Check if user has access to Content database in SharePoint 2010

Question

In my code I'm running under elevated privileges, to access other Web applications. But I get a security error when the web application user can't access the database (when ever I try to access a SPWeb object).

Is there a way to make sure (in code) that a user has access to the Content database of a web application before trying to access sites in a site collection on that web application?

Answer 1

Even if you're using elevated privileges, that impersonates the account running the current web application only and wont elevate your privileges to other web applications (unless they share the same app-pool account.

To the best of my knowledge you want to find out whether the current app-pool account is the same as the one running the target SPWeb. You do this by checking the SPWebApplication.ApplicationPool of the current and target sites.

Alternatively, do what you're doing but wrap it with a try..catch block and if you fail to access the SPWeb then you know you don't have access.

Finally, you could try using web services and see if you get a status-code back (i.e. Access Denied), in which case you'd have your answer.