Working with Audiences

An audience is a special group to which content is targeted so that only people in that audience see it. A user becomes a part of an audience based on profile properties or membership to a distribution list or SharePoint site. Audience content targeting should not be confused with access. Just because a user cannot see an item does not necessarily mean that he does not have access to the item. An audience may exist for members of an organization that work out of a certain region such as Canada. Therefore, by assigning the audience to an announcement related to a special event taking place at the Canadian office, it will only be seen by members of that audience. The following sections give some examples of how you can use audiences.

You can configure certain Web Parts such as the Content Query Web Part, discussed in Chapter 7, to support audience filtering. This means that when you display multiple items in a Web Part, users will see only those that are targeted to them. Figures 9-26 and 9-27 demonstrate examples of filtering list information by audience via a Content Query Web Part. Figure 9-26 is what the team site looks like to a member of the sales team audience, which can view the Sales Strategy document because it’s targeted to their audience. Figure 9-27 shows the same site page as viewed by someone who is not a member of the sales team audience. Notice the user does not see the Sales Strategy document even though it exists in the library.

Figure 9-26

Figure 9-27

If the user who isn’t in the sales team audience were to click the Shared Documents library, he or she can still see the document listed in the view as shown in Figure 9-28. This is because the Content Query Web Part filters so that items only display to targeted audiences and the standard list Web Parts do not. All Web Parts, however, allow you to target the contents of an entire Web Part to an audience.

Figure 9-28

Membership-Based Audiences

More than likely, your organization has already made significant investments to Active Directory, which groups people based on their roles as well as the organization’s communication requirements. So instead of creating audiences, which you need to manage and maintain as an extra layer in the SharePoint environment, you can take advantage of existing objects, such as Windows Distribution Lists or Security Groups. In fact, your organization probably has a distribution list on your Exchange mail server for the sales team that keeps them informed of product updates and sales promotions. You can use the distribution list as an audience and target content from the SharePoint environment directly to the audience’s members. As announcements are added to the corporate portal, the audience can see and thus view the latest news upon login. If the organization is fairly busy and generates numerous new announcements each day, the use of audiences helps users “separate the wheat from the chaff.”

The next three Try It Outs show you the process of managing a membership-based audience. In the first Try It Out, you design a rule that creates an audience using a distribution list in Active Directory, specify the audience’s membership criteria, and compile it. The second Try It Out shows you how to target an item to your newly created audience so your audience can keep up-to-date on new promotions and other information via a central portal page. This is useful for sales teams who, because they travel and work remotely, have limited time and need to view content directly related to them. The third Try It Out shows you how to target specific list items, documents, or even entire Web Part content to an audience by creating audiences based on membership to SharePoint site groups.

Try It Out-Create an Audience Based on a Distribution List

In this example, you use an existing group (created for a sales team) to create your audience. You first design a rule that creates an audience from a distribution list in Active Directory. You then specify the audience’s membership criteria and compile it. Compiling involves a search through the Active Directory membership pool for users who meet the criteria that the audience specifies. You can run the compilation process manually, as shown in this Try It Out, or you can schedule a compilation. It is a good idea to run the compilation schedule on a regular basis to ensure that your audience’s memberships stay up-to-date.

Tip 

This example assumes that a distribution list or security group exists in your company’s Active Directory for a sales team. If such a group does not exist, identify a group that does exist and change the naming of the audience to match.

1. From the Central Administration site, select the link on the left-hand navigation for the Shared Services Administration site. The name of this link may vary depending on what the administrator named it during its configuration. If you do not know the location of the Shared Services Administration site, ask your server administrator.

2. Select the Audiences link from the Audiences group.

3. Select Create Audience.

4. Enter a name for your audience. For this example, use Sales Team for the name of the audience.

5. Enter a description for the audience. For this example, enter the following for the description:

   Important 

   This is an audience that represents all members of the global sales team.

6. Enter your own name for the owner of the audience.

7. Select the option to include users who satisfy all of the rules.

8. Click the OK button.

9. Because this audience is based on a distribution list (or Windows Security Group), select User for Operand on the Add Audience Rule window, shown in Figure 9-29.

   
   Figure 9-29

10. Select Member Of from the Operator drop-down menu.

11. Click the Browse button next to the Value box. The Select Security Group or Distribution List dialog box appears, as seen in Figure 9-30.

    
    Figure 9-30

12. In the Find box, type the word sales.

13. Select the distribution list that represents your company’s sales team.

14. Click the Add button.

15. Click the OK button.

16. Select the Compile Audience link to run a system scan for members of your portal that meet the criteria of your audience rules.

How It Works

When the compilation is complete, any user who is a member of the distribution list for Sales becomes a member of your new audience. As new sales people join the organization, they are added to this group automatically as part of the existing processes for new hires. This also results in the new members being added to the Sales audience whenever compilation is scheduled. You can specify the schedule by which audiences are compiled by clicking Specify Compilation Schedule from the Manage Audiences option. If your organization experiences a lot of changes to user profiles or membership, you may consider a more frequent compilation schedule such as once per day. If changes are less common, a weekly compilation may be acceptable.

Try It Out-Targeting a List Item to a Specific Audience

Once you create the sales team audience, you can target specific news and announcements directly to it. This allows them to keep up-to-date on new promotions and sales tactics when they visit a central portal page that contains a Web Part that supports the use of audiences. Other team members cannot view the announcement in this example when they visit the same page, although they still have access rights to view it if they want to. This page may contain updates for many other groups and divisions so by effectively using audiences to target content to users based on their roles, you help ensure that content is limited to only what is relevant to users.

1. From the main page of your team site, select the Announcements link from the Announcements List Web Part.

2. Select Setting List Settings from the toolbar.

3. Select Audience Targeting Settings.

4. Select the check box to Enable Audience Targeting.

5. Click the OK button.

6. Click the Announcements link from the breadcrumb navigation trail.

7. Click the New Item button.

8. Enter the following information into the list item form:

   Open table as spreadsheet

   Column	Value
   Title	New Sales Promotion Launched.
   Body	A new sales promotion has been launched that will offer customers up to 50% off the pricing of last year’s product line. For more information, please contact your Regional Director’s head office.
   Expires	Select a date one month from the current date.

9. For the Target Audiences column, select the Browse button. The Select Audiences dialog appears.

10. Search for and select the sales team audience you created in the previous Try It Out from the Global Audiences and click the Add button, as shown in Figure 9-31.

    
    Figure 9-31

11. Click the OK button to complete your audience selection.

12. Click the OK button to save the announcement to the list.

How It Works

Once you have configured audiences for the list, you can add a Content Query Web Part to the main page of your team site and query the announcements list using the method described in Chapter 7. You can then select the option to apply audience filtering as shown in Figure 9-32.

Figure 9-32

Try It Out-Target a Web Part to an Audience

You can target specific list items, documents, or even entire Web Part content to an audience. In this example, you target a list Web Part that displays items that are pending approval to the SharePoint site group responsible for approving content. By adding the Web Part to the main page with a listing of all pending items as the default view, Approvers are more likely to respond in a timely manner. An example of this is a Web Part on the main page of a site that highlights items pending approval. Because these items are only relevant to members of the Approvers group, you select this audience on the Web Part to ensure that only they can see the Web Part on the main page. While other team members can still access the documents, no action is required from them so the Web Part would only be a distraction.

1. From the main page of your team site, select Shared Documents from the Quick Launch bar.

2. Select Settings Document Library Settings from the toolbar. You are redirected to the administration page for the document library.

3. Select Versioning Settings. You are redirected to the library’s Version History Settings page.

4. Select Yes for Require Content Approval for Submitted Items.

5. Click the OK button.

6. Return to the main page of your site by clicking the Team Site link in the navigational bread-crumb trail.

7. Select Site Actions Edit Page.

8. Click the Add a Web Part button from the left-hand Web Part zone. The Add Web Parts to Left window appears, as shown in Figure 9-33.

   
   Figure 9-33

9. Select the Shared Documents Web Part, and click the Add button.

10. Click the Edit button for the Shared Documents Web Part, and select Modify Shared Web Part.

11. Select the Approve/Reject Items view. You may receive a pop-up window warning that you may lose changes made to the view. Click OK to continue.

12. Expand the Advanced properties pane.

13. From the Target Audiences field at the very bottom of the Web Part pane, select the Browse but-ton. The Select Audiences dialog box appears, as shown in Figure 9-34.

    
    Figure 9-34

14. Select SharePoint Groups from the Find drop-down menu, and click the Search icon to the right of the box that resembles a magnifying glass.

15. Alisting of all SharePoint groups for the current site is displayed. Select the Approvers group.

16. Click the Add button.

17. Click the OK button on the Audience selection window.

18. Click the Apply, and then OK buttons on the Web Part.

19. Click Exit Edit Mode on the main page.

How It Works

In this example, the pending status of documents is of no interest to team members other than the Approvers group. To other members, it might be distracting and take up valuable real estate. Sometimes by effectively using audiences on Web Parts, you can fit a greater deal of content on a page, yet avoid unnecessary clutter on each user’s screen by limiting the number of Web Parts he or she sees.

Profile Property-Based Audiences

All examples of the audience creation process so far have been based on either Active Directory- or SharePoint-based groups. This chapter now discusses how audiences are created based on properties from the user profiles. When you consider that the profile can not only contain information from your Active Directory (or another LDAP server), but also from other business applications, such as a human resources or financial database, the possibilities of how specific you can target content are endless. By using personal profile properties, you can make audiences very detailed to the point of defining audiences for specific topics. For example, you can create a profile property called News and Promotions that has a value list from which users can select via their profile to identify what products they want to receive promotional updates on.

In the following example, you see how to create an audience based on the property you created earlier in the chapter for certifications in the Try It Out for “Add a New User Profile Property.” If you recall, this field gives users a place to update their own certifications from their My Site. However, it is equally as possible for you to automatically update this profile property from an external system, such as Active Directory or a Central Human Resources database.

Try It Out-Create an Audience Based on Profile Information

In this example, you create a rules-based audience that checks the certifications profile property and compiles the members who have a project management certification. Because this is an audience where you expect membership changes over time, you will base membership on a profile property that you know users will keep up-to-date on their own, instead of manually identifying and updating membership within a specific Active Directory group, distribution list, or site group.

1. From the Shared Services Administration site, select the Audiences link from the Audiences section.

2. Select Create Audience. The Create Audience window appears, as shown in Figure 9-35.

   
   Figure 9-35

3. Enter a name for the audience. For this example, use Certified Project Managers.

4. Enter a description for the audience. For this example, enter the following:

   Important 

   This is an audience that represents all employees who have attained a project management professional certification.

5. Enter your own name for the owner of the audience.

6. Select the option to include users who satisfy any of the rules.

7. Click the OK button. The Add Audience Rule window appears, as shown in Figure 9-36.

   
   Figure 9-36

8. Because this audience is based on a user property, select Property for Operand.

9. Select the Certifications profile property from the drop-down menu.

10. Select Contains from the Operator drop-down menu.

11. Enter PMP for value.

12. Click the OK button.