Adding a New Data Member

  • Article

You use the Profiles resource to add a data member to a data object by selecting the column in an exposed table of the database (or the attribute in an exposed class of the LDAP source) where you want to store the data collected for a property in a profile definition.

When you define a property in a profile definition, you map the property with the data member to the column in a database table (or attribute in an LDAP class) that it exposes. When a user enters data into a property in a profile definition on your Web site, the data the user enters is stored in the designated database column or LDAP attribute. The Profiles resource does not modify the underlying data store. You must make any changes directly to the database or to the LDAP store.

To add a data member

  1. Expand Commerce Server Manager, expand Global Resources, expand Profiles, expand Profile Catalog, expand Data Sources, expand the data source that contains the data object that you want to add a data member to, expand Data Objects, right-click the data object you want to add a data member to, and then click New Data Member.

  2. In the New Data Member dialog box, do the following:

    Use this To do this
    Member Name Select an available data member name from the list. Unavailable data members have already been added to a data object and appear dimmed. The data members in the list have the same names as the columns or LDAP attributes in the underlying data store to which they map.

    If you want to add additional data members, (or if there are no available data members in the list) you must create a new column or attribute in the underlying data store. The name must match the name of the column or attribute to which the data member maps. The name can contain a maximum of 127 alphanumeric characters and the underscore (_) symbol. The name cannot contain spaces.
    Display Name Type the name you want displayed in the application for the data member. The display name can contain a maximum of 127 Unicode characters.
    Description Type a description for the data member. The description can contain a maximum of 127 Unicode characters.
    Type Select the data type for the data member. The data type must be the same as the property that you will map with the data member. The following data types are supported:
    • Binary

    • Boolean

    • Currency

    • DateTime

    • Number

    • String
    Multi-valued Select this option to enable the collection of multiple values that are associated with the data member.
    Required Specifies that this property is required on your Web site and in Business Desk. However, this attribute is not enforced by the Profiles resource.
    Indexed Select this option if the data will be indexed on this data member.
    Primary key Select this option to designate this data member as the primary key. You must select one data member in each data object to be the primary key.

  3. Click Add. The data member appears in the data member list in the New Data Member dialog box.

  4. Click Finish.

The data member appears in the data member screen.

See Also

About the Profiles Resource

Configuring the Profiles Resource

Adding a New Profile Definition

Example: Creating a Profile Definition with Two Data Sources

Managing Data Sources


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