Application to copy a SharePoint Group

Question

As per this entry: Cloning a sharepoint rolegroup I'm trying to create a console application to copy a SharePoint group, including its permissions.

Based on the answer from Tjassens I've reached the following:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using Microsoft.SharePoint;  

namespace REGroupCopy
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            using (SPSite spSite = new SPSite("http://dev"))
            {
                using (SPWeb spWeb = spSite.RootWeb)
                {
                    // first we find the group that we want to clone
                    SPGroup group = spWeb.Groups["Test Group"];

                    // then we use this retreived group to get the roleassignments on the SPWeb object
                    SPRoleAssignment ass = spWeb.RoleAssignments.GetAssignmentByPrincipal(group);

                    string groupName = "Test Group 2"; // group to create
                    string groupDescription = "Group created by REGroupCopy";
                    string user = "michael";

                    spWeb.SiteGroups.Add(groupName, user, user, groupDescription);
                    SPGroup newGroup = spWeb.SiteGroups[groupName];
                    SPRoleAssignment roleAssignment = new SPRoleAssignment(newGroup);

                    //add role to web
                    spWeb.RoleAssignments.Add(roleAssignment);
                    spWeb.Update();
                }
            }         
        }
    }
}

Unfortunately I don't think I'm understanding everything correctly. Specifically, I think these lines are incorrect, but I'm unsure what they should be:

                string groupName = "Test Group 2"; // group to create
                string groupDescription = "Group created by REGroupCopy";
                string user = "michael";

                spWeb.SiteGroups.Add(groupName, user, user, groupDescription);

I don't necessarily need somebody to come along and fix this for me (after all ,this is a learning exercise). Instead, could you please help me to understand where my thought process is falling down and what I need to learn to rectify this?

Answer 1

You have found the correct problem with your code. When you call the following method:

spWeb.SiteGroups.Add(groupName, user, user, groupDescription); 

you forgot that the user should not be a string but an actual SPUser object. If you get the SPUser object you should be able to add the new group to the SPWeb/SPSite.

you can get the user object by using for instance:

SPUser spUser = spWeb.EnsureUser(loginName);

Answer 2

Add method : First Param : The new group name

Second param : The owner (SPUser object)

Third param : The default user for the group (SPMember object).

Fourth param : The new group description

From Site admin New group

first param is like Name TextBox

second param and third param is like Group owner people picker

fourth param is like About me RichTextBox