Adding Properties to a Profile Definition

You use the Profile Designer module to add properties to profile definitions, and define the attributes of the new property. Profile properties specify the data that is to be collected when a user visits your Web site. For example, the profile property First Name specifies that the first name of the user should be collected.

Each profile property has attributes that define the characteristics of the information the property collects. For example, you can use the attributes of the profile property First Name to define the property as a single-valued string that can be exported to the Data Warehouse. You can also use the Profile Designer to add custom attributes to a profile property. You use custom attributes to define profile property characteristics that are not available in the existing attributes. For information about profile property attributes, see Profile Designer.

To add a new property

To add a custom attribute

To add a new property

  1. In Users, click Profile Designer.

  2. In the Profiles screen, select the profile definition you want to add a property to, and then click on the toolbar.

  3. In the Profile screen, in the Properties list, select the group you want to add a property to, and then click Add.

  4. In the Add dialog box, select the Add a new property option, and then click OK.

  5. In the Attributes section, do the following:
    Use this To do this
    Name Type a programmatic name for the property. The name can contain a maximum of 128 alphanumeric characters and the underscore (_) symbol. The name cannot contain spaces.
    Display name Type a display name for the property. The display name can contain a maximum of 128 characters.
    Description Type a description for the property.
    Type Select the property type from the drop-down list. Properties can be of the following types:
    • String

    • Long String

    • Number

    • Decimal

    • Boolean

    • Binary

    • Long Binary

    • Date/Time

    • Currency

    • Password

    • Site Term

    • Profile

    For information about adding a property of the type site term to a profile definition, see Adding a Site Term to a Profile Definition.

    For information about adding a property of the type profile to a profile definition, see Adding a Profile Definition to a Profile Definition.


  6. In the Advanced Attributes section, do the following:
    Use this To do this
    Active Select whether the new property is Active or Inactive.
    Map to data Click the ellipsis […] button to open the Data Source Picker dialog box.

    In the Data Source Picker dialog box, select the data member for the property. The data members available for the property are the data members that are not already used in the profile definition you are editing. Properties that are being used by the profile definition are unavailable.

    If you do not map the property to a data member, the property will not be persisted, but will be available in memory, for example to store state information while a user is visiting your Web site.

    Key type Select a key type from the drop-down list:

    Unique Key. Indicates that the value of this property is unique for all members. You map an attribute that is specified as a unique key to a unique field in a SQL Server database or to a unique attribute in a Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) source.

    Primary Key. Indicates that the value of this property is unique for all members You map an attribute that is specified as a primary key to a primary field in a SQL Server database or to a unique attribute in a LDAP source.

    Join Key. Relates this property to another property in another data store in the Profile Service.

    Dual (Primary and Join) Key. Indicates that the value of this property is unique, and relates this property to a property in another data store.
    Required Specify that the property requires user input.
    Exported Specify that this property is to be imported into the Data Warehouse.
    Defer cache load Specify that the property will not be returned until explicitly requested.
    Multi-valued Specify that the property accepts multi-valued attributes.
    Searchable Specify that the property will be available to the search function of the Web site.
    RDN Mark this property as the Relative Distinguished Name (RDN) for all profiles to be mapped to Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) sources. This does not apply to OLE DB Provider for Microsoft Commerce Server (OLE DB) sources, or any other data source type.
    Hashing key Indicate that this property value will be hashed and used to determine which data source partition the profile data will be stored in.

  7. To save the property, click Apply, and then click Save on the toolbar to save the profile.

The profile definition is saved with the new property. After you add a property to a profile definition, you must publish the changes on your Web site. For information about publishing your changes, see Publishing Profile Definition Changes on Your Web Site.

To add a custom attribute

  1. In Users, click Profile Designer.

  2. In the Profiles screen, select the profile definition that contains the property to which you want to add a custom attribute, and then click on the toolbar.

  3. In the Profile screen, in the Properties list, expand the group that contains the property you want to add a custom attribute to, and then select the property.

  4. In the Custom Attributes section, click New, and then do the following:
    Use this To do this
    Name Type a programmatic name for the attribute. The name can contain a maximum of 128 alphanumeric characters and the underscore (_) symbol. The name cannot contain spaces.
    Display name Type a display name for the attribute. The display name can contain a maximum of 128 characters.
    Description Type a description of the attribute.
    Value Type the value of the attribute.

  5. Click Accept.

    Note

  6. To save the profile definition with the new custom attribute and return to the Profiles screen, click Apply and then click Save and go back on the toolbar.

The profile definition is saved with the new custom attribute. After you add a custom attribute to a profile definition, you must publish the changes on your Web site. For information about publishing your changes, see Publishing Profile Definition Changes on Your Web Site.

See Also

About Users

Adding a Property Group to a Profile Definition

Adding a Site Term to a Profile Definition

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