘
    Sjef

    Comment by Sjef — October 28, 2007 @ 12:53 pm

12. [...] Frantic Redirection Webpart und Redirector WebPart SP Solution File Download [...]

    Pingback by SharePoint, SharePoint and stuff : SharePoint Kaffeetasse 35 — December 11, 2007 @ 11:04 am

13. 

    I have tried your redirector webpart, but when I install the webpart then add it to a page I get the following error: “The RedirectorWebPart appears t obe causing a problem. Request for the permission of type ‘microsoft.sharepoint.security.sharepointpermission, microsoft.sharepoint.security, version-12.0.0.0, culture=neutral, publickeytoken=71e9bce111e949c’ failed. I have to use the webparts maintenance page to remove the webpart. Any ideas?

    Comment by Mark — July 10, 2008 @ 4:13 am

14. 

    I’m having the same problem as Mark. Please advise.

    Comment by nikki — July 25, 2008 @ 5:56 am

15. 

    Thanks for this tutorial. I had been wondering how to do that until i read this.

    Comment by Rick Lim — August 23, 2008 @ 6:05 am

16. 

    Hello There,

    Adam,
    I had found your web part and musy say that it work grat on MOSS. I’m running it on the test site of the system and it does a great job.

    My only question is how can i get it to work on WSS 3.0.

    Do you have any ideas what have to be done to it.?

    Any info will be greatly apreciated.

    Thanks

    Comment by Sebastian — October 17, 2008 @ 9:17 am

17. 

    Hi,

    I’ve got the same error than Mark and Nikki…
    Any help will be greatly apreciated.

    Comment by Nicolas — November 5, 2008 @ 10:34 am

18. [...] RE: Redirect user to subsite at logon You can take a look at a SharePoint Redirector Web Part by Adam Buenz released on his blog: http://www.sharepointsecurity.com/bl…point-webpart/ Hope this helps. Cheers Steve Sofian [MVP] "va" wrote: > I have a sharepoint website where I would like to give my clients one URL > like http://sharepoint.mydomain.com but after the user logos on, they are > automically redirected to "their" siyete which is > http://sharepoint.mydomain.com/clients/vendorname > > > Any suggestions would e appreciated [...]

    Pingback by Redirect user to subsite at logon | keyongtech — January 21, 2009 @ 11:48 pm

19. 

    Hello,

    does this webpart works only with Active Directry or it can be used with FBA (forms based authentication)?

    Comment by Skirmantas — February 25, 2009 @ 6:46 am

20. [...] We needed the basic ability to redirect specific users to a different page. I first took a look at Adam Buenz excellent Redirection web part but we thought that it might be a little bit complex for our content authors to use, so I put together a really simple web part that gives the user the ability to select the users or groups via the standard SharePoint people picker interface. [...]

    Pingback by Httpcode - SharePoint Active Directory Based Redirect Web Part — April 25, 2009 @ 7:32 pm

21. 

    Hi! I was surfing and found your blog post… nice! I love your blog. Cheers! Sandra. R.

    Comment by sandrar — September 10, 2009 @ 5:57 am

22. [...] you want a webpart with some more functionality then check out the SharePoint Redirect WebpartShare this on FacebookTweet This!Post this to MySpaceDigg this!Share this on LinkedinShare this on [...]

    Pingback by Redirect a SharePoint site by using the Content Editor Web Part | Articles and Tutorials — November 3, 2009 @ 1:25 pm

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