Reduced functionality using forms authentication (FBA) in SharePoint

forms-authenticationsharepoint

I’ve got a moss document centre website with FBA and AD authentication enabled. After creating a picture library I seem to have reduced functionality when accessing the site through the FBA URL.

I’ve compared the web.config files from each IIS website and they are the same (apart from added FBA information that's required).

Here's two pictures to illustrate what I mean.

This picture shows the options available in the picture library when accessing the website through AD authentication:

alt text http://www.abbeylegal.com/Downloads/2006-07-26/Ad%20Authentication.jpg

This picture shows the reduced options available in the picture library when accessing the website through FBA authentication:

alt text http://www.abbeylegal.com/Downloads/2006-07-26/FBA%20Authentication.jpg

Anyone else seen this behaviour? I find it really strange.

Best Answer

This functionality is by design. As per Microsoft:

When you configure a zone to use forms authentication, the Enable Client Integration box is cleared by default. If a zone is configured in this way, the following changes occur in functionality:

  • Support for remote interfaces is turned off. That includes WebDAV, SOAP, and Microsoft Office FrontPage remote procedure calls (RPC). Some functionality is not available, such as Web folders or the Web services for accessing content in that site.
  • Some toolbar items no longer appear:
    • New Document
    • Open in Outlook
    • Open In Windows Explorer
    • Export to Spreadsheet
    • Open with Database Program
    • Explorer View option is hidden.
    • Create an Access View option is hidden.
  • In picture libraries, the following functionality is removed:
    • Upload Multiple
    • Edit Picture
    • Download
    • Send To
  • On the Edit Control Block (ECB) menu, the drop-down menu that appears when you click - items in document libraries, the following items are removed:
    • Edit in Word
    • Edit in Excel
    • Edit in PowerPoint
    • Discuss
    • Connect To Outlook
  • In slide libraries the following functionality is removed:
    • Publish Slide
    • Send to PowerPoint
  • Also, syncing SharePoint data with Microsoft Office Outlook no longer works.
Related Topic