Create an audience for SharePoint Server

APPLIES TO: 2013 2016 2019 Subscription Edition SharePoint in Microsoft 365

Learn how to use a Microsoft PowerShell script to create an audience.

Create an audience by using a Microsoft PowerShell script

1. Verify that you meet the following minimum requirements:

• See Add-SPShellAdmin.

• You must read about_Execution_Policies.

2. Copy the following variable declarations, and paste them into a text editor such as Notepad. Set input values specific to your organization. You'll use these values in step 3. Save the file, and name it Audiences.ps1.

## Settings you may want to change for Audience Name and Description ## 
$mySiteHostUrl = https://www.my.contoso.com
$audienceName = "<Input name of audience>"
$audienceDescription = "<Input description for audience>"
$audienceRules = @()
$audienceRules += New-Object Microsoft.Office.Server.Audience.AudienceRuleComponent("AccountName", "Contains", "jdoe")
#Create an OR group operator between the two audience rules.
$audienceRules += New-Object Microsoft.Office.Server.Audience.AudienceRuleComponent("", "OR", "")
$audienceRules += New-Object Microsoft.Office.Server.Audience.AudienceRuleComponent("AccountName", "Contains", "jlew")

3. Copy the following code, and paste it into Audiences.ps1 beneath the variable declarations from step 2.

#Get the My Site Host's SPSite object
$site = Get-SPSite $mySiteHostUrl
$ctx = [Microsoft.Office.Server.ServerContext]::GetContext($site)
$audMan = New-Object Microsoft.Office.Server.Audience.AudienceManager($ctx)
#Create a new audience object for the given Audience Manager
$aud = $audMan.Audiences.Create($audienceName, $audienceDescription)
$aud.AudienceRules = New-Object System.Collections.ArrayList
$audienceRules | ForEach-Object { $aud.AudienceRules.Add($_) }
#Save the new Audience
$aud.Commit()
#Compile the new Audience
$upa = Get-SPServiceApplication | Where-Object {$_.DisplayName -eq "User Profile Service Application"}
$audJob = [Microsoft.Office.Server.Audience.AudienceJob]::RunAudienceJob(($upa.Id.Guid.ToString(), "1", "1", $aud.AudienceName))

Note

You can use a different file name, but you must save the file as an ANSI-encoded text file with the extension .ps1.

4. Click SharePoint Management Shell.

5. Change to the directory to which you saved the file.

6. At the PowerShell command prompt, type the following command:

./Audiences.ps1 

For additional information about PowerShell scripts and .ps1 files see Running Windows PowerShell Scripts.

For more information about how to create audiences, see AudienceRuleComponent class.