How to inherit permissions to Subsites programmatically in SharePoint 2007?

Question

On a SharePoint 2007 portal with hundreds of site collections with nested subsites, I need to set permissions to inherit from top level sites.

Is there a way to do this with a script? Going through each site manually would take ages.

Answer 1

I found below script which can do the task for you

### this script will make a specified site and all its child objects (sites, lists, folders & items) inherit permissions from that site ###
# WARNING: Please specify the correct top-level site or subsite - All permissions will be deleted from that specified URL downwards
# enter the new permissions in the following format $newpermissions["DOMAIN\username"] = "Security Level"
# example: $newpermissions["mydomain\user"] = "Read" will give read permissions to mydomain\user on specified URL -AND- all its child objects.

##### PARAMETERS #####
$siteurl = "http://my.sharepoint.site"
$newpermissions = @{}
$newpermissions["mydomain\user"] = "Contribute"
$newpermissions["SHAREPOINT\system"] = "Full Control"
$newpermissions["NT Authority\Authenticated Users"] = "Read"

#####   SCRIPT   #####
[void][System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("Microsoft.SharePoint")

function CheckWebAndSiblings($web)
{
    try
    {
        write-host "Checking web $($web.Title).. " -nonewline -foreground blue
        if($web.HasUniqueRoleAssignments)
        {
            $web.ResetRoleInheritance()
            write-host "updated" -foreground green
        }
        else
        {
            write-host "no update required" -foreground red
        }
        foreach($list in $web.Lists | where-object { $_.Hidden -eq $false -and $_.AllowDeletion -eq $true })
        {
            write-host "> Checking list $($list.Title).. " -nonewline -foreground darkcyan
            if($list.HasUniqueRoleAssignments)
            {
                $list.ResetRoleInheritance()
                write-host "updated" -foreground green
            }
            else
            {
                write-host "no update required" -foreground red
            }
            foreach($folder in $list.Folders)
            {
                write-host "> > Checking folder $($folder.Name).. " -nonewline
                if($folder.HasUniqueRoleAssignments)
                {
                    $folder.ResetRoleInheritance()
                    write-host "updated" -foreground green
                }
                else
                {
                    write-host "no update required" -foreground red
                }

            }
            foreach($item in $list.Items)
            {
                write-host "> > Checking item $($item.Name).. " -nonewline
                if($item.HasUniqueRoleAssignments)
                {
                    $item.ResetRoleInheritance()
                    write-host "updated" -foreground green
                }
                else
                {
                    write-host "no update required" -foreground red
                }
            }
        }
    }
    catch
    {
        if($error[0].Exception.Message -like "*Cannot change permissions of root web*")
        {
            write-host "Skipping rootweb as permissions needs to be set here" -foreground red
        }
        else
        {
            write-host $error[0].Exception.Message -foreground red
        }
    }
    finally
    {
        foreach($subweb in $web.Webs)
        {
            CheckWebAndSiblings($subweb)
        }
    }
}

$site = new-object Microsoft.SharePoint.SPSite($siteurl)
$rootweb = $site.OpenWeb()
CheckWebAndSiblings($rootweb)
write-host "- - - - - - - Applying new permissions - - - - - - -" -foreground blue
for($i = 0; $i -lt $rootweb.RoleAssignments.Count; $i++)
{
    $web.RoleAssignments.Remove(0)
}
foreach($hash in $newpermissions.GetEnumerator())
{
    write-host "$($hash.Key) -> $($hash.Value).. " -nonewline
    $ra = new-object Microsoft.SharePoint.SPRoleAssignment($hash.Key, "", "", "")
    $rd = $rootweb.Site.RootWeb.RoleDefinitions[$hash.Value]
    $ra.RoleDefinitionBindings.Add($rd)
    $rootweb.RoleAssignments.Add($ra)
    write-host "done" -foreground green
}
$rootweb.Update()

$rootweb.Dispose()
$site.Dispose()
write-host "-- completed --" -foreground green