Public Searches

Public searches are searches in 25Live that everyone can use. They appear in drop-down menus throughout the application next to a user's own private searches. Public searches are created by administrators so that first-time users of 25Live have an easy way to find frequently searched items.

Common public searches help users find items like:

  • Conference rooms and other easily booked locations
  • Lists of locations for each campus or building
  • Different types of resources, such as furniture or AV equipment
  • Student clubs, community groups, and other types of organizations

Creating Public Searches

Public searches are automatically created when the public search user saves a new search. This is a special system user set in 25Live System Settings. An administrator logs in as this user and creates a new search, which is immediately available to the public.

Step By Step

  • Log in to 25Live as a system administrator and go to System Settings > System Defaults.
  • In the System Defaults area, enter a public search username.
    Image: Public Search Username setting
  • This username should be in a group that gives it permission to see all events, locations, resources, and organizations in 25Live. Don't worry that this might give other users a sneaky way to see those objects despite their own permissions–when someone uses a public search, their own security restrictions still apply to the results.
    • CollegeNET generally recommends against re-using another system account for this purpose, such as the viewer seat or a publisher user. You may consider re-using the default dashboard user though.
  • Log in as that user or use the Masquerade option to access their account.
  • Create searches as normal. Give them descriptive names–remember, that's all someone will have to go on when they see this search in a list.
    • You can also share searches with the public search user, but this won't make them public right away. You'll need to log in as the public search user and save a copy with a new name.
  • Log in as any other user to see the public searches in action!

Searches will only be made public if they are created in 25Live after the user is listed as Public Search User. If you create searches first and then make the user the Public Search User, the searches you created earlier are not public.