Anonymous Access Entities

Question

I am a little confused about Anonymous Access. At the site level, there are 3 options namely Entire Web, Lists and Libraries and Nothing. I have the following questions.

1. If I enable Anonymous Access for the Entire Web, can I turn it off at individual List / Library / Folder / File level?

2. If I enable Nothing option, can I turn it on for individual List / Library / Folder / File?

3. Since SP stores everything in Lists and Libraries, I am not sure what it means by saying Enable Anonymous Access only at the Lists and Libraries. So if we turn on Anonymous Access for Lists and Libraries only, how is it different from giving Anonymous Access to the Entire Site?

4. If I turn on Anonymous Access for a list / library, I can still turn it off for one or more list items / files in the list / library. Is this correct?

5. It I turn off Anonymous Access for a list / library, can I still turn it on for one or more list items / files in the list / library?

6. At the Web and the List level, we have AnonymousPermissionMask64 enum which indicates whether Anonymous access is enabled or not. But this property missing for List Item or File. Can anyone please explain this and also explain how to get the Anonymous Access for an individual item / file? How to check if a list item / file is anonymously accessible or not?

7. Even after turning on Anonymous Access on Lists and Libraries, I am being prompted for credentials if I try to access a list / library. Can you please help me with this?

Answer 1

1. You can manage it only till the List level, not at item level.
2. No, Nothing means nothing in that website. But for other sites in that web app you can choose other options.
3. Its not just items in visible lists and libraries, when anonymous is turned on a lot other lists and files like layouts, master pages, css or hidden info like variation labels is available anonymously.
4. No, it is only till the list leve.
5. Same as 4
6. That is because it is designed to be at list level. I don't think it possible at item level.
7. It doesn't mean that you see the lists screen as SharePoint forms like dispform.aspx are not available anonymously. Individual items like a file or image doc library will be accessible, however you can access the list items from your code anonymously.