Importing User Profiles
The user profiles store contains the user account property information. This information is obtained by importing it from a directory that contains user accounts or manually by typing the account information into the database. By default, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 can import a list of domain users from the Active Directory directory service, LDAP server, or the Business Data Catalog. In addition, you can write code against the Office SharePoint Server 2007 object model to import information from other directory services or applications. You can schedule regular imports to the user profile store, and these can be incremental or full.
Office SharePoint Server 2007 treats Active Directory and LDAP directories as master connections for importing user information; that is, it can use them as a source to create user profiles. This implies that if a user is missing from the master connection, Office SharePoint Server 2007 assumes the user is no longer in the organization and removes the user from the user profiles database.
On the other hand, Office SharePoint Server 2007 treats the Business Data Catalog data sources only as a supplementary data source, meaning that it uses the data only to provide additional user information not available in the master connection. It does not rely on the Business Data Catalog data sources for the master user list.
For more information, see Sample: Map Business Data Catalog Properties to User Profile Properties
Configuring User Profile Import Settings
You can import user profile information from Active Directory, an LDAP server, or Business Data Catalog by using the User Profiles administration interface or the User Profiles object model.
To import user profile information, you must first configure the import settings. Office SharePoint Server 2007 allows you to use different credentials for different data source connections. The following table shows some of the important parameters you need to provide when configuring data source connections.
| Parameter/Attribute | Value |
|---|---|
Server Type |
"Active Directory" or "LDAPv3 Directory" for master connection, or "Business Data Catalog" for Business Data Catalog data source. You can have one master connection and multiple nonmaster connections defined for a Shared Resources Provider. |
IsMaster |
Yes or No. |
Domain |
Domain is just an identifier. Can be any string such as "SAP Employee" or "AD Master". |
Person Entity |
Required only for Business Data Catalog connections. The Person entity ID. |
Person Filter |
Required only for Business Data Catalog connections. The ID of the filter that should be used to find the user entity instance. |
UserID attribute |
Should be "distinguishedname" for AD and "uid" for LDAP connections. For Business Data Catalog connections, specify the user ID field. |
After you have configured the import settings, you can import user profile information from the list of actions in the Profile and Import Settings section on the Manage Profile Database page or by using the object model. You can also stop any import currently in progress, and view a log of past imports.
Connection-Specific Property Mapping
Microsoft SharePoint Portal Server 2003 only supports property mapping from user profiles obtained through Active Directory connections. In Office SharePoint Server 2007, you can map properties from LDAP and Business Data Catalog data sources as well. As mentioned previously, Office SharePoint Server 2007 assumes Active Directory or LDAP directories to be the master sources and allows the Business Data Catalog data sources to provide supplemental data. For more information, see Map Business Data Catalog Properties to User Profile Properties.
In Office SharePoint Server 2007, the property mapping APIs in the User Profile object model take a new parameter called ConnectionName to address connection-specific property mapping. The parameter takes a string, _$MASTER_, or any other non-master connection names as valid input.
SharePoint Portal Server 2003 translated multivalued properties in the connection source as single-valued properties in the user profile store. Note that Office SharePoint Server 2007 allows you to map a multivalued property at the source to a multivalued property in the user profile store. If you map a multivalued property at the source to a single-valued portal property, the import operation just tries to get the first value from the source.
See Also
Other Resources
Personalizing Your Portal: Overview
Map Business Data Catalog Properties to User Profile Properties