SharePoint web services – permission for GetWebCollection method

For one of my requirement I took the advantage of SharePoint web services, actually I needs to make a windows application which will get the information for all document libraries and list down all the documents inside each document library from SharePoint site.

 

So I have used WEBS and LISTS web service to get my required results, while working with WEBS web service, I used web method GetWebCollection() from WEBS web service to take all the web site name underneath one SharePoint web site, the windows application runs well for development sites but for production sites it’s giving me unauthorized access error while accessing GetWebCollection() method, because I don’t have sufficient rights into product site, I was thinking that for executing GetWebCollection() method, I need service account or extra full control rights, but after finding from the internet, I had conclude that I just need “contributor” rights into all sites and sub-sites while working with GetWebCollection() method.

 User needs “browse directories” permission.

 Reference Link:

 http://www.novolocus.com/2008/07/03/browse-directories-and-webs-getwebcollection-strangeness/

From my point of view, we can do all things with SharePoint web services which we can achieve from SharePoint object model, just we need to know which web services and web method to call.

Happy coding !!