Inspecting the SharePoint Content Database

This is going to be the first post on a many to come about the SharePoint Content Database. There are some cases when we need to look into and read from the content databases.

NOTE: Never update any SharePoint database directly. Always use the SharePoint API (Object Model) for any updates.

We will begin with some of the basic tables and a very high level diagram on some of the relationships between them.

Features	Table that holds information about all the activated features for each site collection or site.
Sites	Table that holds information about all the site collections for this content database.
Webs	Table that holds information about all the specific sites (webs) in each site collection.
UserInfo	Table that holds information about all the users for each site collection.
Groups	Table that holds information about all the SharePoint groups in each site collection.
Roles	Table that holds information about all the SharePoint roles (permission levels) for each site.
AllLists	Table that holds information about lists for each site.
GroupMembership	Table that holds information about all the SharePoint group members.
AllUserData	Table that holds information about all the list items for each list.
AllDocs	Table that holds information about all the documents (and all list items) for each document library and list.
RoleAssignment	Table that holds information about all the users or SharePoint groups that are assigned to roles.
SchedSubscriptions	Table that holds information about all the scheduled subscriptions (alerts) for each user.
ImmedSubscriptions	Table that holds information about all the immediate subscriptions (alerts) for each user.

Below is a very high level database diagram. This does not show all the relationships between all the tables.

There are a some tables left out of this post that we will look at in upcoming posts. Here are some common queries that we can run against the content databases.

– Query to get all the top level site collections
SELECT SiteId AS SiteGuid, Id AS WebGuid, FullUrl AS Url, Title, Author, TimeCreated
FROM dbo.Webs
WHERE (ParentWebId IS NULL)

– Query to get all the child sites in a site collection
SELECT SiteId AS SiteGuid, Id AS WebGuid, FullUrl AS Url, Title, Author, TimeCreated
FROM dbo.Webs
WHERE (NOT (ParentWebId IS NULL))
– Query to get all the SharePoint groups in a site collection
SELECT dbo.Webs.SiteId, dbo.Webs.Id, dbo.Webs.FullUrl, dbo.Webs.Title, dbo.Groups.ID AS Expr1,
dbo.Groups.Title AS Expr2, dbo.Groups.Description
FROM dbo.Groups INNER JOIN
dbo.Webs ON dbo.Groups.SiteId = dbo.Webs.SiteId
– Query to get all the users in a site collection
SELECT dbo.Webs.SiteId, dbo.Webs.Id, dbo.Webs.FullUrl, dbo.Webs.Title, dbo.UserInfo.tp_ID,
dbo.UserInfo.tp_DomainGroup, dbo.UserInfo.tp_SiteAdmin, dbo.UserInfo.tp_Title, dbo.UserInfo.tp_Email
FROM dbo.UserInfo INNER JOIN
dbo.Webs ON dbo.UserInfo.tp_SiteID = dbo.Webs.SiteId
– Query to get all the members of the SharePoint Groups
SELECT dbo.Groups.ID, dbo.Groups.Title, dbo.UserInfo.tp_Title, dbo.UserInfo.tp_Login
FROM dbo.GroupMembership INNER JOIN
dbo.Groups ON dbo.GroupMembership.SiteId = dbo.Groups.SiteId INNER JOIN
dbo.UserInfo ON dbo.GroupMembership.MemberId = dbo.UserInfo.tp_ID
– Query to get all the sites where a specific feature is activated
SELECT dbo.Webs.Id AS WebGuid, dbo.Webs.Title AS WebTitle, dbo.Webs.FullUrl AS WebUrl, dbo.Features.FeatureId,
dbo.Features.TimeActivated
FROM dbo.Features INNER JOIN
dbo.Webs ON dbo.Features.SiteId = dbo.Webs.SiteId AND dbo.Features.WebId = dbo.Webs.Id
WHERE (dbo.Features.FeatureId = '00BFEA71-D1CE-42de-9C63-A44004CE0104')
– Query to get all the users assigned to roles
SELECT dbo.Webs.Id, dbo.Webs.Title, dbo.Webs.FullUrl, dbo.Roles.RoleId, dbo.Roles.Title AS RoleTitle,
dbo.UserInfo.tp_Title, dbo.UserInfo.tp_Login
FROM dbo.RoleAssignment INNER JOIN
dbo.Roles ON dbo.RoleAssignment.SiteId = dbo.Roles.SiteId AND
dbo.RoleAssignment.RoleId = dbo.Roles.RoleId INNER JOIN
dbo.Webs ON dbo.Roles.SiteId = dbo.Webs.SiteId AND dbo.Roles.WebId = dbo.Webs.Id INNER JOIN
dbo.UserInfo ON dbo.RoleAssignment.PrincipalId = dbo.UserInfo.tp_ID
– Query to get all the SharePoint groups assigned to roles
SELECT dbo.Webs.Id, dbo.Webs.Title, dbo.Webs.FullUrl, dbo.Roles.RoleId, dbo.Roles.Title AS RoleTitle,
dbo.Groups.Title AS GroupName
FROM dbo.RoleAssignment INNER JOIN
dbo.Roles ON dbo.RoleAssignment.SiteId = dbo.Roles.SiteId AND
dbo.RoleAssignment.RoleId = dbo.Roles.RoleId INNER JOIN
dbo.Webs ON dbo.Roles.SiteId = dbo.Webs.SiteId AND dbo.Roles.WebId = dbo.Webs.Id INNER JOIN
dbo.Groups ON dbo.RoleAssignment.SiteId = dbo.Groups.SiteId AND
dbo.RoleAssignment.PrincipalId = dbo.Groups.ID

These are just some of the common queries that I have used against the content database. In upcoming post I will exam how the permissions are scoped and how we can determine where the permissions are assigned by looking further into the content database. I will also show you how you can look into the content database and see where all the event handlers are being used and what they are attached to.