I really don't like to be the bad guy

Chester has again posted some “tricks” on his blog about how to enhance MCMS using unsupported methods.
And again I have to say: Don’t use such methods – your system will become unsupported!

I really don’t like the role of being the bad guy that always says don’t do this – unsupported and so on.

But it is better to be the bad guy now as in a couple of weeks when a customer implements such a method on his production system! If you ever had a customer on the line that used such unsupported methods and you have to tell him: “Sorry, we cannot help you with your problems – your system is in an unsupported state.” and you have to let him alone with his problems, then you will understand why it is better to be the bad guy now!

7 Comments


  1. 100% agree!

    Play by the rules or don’t play at all!

    Reply

  2. I agree with angus logan, but I was not sure about the rules before :(… So at last am I(I am) the bad guy!

    Reply

  3. May be next version of the SDK will implement such features but when 🙂

    For me, nobody are bad or good guy but sometimes choices have to be done and people should assume them.

    Reply

  4. Totally agree. And there are always ways to get around limitations without breaking the rules.

    Reply

  5. I really don’t like to be the bad guy but…

    If it’s so easy to implement, why not just add it to the .NET API in a Microsoft supported service pack? There is obviously a need for it and most CMS products provide API access to programatically add users & groups and manipulate user roles & rights.

    How about:

    Microsoft.ContentManagent.Web.Security.Rights

    – Role

    – Rights Group

    – User

    We are out there trying to solve problems with the software, not crack it. But this is one example where the API is weak so we are forced to implement workarounds which make the solutions more complex and more fragile.

    Keep in mind also that currently there is no way to do proper rights auditing without going into Site Manager manually (which isn’t feasible for large sets of users). You can access the AD users and group mappings but not which channels the user has rights to. I’m sure there are many other cases where it would be beneficial…imho

    Reply

  6. Glen has written an article that outlines how to manipulate the MCMS database using unsupported methods…

    Reply

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