Difference between AddRole and AddRoleDef in SharePoint usergroup.asmx?

Question

There are two methods in the SharePoint web service usergroup.asmx for adding role definitions to a site collection:

• Addole
• AddRoleDef

Both have the same description: "Adds a role definition to the current site collection."

Does anyone know if there is a difference between the two? So far, the only difference I see is that AddRoleDef accepts a 64-bit unsigned integer as one of the parameters, and AddRole accepts a 32-bit unsigned integer.

Answer 1

Hi, I work at Microsoft and am the prime minister responsible for the permissions management user interface in SharePoint vNext.

"SPGroup" is a "group" in the user interface - a logical group of users or directory groups

SPGroup on MSDN

"Role" is an obsolete term for "permission level" in the user interface

SPRole on MSDN

A "role definition" is a "permission level" in the user interface — a set of "permissions" ("rights" programmatically) that can be considered as specific basic actions that a user can perform, for example. add item. Authorization is performed against the user who has been granted these permissions.

SPRoleDefinition on MSDN

History. In SharePoint v2, we had user / directory groups, roles assigned (permission sets). In SharePoint v3, we introduced SharePoint teams,

Answer 2

Just assume here, but maybe Microsoft plans to add more rights, and more than a 32-bit integer is required to store the permission mask; therefore, adding the same method with a 64-bit integer.