How to Add a Data Member to a Data Object

For the latest version of Commerce Server 2007 Help, see the Microsoft Web site.

You use the Profiles Schema Manager 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 the Web site, the data the user enters is stored in the designated database column or LDAP attribute. The Profiles Schema Manager does not modify the underlying data store. You must make any changes directly to the database or to the LDAP store. In addition, make sure there is a primary key data member on the data object, or the data object will not map correctly.

To add a data member to a data object

  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 to which you want to add a data member, 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. Data members that are unavailable 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.

    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 member name must match the name of the column or attribute to which the data member maps. The member name can contain a maximum of 127 alphanumeric characters and the underscore (_) symbol. The member name cannot contain spaces.

    Display Name

    Type a display name that contains 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 (the Profiles System uses the Decimal data type which is a fixed precision data type; to get more precision, specify more than 6 decimal points)

    • 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. However, the Profiles Schema Manager does not enforce this attribute.

    Indexed

    Select this option if you want the data 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

Other Resources

Managing Data Sources

How to Use the Profiles Schema Manager

About the Profiles Schema Manager