Adding Properties to Profile Definitions

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You use the Profiles resource to add properties to a profile definition. Properties determine the data collected with the profile definition. For example, if you create an Address profile definition, you would add a property named "City" to it. (You can also add properties to a profile definition using the Profile Designer module in Commerce Server Business Desk. For information about using the Profile Designer module, see Business Desk Users.)

You can create property groups to organize the properties. For example, if you add 50 properties to a User profile definition that relate to four different categories, such as lifestyle, opinion, education, and preferences, you can create four property groups, one for each category, and arrange the properties that belong to each category in the appropriate property group. In the Profiles resource, you can choose to show or hide the properties for each property group.

The Profiles resource provides each property with attributes that store characteristics of the property, such as the property name (City) and the property type (string). In addition to the property attributes provided by the Profiles resource, you can also define custom attributes for properties. For example, you can create a custom attribute that controls how a property is used on a Web site.

To add a new property to a profile definition

To add a new property group to a profile definition

To add a custom attribute to a property

To add a new property to a profile definition

  1. Expand Commerce Server Manager, expand Global Resources, expand Profiles, expand Profile Catalog, expand Profile Definitions, and then click the profile definition that you want to add a property to.

  2. In the profile designer screen, in the Properties list, select the property group to which you want to associate the property you are adding, and then click Add.

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

  4. In the profile designer screen, in the Attributes section, do the following:

    Use this To do this
    Name Type the programmatic name of the property. 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 Business Desk. The display name can contain a maximum of 127 Unicode characters.
    Description Type a description for the property. The description can contain a maximum of 127 Unicode characters.
    Type Select the property type from the drop-down list. The default property type is string.
    Type Reference Required for site term and profile types. Click the ellipsis [...] button to select the site term or profile you are adding to the property definition. This feature is available only if you have selected the site term or profile for the property type.

  5. In the profile designer screen, in the Advanced Attributes section, click Active to indicate that this property is available in Business Desk. Inactive properties are not displayed in Business Desk.

  6. In the Map to Data box, click the ellipsis [...] button to open the Data Source Picker dialog box.

  7. In the Data Source Picker dialog box, expand the data source that contains the data object that contains the data member with which you want to map the property.

  8. Expand the data object that contains the data member with which you want to map the property, select the data member, and then click OK.

  9. In the profile designer screen, in the Advanced Attributes section, do the following:

    Use this To do this
    Key Type Select a key type from the drop-down list. Each profile definition requires a property that is a primary key and a property that is a join key, or a property that is a dual key (both primary and join).
    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. This attribute is read-only if you have selected a key type.
    Exported Select this option to specify that this property is imported into the Data Warehouse. You can export only mapped properties. You cannot export properties that are multi-valued and of the type Boolean or properties of type binary, long string, or password.
    Defer Cache Select this option to specify that this property will not be loaded initially when the profile is retrieved, but will be loaded when this particular property is accessed.
    Multi-valued Select this option to enable the collection of multiple values that are associated with this property. This value is not available if you have selected a key type for the property.
    Searchable Select this option to specify that this property is indexed in the underlying data store and is available for searching using the Find By function.
    RDN Type the Relative Distinguished Name (RDN) for a directory store. Set this value if the property maps to an RDN attribute of an LDAP class in the underlying store.
    Hashing Key This value is read-only. It indicates that this property will be used to distribute profile instances across multiple partitions.

  10. Click Apply.

  11. To save the profile definition, click Ee810589.save(en-US,CS.10).gifon the toolbar.

The profile definition is saved with the new property.

To add a new property group to a profile definition

  1. Expand Commerce Server Manager, expand Global Resources, expand Profiles, expand Profile Catalog, expand Profile Definitions, and then click the profile definition that you want to add a property group to.

  2. In the profile designer screen, click Add.

  3. In the Add dialog box, select the Add a new group option, and then click OK.

  4. In the profile designer screen, in the Attributes section, do the following:

    Use this To do this
    Name Type the programmatic name for the property group. 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 Business Desk. The display name can contain a maximum of 127 Unicode characters.
    Description Type a description of the property. The description can contain a maximum of 127 Unicode characters.

  5. Click Apply.

  6. To save the profile definition, click Ee810589.save(en-US,CS.10).gifon the toolbar.

The profile definition is saved with the new property group. You can move properties into the group or add new properties to the group.

To add a custom attribute to a property

  1. Expand Commerce Server Manager, expand Global Resources, expand Profiles, expand Profile Catalog, expand Profile Definitions, and then click the profile definition that contains the property to which you want to add a custom attribute.

  2. In the profile designer screen, in the Properties list, select the property to which you want to add a custom attribute.

  3. In the profile designer screen, in the Custom Attributes section, click New.

  4. In the profile designer screen, in the Custom Attributes section, do the following:

    Use this To do this
    Name Type a programmatic name for the custom attribute. 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 for the attribute. The display name can contain a maximum of 127 Unicode characters.
    Description Type a description for the attribute. The description can contain a maximum of 127 Unicode characters.
    Value Type the value of the attribute.

  5. Click Accept, and then click Apply.

  6. To save the profile definition, click Save on the toolbar.

The profile definition is saved with the custom attribute.

See Also

Profile Definitions

Adding a New Data Member

Adding a New Profile Definition

Adding a Profile Definition to a Profile Definition

Adding Site Terms


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