User Contexts

In SharePoint 2010, people can have multiple properties stored in their profiles. These profile differences can be used to further refine search queries.

FAST Search Server 2010 for SharePoint enables us to give different result set to the different users, based on their profile properties. For example, the Sales Manager and the Software Developer gets different set of results to the query of ECM because the Ask Me About properties are different.

Of course, these differentiations are not configured by default; they have to be created by the administrators. The steps to configure different user contexts are the following:

1. Go to the Site Collection Settings of your site.
2. Choose the action FAST Search User Context.
3. Here you can find the list of the user contexts defined before and can add a new one. Click Add User Context.
4. Enter the name of the new user context (for example, Sales Managers or Developers).
5. Provide the filter values Office Location and Ask Me About (for example, sales).
6. Go back to the Site Collection Settings of your site.
7. Choose the action FAST Search Keywords.
8. Here you can define the keywords used by the FAST Search Server in your site. Create a new one with the name ECM.
9. Set the new keyword’s properties. For example, Best Bets can be configured by user contexts. You can add URLs to display as a Best Bet for each user context. Do the same with Visual Best Bets, Document Promotions, and Demotions as well.
10. Site Promotions and Demotions also can be set by user context. Go back to the Site Collection Settings of your site, and choose FAST Search Site Promotion and Demotion.
11. Add new sites to be promoted or demoted, and set the user contexts to each of them (for example, Sales Managers or Developers).
12. Go to your FAST Search Center, and try the new user context settings with various users and with different user contexts.