Why does it seem this is such a MCMS 2002 topic? It’s come up with SharePoint, but not nearly as much as it does with MCMS? If you’ve worked with MCMS long enough, you’ll know there are a few things you just can’t do with the PAPI:
- create resource galleries
- create custom channel properties
- manage rights groups
- manage users in rights groups
- assign rights groups to channels, resource galleries or template galleries
- move channels, template galleries or resource galleries
I’m not here to say that you don’t have the right to complain and say “I should be able to create a custom property for a channel in the PAPI!”. You most certainly do, but the proper course is to submit a request for a new feature to Microsoft. Mei Ying has posted a few work-arounds for some of the issues above.
Stefan Goßner has put together three very good posts on this subject: Documented / Undocumented API - Why Should I care?
- Part 1 – Technical Background
- Part 2 – What would YOU do?
- Part 3 – How to identify 3rd party products using undocumented program internal interfaces
Remember, it doesn’t matter if it’s your code or someone else’s. Like Stefan Goßner said in his 3rd post, if you are using a product that does one of the above things that just aren’t possible with the API, you should contact your vendor. Just like the old phrase: Let the buyer beware!