---
title: Configure personalized content
slug: cms-12/docs/configuring-personalization
createdAt: 2026-08-10T15:55:56.000Z
---

## Provide access for editors to audiences

To access **Audiences** in the global menu, you must be a member of the `CmsAdmins` or `VisitorGroupAdmins` access groups; otherwise, you are prompted to a login page. If you want editors to add, edit, and delete audiences, you can provide access by adding them to `VisitorGroupAdmins` (`CmsAdmins` and `CmsEditors` are already defined in the configuration). The following example shows how to configure access for editors with the mapped `virtualRoles` in the `appsettings.json` file:

```csharp
{
  "EpiServer": {
    "Cms": {
      "MappedRoles": {
        "Items": {
          "VisitorGroupAdmins": {
            "MappedRoles": [ "WebEditors" ],
            "ShouldMatchAll": "false"
          }
        }
      }    
    }
  }
}
```

## Enable a geolocation provider

:::hint{type="warning"}
**Important**
As of version 11.4.0 of the Optimizely Content Management System (CMS) Visual Studio extension, new CMS projects will no longer be created with a Geolocation provider configured. The Geolocation provider that was shipped with CMS will also be removed in a future release as the MaxMind GeoLite database it depends on has been deprecated.
:::

You can enable geographic location-based audiences by configuring a Geolocation provider service. Optimizely supplies a provider for the free GeoLite2 database from `MaxMind` through an optional NuGet package named [EPiServer.Personalization.MaxMindGeolocation](https://nuget.episerver.com/package?id=EPiServer.Personalization.MaxMindGeolocation). The GeoLite2 Geolocation database can be downloaded from [MaxMind’s website](https://dev.maxmind.com/geoip/geoip2/geolite2/). Versions of this database are released regularly as the information is continuously updated.

The provider requires the IP lookup database (`.mmdb`) and the accompanying locations database (`.csv`) to serve an updated list of locations. The location of these files must be specified in your configuration, such as:

You can configure the provider by `IServiceCollection` interface in the `startup.cs`.

```csharp
public class Startup {
  public void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services) {
    services.AddMaxMindGeolocationProvider("path\to\GeoLite2-City.mmdb", "path\to\GeoLite2-City-Locations-en.csv");
  }
}
```

:::hint{type="info"}
**Note**
Continent and Country names are localized using the usual localization in CMS while Regions are loaded directly from the Locations file.
:::

## Use the geographic location provided by a CDN

Optimizely Content Management System (CMS) also provides an option for retrieving Geolocation from the current request when supplied from the CDN in a request header. This option is only used in cases where no dedicated Geolocation provider is configured and only supports Continent and Country locations. See [Content Delivery Network (CDN) Configuration](docId\:riS2AoCiw1FmG8xpzB-jY) for information on how to enable this option.