Change user permissions on multiple list items?

Question

I have a list with 50 items. I don't want to change users' permissions to the list itself, but I do want to restrict their access to the 50 items created so far.

When I select all the items together, ITEM PERMISSIONS is greyed out in the toolbar, but I can do them one at a time.

Is there an way to change permissions for all items in a list at once?

Using either the ribbon, a workflow, PowerShell, or the Client Object Model?

Thanks.

Answer 1

For this purpose I suggest you to use powershell with something like this for-each item:

$web = Get-SPWeb -Identity "http://spserver.com"
$list = $web.Lists.TryGetList("MyList")
$group = "Makers"
$PermissionLevel = "Read"

if ($list -ne $null) {
  foreach ($item in $list.Items) { 
    if ($item.HasUniqueRoleAssignments -eq $False) {
      $item.BreakRoleInheritance($True)
    }
    else {
      if ($web.SiteGroups[$group] -ne $null) {
        $group = $web.SiteGroups[$group]
        $roleAssignment = new-object Microsoft.SharePoint.SPRoleAssignment($group)
        $roleDefinition = $web.RoleDefinitions[$PermissionLevel];
        $roleAssignment.RoleDefinitionBindings.Add($roleDefinition);
        $item.RoleAssignments.Add($roleAssignment);
      }
      else {
        Write-Host "Group is not valid."
      }
    }
  }
}
$web.Dispose()