Defining Audiences for Saved Searches

If you are an administrator or have at least Create level of the Publish Search permission, you can use the Audience subtab on saved searches to define a list of users who can run the search and view its results. You also have the option of making the search available to all users by checking the Public box. For information, see Making Saved Searches Public.

Only users who are members of the defined audience and account administrators see the saved search on search related lists. Setting the audience for a saved search also restricts its appearance in list views, sublist views, dashboard list portlets, and preferred search forms. You set up these preferences on the Roles subtab. By default only administrators and the owner of a saved search, meaning its creator, can edit the search. Audience members cannot edit saved search definitions unless you check the Allow Audience to Edit box.

Customers, vendors, and partners other than advanced partners generally do not have access to saved searches, even those that are defined as public. If these types of users do gain access to a published saved search, they can run the search only if they have permission to view the search record type, and the search returns only their own records. However, if your saved search contains sensitive information, you should not make it public, and instead use the fields on the Audience subtab to define a more limited audience.

To define an audience for a saved search:

When defining or editing a saved search, click the Audience subtab.
If you want to allow the audience to make changes to search definitions, check the Allow Audience to Edit box.
- If this option is enabled, the audience can make changes and save the search with the same name.
- If this option is not enabled and the audience makes changes, they can do a “save as” to save the search with a different name.
In the fields provided, choose an audience for your search results. You can select options from any or all of the following audience types.

For each of the audience types, you can select multiple options by holding down the Ctrl key as you are making your selections.
- Roles – Select one or more roles.
  
  To make the search available to all users in your account, check the Select All box.
  
  Note:
  If your account contains a large number of roles, they may not be in a dropdown list, making it difficult to select multiple roles. You can change the roles list to display in a dropdown list by increasing the number set for Maximum Entries in Dropdowns at Home > Set Preferences, on the General tab.
- Departments – Select one or more departments.
- Subsidiaries (If Available) – Select one or more subsidiaries.
- Groups – Select one or more groups.
- Employees – Select one or more employees.
  
  To make the search available to all employees, check the Select All box.
- Partners – Select one or more partners.
  
  To share with all partners, check the Select All box.

Important:

If you choose both role and department options, a user must belong to one of the selected roles AND one of the selected departments to access the search. If you choose any other combination of options, a user needs to belong to only one type of option OR the other, not both, to access the search.

Making Saved Searches Public

To define a saved search as public, check the Public box near the top of the saved search page. This box is available only to administrators and to other users with the Publish Search permission, a Lists type permission. If you are unable to check this box or you do not see it, you do not have the ability to make saved searches public. Contact your account administrator for changes to your permission level.

Public saved searches can be published in your website, and they are available to be run by everyone with access to your account. The use of public saved searches can save time for employees and ensure that all users conduct searches using the same criteria.

By default, only administrators and a saved search's owner (creator) can edit its definitions. Users can run and view results of a public saved search, but they cannot edit its definitions and resave it with the same name, unless the Allow Audience to Edit box is checked. Users can, however, edit the search and click the Save As button to save the search with a different name.

Note:

You can let users subscribe to email alerts of search results only if you already have made the saved search public. For more information, see Enabling Saved Search Email Alerts.

To define an audience for a saved search:

Making Saved Searches Public

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