WebPart security

Question

What is best practice to ensure only the correct users can see a webpart in Sharepoint 2007?

Security Groups, and Audiences have both been suggested to me.

Answer 1

It depends if you are talking about the rendering of Web Parts or adding Web Parts from the Web Part gallery. Let me explain both scenarios:

1) In MOSS 2007, you can indeed use audiences to target the rendering of Web Parts on a given Web Part page. This is exactly what the Audience property on Web Parts is designed for. However, for WSS 3.0 deployments this is not possible as Audiences is a MOSS thing.

2) Hiding Web Parts in the Web Part gallery is also possible, i.e. in case you do not want all users with design permissions to be able to add any WP in the gallery. Use item permissions on the .dwp / .webpart files in the WP gallery to restrict access.