Vyapin Blogs

Admin Report Kit for SharePoint, our powerful SharePoint administration and reporting tool is now officially released in line with Microsoft SharePoint 2010 release. It is our first official product release for Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010 and Microsoft SharePoint Foundation 2010.

ARK for SharePoint 2010 with its 80+ out-of-the-box reports presents configuration information about various objects associated with the SharePoint environment. The following is a brief summary of the Built-In reports available:

1.Web Application Level reports: Information about Web application settings and features, site collection details, site collection administrators, site collection workflow templates, site collection features, web application user permissions, e-mail settings, content database definition, site collection quotas and limits information, page visits corresponding to the web applications.

2.Site Level reports: ARKSP at a Site level reports information about Sites & Sub-sites configuration details, site security settings, lists created in a site, alerts, site features, site permission levels, site people & groups, site permissions, site content types, site hits summary, page hits, site visitors, web pages, web parts utilization, recycle bin, list templates and audit event reports corresponding to the site.

3.List Level reports: ARKSP reports List Summary and Configuration, List activity, Modified date of the List, List permissions, Security associated with the List items, List Visits and List Hits, Newly added List items, Recently modified/deleted items, Version history, Audit event reports, Available List Columns, Workflows, Views, Templates, File Types, List Size and List of checked-out documents corresponding to the List.

For a 30 day trial version please visit our ARKSP product home page at http://www.vyapin.com/products/sharepoint/sharepoint-2010/arksp/sharepoint-2010-reports.htm

We have come out with a new version of our SharePoint administration and reporting solution - Admin Report Kit for SharePoint 2007 (ARKSP). ARKSP version 3.7 comes with the following new inclusions:

1.Permissions Report enhancements: Additional information is now reported in the List Permissions Report. New fields like Account Type, Description, Group Owner and Group Members are added. List Permissions report gives information about the permissions associated with the individual users and groups. The account type of the users and groups, Group Owner and Group members are some of the critical information that is made available from now on.

2.Database Truncation: ARKSP now allows the user to clean up the database created as a result of Power Export tasks. The option to truncate the application database can be accessed from ‘Tools?Application Database Truncation Settings’. The database would be truncated based on the frequency defined in the truncation settings.

3.Blocked File Types report: ARKSP through the Blocked File Types report enumerates the list of file types that are blocked from downloading and uploading corresponding to the specific web application. Web application and the Blocked File Types are the fields that are reported.

4.Regional Settings Report: Regional settings report retrieves regional information defined against a site within a web application.

Report fields are: Web URL, Web Locale, Title, Time Zone, Calendar, Alternate Calendar, Work Days, First Day of Week, First Week of Year, Start Time and End Time.

5. Invited Users-Feature Status: Invited Users-Feature Status report enumerates the list of invited users to the site and their activation status information corresponding to the Enterprise Site Collection Feature and Enterprise Site Feature.

Report fields are: Web URL, Web Title, Enterprise Site Collection Features, Enterprise Site Features, Account Display Name, Account Name, Account Type and Permission Levels.

6.List Hits-Monthly Usage: List Hits-Monthly Usage report gives information about the number of visits corresponding to a list for the last 31 months or for a specified month range. The visits are categorized month wise.

Report fields are: Web URL, Web Title, List Name, Total Hits, Month1, Month2, ….. , Month31

7. Page Hits-Monthly Usage: Page Hits-Monthly Usage report gives information about the number of visits corresponding to a page in a site for the last 31 months along with the last accessed data.

Report fields are: Web URL, Web Title, Page URL, Last Accessed Date, Total Hits, Month1, Month2,……, Month31

8.Site Hits Summary-Monthly Usage: Site Hits Summary-Monthy Usage report presents detailed information on the number of visits corresponding to the site for a specified month range or for the last 31 months.

Report fields are: Web URL, Web Title, Total Hits, Month1, Month2,……, Month31.

9.Site Visitors-Monthly Usage: Site Visitors-Monthly Usage displays the number of times a user has visited each site for a specified month range or for the last 31 months along with the recent accessed date.

Report fields are: Web URL, Web Title, Site Visitors, Last Accessed Date, Total Hits, Month1, Month2,….., Month31

ARKSP’s new usage reports are certain to help SharePoint administrators monitor and administer the SharePoint resources effectively.

Also, we have launched ARK for SharePoint 2010 recently. It would be our first SharePoint 2010 product version, besides DocKIT for SharePoint 2010 (beta). You can read more information about this new version and download a 30-day evaluation copy from:

http://www.vyapin.com/products/sharepoint/sharepoint-2010/arksp/sharepoint-2010-reports.htm

Our flagship SharePoint migration solution, DocKIT is out with a beta version for SharePoint 2010. DocKIT for SharePoint 2010 fully supports SharePoint 2010 environment with the following additional new features:

1.Support to Business Continuity Services: Business Continuity Services (BCS) is an extension to the Business Data Catalog provision of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 to integrate external data to the portal. BCS with out-of-the box features, services and tools allows deep integration of external data both online and offline. BCS is all about connectivity and is all set to provide connectivity support to external databases and other data sources. DocKIT with its extended support to BCS would allow users to leverage on the external data source.

2.Support to Managed Metadata type: Managed metadata type is about having a centralized collection of pre-defined metadata and managing them independently from SharePoint columns. Metadata values are assigned by referring to the centralized metadata ‘repository ‘. DocKIT helps users assign metadata to the corresponding documents through a metadata file by retrieving the specific metadata value from the term set corresponding to the Managed metadata column.

3.Supports Document Sets: Document Sets are special containers allowing users to treat a document collection as a single entity. It is yet another ‘Folder Content Type’. DocKIT allows users to migrate documents from specific file locations and get them grouped as a document set. Assigning metadata to the document set could be easily done through an external metadata file.

4.Support to Asset Library and other SharePoint built-in columns such as Ratings: DocKIT extends its support to Asset library, a powerful content management feature in SharePoint 2010 allowing the users to share rich media assets without necessarily reproducing them. New SharePoint Built-In columns like Ratings column are also supported by DocKIT. Like the other SharePoint columns, ratings for documents can be updated using an external metadata file.

DocKIT ‘s new features are certain to extend the out-of-the-box functionalities of SharePoint 2010 and add value to enterprise content management at an enterprise level.

For a free trial version of DocKIT beta for SharePoint 2010, visit the product home page at http://www.vyapin.com/products/sharepoint/sharepoint-2010/dockit/sharepoint-file-migration-tool.htm

Organizations are looking into ways to increase workforce productivity and particularly in the context of ‘flexible work hours’ and ‘work from home’ practices, access to information anytime and anywhere is the need of the hour. Information must be available for employees working ‘offline’ to work and collaborate. Exporting SharePoint document library contents, list items and associated metadata and file attachments to file systems manually would prove a daunting task for SharePoint users. SPList Export for SharePoint (SPListX) was engineered after a considerable research on the above lines.

The new version of SPListX makes use of ‘Search Criteria’, a powerful feature which allows the user to export SharePoint contents to file systems based on ‘Search results’. SPListX leverages the enterprise search feature of MOSS 2007 by providing the user with ‘Basic Keyword Search’ and ‘Advanced Search options’ and allowing the user to drastically cut down the time involved in exporting contents to file repositories. Hence, the user can retrieve related information spread across various lists, collate and classify them to derive meaningful information.

This blog post would discuss in detail as to how SharePoint users can use the ‘Search criteria’ feature in SPListX to export those relevant search results to the Windows file system.

Keyword Search and Advanced Search options:

As stated earlier, SPListX makes use of a basic keyword search and an Advanced Search feature and allows the user to export SharePoint contents to the file repositories. SPListX through its ‘browse option’ allows the user to select the SharePoint document, list items with associated metadata and file attachments to export them on to the file system. Using the basic keyword search, the user can specify the keywords based on which the SharePoint contents are populated and exported. Users can fine tune their search results by applying the Advanced Search option. The advanced search option leverages the advanced search feature of SharePoint to allow users to precisely export the relevant SharePoint contents.

Screenshot of SPListX-Advanced Search options:

SPListX is built over the most familiar SharePoint’s advanced search feature. The advanced search option allows the user to fine tune the search results based on the following three provisions:

i) Result Type based search: SharePoint has only certain standard result types such as Documents, Word Documents, Excel Documents and Presentations. SPListX on the other hand supports all result types including SharePoint lists such as Announcements, Discussion Boards, Tasks, Survey etc. Search results falling under the corresponding Result type are alone reported for the user to act on.

ii) Imposing Scopes: SPListX also allows the user to impose ‘scopes’ to the search results. Scopes are search rules that are defined in SharePoint Shared Service Providers Properties and can be readily imposed to the given search results thereby fine tuning the results to a larger extent.

iii) Conditional export: SPListX also provides for property based conditional export of SharePoint content. The users can select from the default properties or create their own properties and apply logical conditions to precisely export SharePoint document library contents, List items with their associated metadata and file attachments. This allows the user to consolidate, reorganize and hence optimize the search results.

Search Tuner options: With the ‘Search Tuner’ option the users can fine tune their search results to include from a wide range of options available.

Screenshot of Search Tuner:

Search across site farm: Search Tuner is a significant feature that empowers the user with an array of options as above. The user can invoke a search across all sites corresponding to a site farm by choosing the ‘search across all content in the index’ options. The search can very well be confined to the current site and its sub sites by choosing the other option.

Handling duplicate records: Search Tuner allows the user to effectively handle duplicate records existing in multiple locations. The user can choose to trim duplicate search results and retain only the original source.

Stemming: The process of retrieving information related to a ‘root keyword’ is called as stemming. For example: If ‘Run’ happens to be your search keyword, stemming would involve words such as ‘running’,’ ran‘ etc. as these words are derived out of the base keyword ‘run’. It is left to the discretion of the user to include stemming results to the search results. Choosing the option ‘Include only relevant results’ allows the user to choose only the relevant results corresponding to the search option.

Search Tuner also allows the user to confine the search to process only the list items with their associated metadata and file attachments. It also provides for the search to include List view URLs, Site URLs relevant to the given search keywords.

Search Validation: SPListX through its ‘Search option’ task type allows the user to Trial Search and validate the Search results before performing a live search. This allows the user to troubleshoot some of the common errors reported thereby saving time involved in error prone searches. Trial Search also allows the user to compare results with the SharePoint search results and look for deviations if any. The search results can also be exported into various file formats and can be used as an input batch file for exporting SharePoint list contents in SPListX’s Batch File based export task.

Search Tag option: Users can now tag their search results in their destination using the ‘Search Folder Tag’ in the Search option task type (Destination Folder options). The folder can be tagged by virtue of its Content Type, Author Name, Time Stamp etc. This allows the user to manage the exported contents better.

Screenshot of Search Folder Name Mask:

The above screenshot shows the Search Folder Name Mask with various options to tag the destination folder with. The folder can be tagged with the values corresponding to the listed Macros to classify information exported and to manage them effectively.

SPListX’s Search criteria come with an array of options allowing the user to exercise full control over the document migration / document export process. It fully leverages the MOSS 2007’s formidable content search features and empowers users with an easy, flexible and reliable methodology to export enterprise-wide information to file systems.

For a 30-day free trial version of SPListX, visit the product home page at
http://www.vyapin.com/products/sharepoint/moss-2007/splistx/sharepoint-2007-list-export.htm or contact our sales team at sales@vyapin.com for any pricing related queries.

Businesses process and share enormous information today, thanks to SharePoint collaborative environment in which most of them operate. It is no simple task to make information available in the collaborative environment by importing them to SharePoint Lists from various external information sources.

SPListM, our list management solution makes it extremely easy for the user to import and update list items in a SharePoint environment. The information or the list items that are to be imported are usually held in a Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet or CSV format. In fact, our previous blog post was about the limitations the users would confront when using an Excel spreadsheet to import data to a SharePoint list
(http://www.vyapin.com/blogs/index.php/2010/03/02/importing-microsoft-excel-spreadsheet-data-to-sharepoint-2/).

This blog post would discuss how SPListM would help the users address some of these list management issues in SharePoint.

1. SPListM supports standard data types / columns: SPListM supports all standard data types such as, single or multiple lines of text, number, currency, date and time, calculation, lookup, hyperlink etc. SPListM can help the users with data pertaining to almost all business data types such as People, Lookup, Business Data etc.

SPListM through its compatibility with the Business Data Catalog feature has the ability to retrieve information associated with a reference column from the back-end data source. It acts as a connector and fetches related information stored across tables. The same is the case with Lookup columns. SPListM helps users retrieve all the values in the reference column corresponding to the Look Up column. The following screenshots would demonstrate SPListM’s support to ‘Look Up’ data type:

The Property Name ‘Department’ being defined as a Look Up column allows the user to choose from the options based on which the corresponding List items are updated as follows:

The above screenshot shows the column values, the Look Up->Department refers to. SPListM fetches the corresponding data and makes it easy for the user to update the List Item based on the options listed.

2. Import data to all SharePoint list types: SharePoint has in it numerous list types like Project Tasks, Calendars, Surveys, Issue Tracking, Links, Discussion Boards etc. which exist for more specific business reasons to organize information. SPListM helps users update list items to any of these list types, including custom lists created by the user. Updating the list items manually would be a daunting task for the user. SPListM can make use of a simple batch descriptor file to accomplish this task. In fact using an external metadata file allows the user to update more than one data fields for a particular list item simultaneously. The following screenshots would better explicate this:

The above screenshot shows an external batch descriptor with the corresponding Lists and the updates to be made to the corresponding SharePoint list. The field ‘Base URL’ denotes the Lists to be updated. As you can see, SharePoint List Types such as Tasks and Calendars can be updated through SPListM.

Screenshot of SPListM-Lists in a SharePoint site:

The above screenshot displays the SharePoint lists corresponding to the given site URL. The Lists pane displays SharePoint list types such as Tasks, Calendars and Discussions etc. The corresponding Lists can be selected and the necessary updates can be done using SPListM.

3. Automated List items update: Take a situation where in a huge chunk of business information undergoes constant updates and the same information has to be available to everyone through SharePoint. In this situation, the list has to be imported every time it undergoes a change or the changes should be replicated in the SharePoint list manually. SPListM can make amendments to the existing data in list items in an automated import task, which can be scheduled to run at periodic intervals. In SPListM, you can make use of the basic mode wizard or an external metadata file to update the SharePoint list.

Consider the situation where the user has to update the project status daily at the end of the day or update file / document attachments from another source in a SharePoint list. If it is has to be done manually, he or she has to look at each list item and update the corresponding entries. SPListM on the other hand would allow the user to define the changes to list items in a separate batch file. If the task is a daily routine, all he or she has to do is to define the changes in a batch file and schedule it for automatic list updates. The task would get executed automatically and the changes can be made without much difficulty and human intervention.

4. Ability to maintain versions: SPListM allows the users to maintain versions to effectively track changes to the list items. It also allows the user to go without storing minor changes as a separate version, depending on the user preference. In other words, maintaining version history of list items is left to the discretion of the user and SPListM effectively does what is expected out of it.

Screenshot of SPListM Versioning Settings:

The above screenshot shows SPListM’s ability to store changes in list item as a new version. It is left to the discretion of the user to enable the changes to be stored as a new version or to make the changes in the existing version.

5. Conditional Import of data: SPListM allows the users to conditionally import data, a feature that would help users to precisely import documents out of huge silos of information. The users can define complex logical conditions at multiple levels to ensure that the list items or records satisfying the conditions alone get updated. The updates can be done either through the basic mode wizard or through an external metadata file depending on its complexity.

Consider the following table containing Employee details. SPListM allows the user to selectively import these details to SharePoint. The user can impose import conditions satisfying which the data is imported. The conditions as said earlier can be imposed at multiple levels and precise information can be imported.

Suppose if the user wants to selectively import data into SharePoint, the user can impose conditions using SPListM. In the given example, if the user wants to have only the details of employees who are either from Sales or Marketing department, SPListM allows the user impose a logical “OR” condition to support the given cause. Take a look at the following screenshot:

Screenshot of SPListM-Conditional update of list items:

The following screenshot shows the SharePoint site with details of employees from Marketing or Sales departments:

In all of the above scenarios, SPListM helps users address most of the common issues confronted in their daily SharePoint usage. SPListM could very well prove to be indispensable tool for your SharePoint environment particularly for the list management challenges that one could face.

For a free trial version of SPListM, visit the product home page at

http://www.vyapin.com/products/sharepoint/moss-2007/splistm/sharepoint-2007-list-management-tool.htm

Our flagship SharePoint migration product, DocKIT for SharePoint 2007 has come out with a feature rich new version. This new version of DocKIT for SharePoint 2007 v3.9 is a significant release from the solution’s usability standpoint. Usability is something that we keep constantly improvising on.

Our DocKIT customers would now be bestowed with the following provisions with the new release:

1. Web Services Component Indicator: DocKIT has in it now a provision to indicate to the user about the existence of DocKIT Web Services component in the destination SharePoint server. The user has to specify the SharePoint site URL and its corresponding credentials to verify the existence of DocKIT Web Services component. It can be accessed from the Tools Menu of the application (Tools–> Test DocKIT Web Service). The new feature is expected to avoid any Web Services Component mismatch. DocKIT Web Services component indicator has been incorporated based on suggestions from some of our DocKIT’s customers.

2. Support for Forms Authentication: DocKIT now supports a Forms Authentication validating the users against the corresponding SharePoint environment. With this feature, DocKIT extends its support to websites configured with Forms Authentication validation type. DocKIT would automatically initiate Windows Authentication or Forms Authentication depending on the destination SharePoint site configuration settings.

We also added forms authentication to our SharePoint to Windows file system migration tool, SPListX quite recently: http://www.vyapin.com/blogs/index.php/2010/03/10/splistx-for-sharepoint-2007-v31-released/.

3. Elapsed Time Display: Users can view the time taken for a particular task to migrate documents to the destination SharePoint document library. DocKIT now keeps the user informed about the time involved in migrating documents and this would help the user in scheduling migration tasks.

4. Profile Manager Tool: Users now can define the User Profiles and their credentials through the Profile Manager tool. Windows-based credentials and Forms-Based credentials can be defined through this. Using this, the users can just select their corresponding credentials without manually entering them every time.

For a 30-day free trial version or to upgrade to the latest version of DocKIT software, visit the product home page at http://www.vyapin.com/products/sharepoint/moss-2007/dockit/sharepoint-2007-file-migration.htm.

This week continues to be special as we have rolled out a major version of Admin Report Kit for Exchange Server (ARKES) v6.0.

ARKES, a powerful reporting solution for Microsoft Exchange Server is the next to follow our SPListX 3.1 release. The new feature-rich ARKES version is certain to add value to your IT infrastructure.

ARKES v6.0 offers the following new features and benefits to our customers:

1. Support to Exchange Server 2010: The new ARKES supports Microsoft’s latest version of Exchange Server 2010. ARKES over a period of last 7 years has evolved in line with the Exchange Server’s hierarchy since Exchange Server v5.5. ARKES is now compatible with Microsoft Exchange Server 2010/2007/2003/2000. ARKES no more supports Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 owing to functional difficulty in achieving backward compatibility.

2. Generate reports for specific objects: ARKES now enables users to generate specific information on recipient objects or recipients in specific Organizational Units. This would allow the user to pull out ‘spot-on’ information without having to generate reports across the vast hierarchy.

3. E-mail ARKES reports: ARKES reports can now be distributed through e-mails. This is a significant enhancement to the previous report export & print feature.

4. SQL Database: ARKES is now scaled up by SQL database keeping in mind Microsoft Access’s storage and functional limitations. SQL Database would ensure improved application performance and storage optimization.

5. Multi format Reporting: ARKES now has the ability to export or print reports in a variety of report formats. This would go a long way in addressing our users’ domestic compliance and documentation needs.

6. Extended support to Microsoft Windows 64-bit platform.

7. Improved GUI: ARKES now has a highly interactive GUI definitely marking a new milestone from the solution’s usability standpoint.

You can read more information about the product at:
http://www.vyapin.com/products/exchange-audit/exchange-server-reporting.htm

We have made a significant and much improvised release of SPListX for SharePoint 2007 version 3.1 recently. We have included a powerful feature to export documents and list items from SharePoint lists based on ‘Search Criteria’ provided by the user. This new feature uses the built-in SharePoint Search facility in the background to deliver the results.

With the new SPListX for SharePoint 2007 version 3.1, users have the following new provisions:

1. Search Criteria: Export SharePoint list items with file attachments, version histories and metadata based on SharePoint Search results. Previously the user had the choice to export list items through the browse option or export them using an external batch file. Now, with the new ‘Search Criteria’ feature choice, the user can search for matching list items to export using Keywords or Advanced Search options at a site collection level or farm level. This feature was designed to leverage SharePoint’s Search feature, which is its value proposition.

2. Search Validation Settings: The user can validate the search results for a given search criteria (Keywords or Advanced Search). The ‘test search’ feature helps the user to verify the search results, thereby allowing the user to fine tune the search criteria to retrieve better results.

3. Support for Forms authentication: Prior to the current version, SPListX allowed only the users registered with the corresponding Active Directory domains to be validated against the SharePoint environment. But with the current release, SPListX supports users registered outside the Active Directory environment too. SPListX would initiate Windows authentication or Forms authentication automatically, depending on the destination SharePoint site.

4. Fully qualified domain name format: SPList X now supports a fully qualified domain name, i.e. username@domain format in all its user validation.

The ‘Search criteria’ function and the other functionalities were eagerly awaited by many our existing customers. SPListX with these new features incorporated is certainly bound to add value to your existing SharePoint infrastructure.

For a 30-day free trial version of SPListX, visit the product home page at: http://www.vyapin.com/products/sharepoint/moss-2007/splistx/sharepoint-2007-list-export.htm

One of the most common scenarios in SharePoint migration is the migration of File shares and folders from various sources – file servers, desktops and other storage devices. While the need for migrating files and folders is quite common, the task of getting this accomplished becomes very complex if there are a large number of files and folders to migrate. You will need an automated solution that will take care of some of these complexities. A large migration typically involves migrating and tagging tens of thousands of files (documents) from legacy file shares and folders into a new SharePoint repository while retaining the existing taxonomy or moving to a completely new taxonomy.
Most file system users will not be familiar with the concept of document metadata. They are more familiar with the term file properties. The concept of document metadata originates from Document Management Systems (DMS), where documents are stored and made searchable on a wider set of keywords and phrases. Document libraries in SharePoint are akin to Document Management Systems in the way they store documents and properties for search and retrieval. However, these properties need to be presented to SharePoint during migration in a certain manner that makes the search and retrieval more powerful and elegant. You may migrate / propagate metadata fields from the document properties stored within the file or using an external metadata file / database. Mapping and tagging existing file properties and adding additional properties to documents in SharePoint, especially for a well structured taxonomy can be a laborious process. Thus, migrating files and folders along with metadata needs an appropriate solution that will break down the migration into several different tasks (automated batch processes), with several different rules to process the files and folders.
Our SharePoint migration tool for File shares and folders, DocKIT, allows users to move folders and files along with metadata (using an external metadata file and file properties) from file system to SharePoint libraries based on the folders/files added by the user using the DocKIT user interface. Some of the supported metadata elements that typically define the source content are:

• Custom properties defined in the external metadata file
• Summary file system properties - Title, Subject, Author, Category, Keywords and Comments
• File properties such as Manager, Company, DateLastPrinted, DateLastSaved, RevisionNumber, Version, WordCount etc. in the case of MS-Office documents
• Original Created Date & Last Modified Date of source documents
• Author (Created By) and Editor (Modified By) of source documents
• Content Approval Status & Approval Comments

Please click the following link to know more about Vyapin’s DocKIT: http://www.vyapin.com/products/sharepoint/moss-2007/dockit/sharepoint-2007-file-migration.htm

NTFS Permissions reports on Files, Folders and Shares using Admin Report Kit for Windows Enterprise.

There are several powerful features available in Admin Report Kit for Windows Enterprise to generate reports on NTFS permissions on files and folders residing in servers and workstations across multiple domains in the network. All reports may be scheduled and generated for multiple computers, users, and groups for multiple domains as a batch job.

The Permissions Reports section under the built-in reports feature (out-of-the-box reports) includes specific reports that report exclusively on reporting the access permissions assigned to users and groups on files, folders and shares. Our NTFS permissions reporting tool has several flavors of reports designed specifically for the administrator’s convenience. The following questions can be easily answered using these multi-dimensional reports:
1. Given a selected set of Users and Groups, which files and folders do they have access to across computers in a domain?
2. Given a selected set of files, folders and shares across computers, which users and groups have access to these?
3. Which users have inherited access permissions by virtue of their group membership (even though they may not have been granted explicit permissions)?
4. What permissions have been assigned to users both explicit and inherited through nested groups? One single report showing both.
5. What are the net effective permissions for users and groups on a set of folders?
6. How are nested groups affecting NTFS permissions on files and folders?

Here is a walkthrough of how to generate NTFS Permissions Reports using Admin Report Kit for Windows Enterprise (ARKWE):

Click on the Permissions Reports menu item under the Built-in Reports button in the toolbar.

The following NTFS Permissions Reports are available:

List of permissions for specific users and groups on folders
Reports the folder permissions assigned to specific users and/or groups on a selected set of folders.

List of permissions for folders
Reports the permissions associated with a selected set of folders.

List of permissions for specific users and groups on files
Reports the files permissions assigned to specific users and/or groups under a selected set of folders.

List of permissions for files
Reports the permissions associated with files under a selected set of folders.

List of all permissions for folders (Inherit & Explicit)
Reports the permissions for users assigned in the folders directly and inherited by means of nested groups.

List of effective permissions for users and groups on folders
Reports the effective permissions for users and groups for a set of folders.

List of effective permissions for users and groups on files
Reports the effective permissions for users and groups for files available in a set of folders.

Apart from the above out-of-the-box NTFS Permissions Reports, several standard customizable reports on various share and folder resources are available. These may be customized and scheduled as batch jobs for multiple computers and domains.

Please click on the following to download and evaluate the above features in Admin Report Kit for Windows Enterprise.
http://www.vyapin.com/products/windows-audit/windows-reports.htm