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!