Most often Active Directory has got all the information needed for handling profiles in MOSS, but sometimes you might need to update the profiles with data from other systems too (ie CRM). So what do you do?
The answer of course is BDC.
Recently I was working for a customer that had a rather complex solution for handling access control to various sites and systems based on information in the profiles. Part of the information was found in the AD and the rest was found through a web service. So in order to get all the information imported to the profiles I created a BDC Entity based on the web service. Then I created a new Import Connection and made sure that it pointed to the new BDC Entity. Finally I created the fields that we needed and then mapped them to the right source. That's it... well allmost...
Follow these steps and you're home :)
1. Create a BDC Entity
Make sure that you set the identifier field to a field that is unique and exist in the Profile (in my case - "AccountName").
2. Create a Profile Import Connection that points to the Entity above.
3. In "Personalization services permissions", make sure that the Default Content Access Account (sys_MOSS_Search) has "Manage Audiences" and "Manage User Profiles" rights.
4. In "Business Data Catalog permissions", make sure that the Default Content Access Account (sys_MOSS_Search) has "Execute" rights for the Entity above.
5. Create the Profile Properties that you need and map them to the coresponding fields in the BDC Entity.
Thats all folks!
Happy importing :)
posted @ Thursday, December 18, 2008 11:54 PM