UnauthorizedAccessException while uploading excel Data to .Net control on SharePoint 2010

Question

I am facing an issue with uploading excel data to .Net control which is deployed on SharePoint 2010. The functionality is to upload the values that are in Excel sheet as comma separated to .Net Textbox Control. Before reading the data from Excel the document is saved to the server path (Server.Mappath) of the application. In my case it is the _Layouts of the SharePoint 2010 Server where all my ASPX pages are deployed. This functionality works fine on the SharePoint 2007 environment but the same functionality when deployed on SharePoint 2010 Environment is throwing an unauthorized exception. Below is the code i am using to upload the data from excel and error message. Can anyone please help me fixing this issue or any work around?

Error Message on SharePoint 2010:

Error Occured: System.UnauthorizedAccessException: Access to the path 'C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\14\template\layouts\Test\Dev\ABC.xlsx' is denied. at System.IO.__Error.WinIOError(Int32 errorCode, String maybeFullPath) at System.IO.FileStream.Init(String path, FileMode mode, FileAccess access, Int32 rights, Boolean useRights, FileShare share, Int32 bufferSize, FileOptions options, SECURITY_ATTRIBUTES secAttrs, String msgPath, Boolean bFromProxy) at System.IO.FileStream..ctor(String path, FileMode mode, FileAccess access, FileShare share, Int32 bufferSize, FileOptions options, String msgPath, Boolean bFromProxy) at System.IO.FileStream..ctor(String path, FileMode mode) at System.Web.HttpPostedFile.SaveAs(String filename) at App.Test.btnFileUpload_Click(Object sender, EventArgs e)

Code Sample:

if (fileUpload.HasFile)
{
    strTarget = Server.MapPath(fileUpload.FileName);
    string[] arrCheckExtension = strTarget.Split('.');
    if (arrCheckExtension.Length >= 2)
    {
        if (arrCheckExtension[1].ToString().Equals("xls") || arrCheckExtension[1].ToString().Equals("xlsx"))
        {
            fileUpload.SaveAs(strTarget);
            strConnForExcel = String.Format(@"Provider=Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0;Data Source={0};Extended Properties=""Excel 12.0;HDR=YES;IMEX=1;""", strTarget);
            strQueryForExcel = String.Format("select id from [{0}$]", "Test");
            OleDbDataAdapter adap = new OleDbDataAdapter(strQueryForExcel, strConnForExcel);
            ds = new DataSet();
            adap.Fill(ds);
            if (ds.Tables[0].Rows.Count > 0)
            {
                for (int i = 0; i < ds.Tables[0].Rows.Count; i++)
                {
                    if (strids == "")
                    {
                        strids += ds.Tables[0].Rows[i]["id"].ToString();
                    }
                    else
                    {
                        strids += "," + ds.Tables[0].Rows[i]["id"].ToString();
                    }
                }
                txtUpload.Text = strids;

            }
        }
        else
        {
            Response.Write("<script language='javascript'>alert('Please Select File with .xls or xlsx Extension');</script>");

        }
    }
}

Looks like the file is not closed and is still in use. I could not see which object, but probably you have to Dispose() something. — Sjips
this sounds most definitely like a Permissions Issue if you are doing this via a web page then IIS_USER probably needs to have full read/right access not your local user account .. unless your admind allows all the users to have access to that share then the individual user's permissions need to be set I would start with that first I ran into the same thing locally if I change the file path to a local drive then everything works well in your case do the same but step past this line fileUpload.SaveAs(strTarget); and see if the rest of the code works — MethodMan
@DJ KRAZE -Thanks for your response. My admin will not allow access to that folder(_Layouts).I wonder why this was working properly on SharePoint 2007 even though any special permissions are not given to that folder. I am not sure if i can save the excel on my local because the code is deployed on the server an i am calling the saved excel sheet back to query the data and convert it to comma separated. May i know how you will save the document to my local & call the same file from local to query the data?or saving the excel to a sharePoint doclibrary & use that link to query data will work? — user545359
it's very simple just create a sample excel file on your local and for test purposes hard code the filepath or store it in a config file and put a break point on that line that saves..don't execute that line skip over it in the debugger.. also to get around that code also you can test it from the actual web as well I had the same issue but found a way locally around it.. how familiar with the debugger are you — MethodMan
also you appear to have omitted some code for example target and strids where are these defined.. — MethodMan

Jan Vanek Jan Vanek · Accepted Answer · 2014-10-31T22:28:42

The problem is in permission. Account used for SharePoint web application has no access to SharePoint hive folder by default. And there's good reason for that. But you can use another folder. Moreover you should also generate random name of uploaded file as two different users can upload different files with the same names overwriting each other.

You can use code like this:

var tmpFolderPath = Path.Combine(Directory.GetParent(Environment.GetFolderPath(Environment.SpecialFolder.System)).FullName, "Temp");
var tmpPath = Path.Combine(tmpFolderPath, string.Format("excelImport_{0}.tmp", (Guid.NewGuid())));

It uses system temp folder (c:\windows\temp by default) and also generates random file name.

UnauthorizedAccessException while uploading excel Data to .Net control on SharePoint 2010

1 Answers