HOW TO: Unhide the User Information List without Sharepoint Designer

I found that some people receive an error when trying to get to the properties of the User List that is hidden within the _catalogs folder.  I described in a previous entry about how to make this list visible using Sharepoint Designer.

Here is how you can do this same procedure, if you receive the error: Sharepoint Designer cannot display the item error in Sharepoint Designer.

You may need to be the Site Collection Admin to do this procedure:

You will need to update the list through the lists.asmx web service using the udaptelist method.
Use a lists service proxy class and then do the following:

Lists lstService = new Lists(yourserver);

lstService.Credentials = new NetworkCredential(txtName.Text, txtPassword.Text, txtDomain.Text);

xListItems = lstService.GetList("User Information List");

XmlNode ndVersion = xListItems.Attributes["Version"];

XmlNode ndProperties = xmldoc.CreateNode(XmlNodeType.Element, "List","");

XmlAttribute ndTitleAttrib =(XmlAttribute)xmldoc.CreateNode(XmlNodeType.Attribute,

"Hidden", "");

ndTitleAttrib.Value="False";

ndProperties.Attributes.Append(ndTitleAttrib);

//XmlNode ListNode = xmldoc.SelectSingleNode("//ab:List", nsmgr);

XmlNode xListItems1 = lstService.UpdateList("User Information List", ndProperties, null, null, null, null);

Hidden Sharepoint List: USER INFORMATION LIST

Did you know, that there is a hidden list name "USER INFORMATION LIST" in MOSS, SP 2007 and SP 2010?  This hidden list displays a list of all the users for the site collection. This list is created when a new user is added to Active Directory and the Profile Synchronization process is run on the Sharepoint Server.

This list can be found at: http://YOURSPSITE/_catalogs/users/simple.aspx
 Under normal circumstances no one has access to this list except for the administrator as it is a hidden file.  You can navigate to it directly with the above URL, but if you would rather have others be able to see this in the 'View all Site Contents" you can follow these directions to do so:

1. Open the site in Sharepoint Designer
2. Right click on the User Information List under _catalogs and select Properties.
3. Under the Security tab, select the link "Manage permissions using the browser"
4. A browser window will open with the method for selecting users or groups to view this list.

 Please feel free to comment on this entry,  If I missed anything, please let me know, as I would like to make certain that all of my details are as accurate as possible.


Enjoy!

Welcome to Random Tech Notes!

Upon occasion I find that the information I am looking for on the Internet is rather illusive.  More often than not, I see the same information posted on 10 sites with the exact same answers that didn't work.  So, I decided to share my results with others that may be having this same problem.

The information will be related to technology in some way, but not necessarily all on the same topic.  At some point I may break it up a bit, but for now, I just want to compile my successful results and see where it takes us.

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