Group Redirect 2.0 Directs Traffic Better Than Ever

Before I came here to Bamboo, I used to live in Cleveland, OH, where I went to see a lot of baseball games; since the stadium there is downtown, the whole area would always turn into a bit of a zoo at the end of the game, as thousands of fans poured out of the park into the streets. Many of these folks were confused and headed in different directions out of the city -- to alleviate this, the city blocked off a number of roads with police, ideally to limit where people could go and prevent them from getting lost on some forgotten side street.

Unfortunately, mass redirects are only as good as the filter that redirects them. In the case of downtown Cleveland, many of the redirects weren't especially helpful.

ME (awkwardly driving and rolling down window) : Excuse me, I'm trying to get to 90 ea--

COP : MOVE ALONG. 

ME : OK, I'm sorry. Is there somewhere I could tur--

COP : LET'S GO.

ME : No problem, could I maybe turn around in he--

COP (reaching for taser) : MOVE ALONG.

In the police officer's defense, he was literally just doing his job. His instructions were to redirect every visitor who didn't belong to a certain group (other police officers) to a specific place (further down the road). Where you were trying to go, or what you were trying to do wasn't part of the equation. Not a cop? Move along. And although I was disappointed at the time, I wasn't angry -- redirects, even simple, all-encompassing ones, can be helpful strategies in managing a large number of visitors. In my case, it ensured that I didn't crash into a mass of street vendors, or a the bus carrying the Chicago White Sox. But the process could definitely have been better if it were a little more based in context.

The original version of our Group Redirect Web Part was the SharePoint equivalent of the slightly gruff traffic cop. You gave it a simple rule, something along the lines of "the following groups are to be redirected", and a place to redirect them. That's it. It works wonderfully -- particularly in keeping people away from certain pages -- but we realized that if it were a little smarter, it could be a lot more flexible.

And now it is.

Group Redirect 2.0 is here, and when properly configured, it's as much tour-guide as traffic cop. First of all, it's no longer restricted to SharePoint groups; it can identify visitors based on Active Directory groups as well, meaning it will recognize and properly redirect (or NOT redirect) more users than ever. And as for being smarter... why make one clumsy, all-encompassing rule when you can make ten narrow, intelligent ones? Or more?

Let's go back to my post-baseball-game experience. Imagine if the traffic cop in question could see where everyone was trying to go. He'd know that some people were trying to go westbound, some were trying to go eastbound, and some lived in the city -- and he'd immediately know which ones. He'd also know exactly where to send them, even if each group had to go to a different place. This would be quite the traffic cop, and in the world of SharePoint, it's quite the web part. Now, your landing page can become all things to all people, redirecting any SharePoint or Active Directory group member to a unique page designed specifically for them. Even if you don't want to go that far, you can still control access, direct confused visitors, and herd traffic like cattle, instead of cats.   

Of course, a redirect system can't be comprehensive without a flexible system of rulemaking, and in Group Redirect 2.0, it's exactly that. Not only can you build multiple rules, but you can affect multiple groups with the same rule, using AND/OR logic. You can direct users who are members of the marketing team OR the sales team to one site, and users who are members of BOTH to a totally different one. Plus, even the tasks the original Group Redirect was perfect for (basic access control, for instance), are even easier to accomplish with the newest release's support for Active Directory and multi-group logic.

Group Redirect 2.0 is available now, at our online storefront, and can change the way users of all kinds interact with your portal, getting them where they need to be without them having to do a thing. And it's a lot easier than aimlessly driving around Cleveland all night.