About Profile Sources

Profile sources allow you to import user information (such as name, address, or phone number) from external user repositories. User information can exist anywhere in your enterprise:

• If the information resides on an Active Directory server, you can create an Active Directory remote profile source to extract it.

• If the information resides on an LDAP server, you can create an LDAP remote profile source to extract it.

• If the information resides on other systems, you can easily write your own profile provider and then create a remote profile source to extract the information.

The imported user information can be used to populate user profiles or can be passed to content crawlers, remote portlets, or federated searches as user information. You must run a job associated with the profile source to periodically synchronize the user information in the portal with that in the external repository. For information about jobs, see About Jobs.

This topic discusses the following information:

• Remote Profile Sources
• Profile Web Services

To learn how to create or edit administrative objects (including profile sources and profile Web services), click here.

Remote Profile Sources

The Active Directory and LDAP profile providers are available from Oracle; you can use these providers to import user information from the associated server. If your user information resides in a custom system, such as a custom database, you can easily extract the information by writing your own remote profile provider, using IDK. To learn about developing your own profile provider, refer to the Oracle WebCenter Interaction Web Service Development Guide, which is located on the Oracle Technology Network at http://www.oracle.com/technology/documentation/bea.html.

Oracle provides the following profile providers:

• Active Directory

• LDAP

Note: For information on obtaining profile providers, refer to the Oracle Technology Network at http://www.oracle.com/technology/index.html. For information on installing profile providers, refer to the Installation Guide for Oracle WebCenter Interaction (available on the Oracle Technology Network at http://www.oracle.com/technology/documentation/bea.html) or the documentation that comes with your profile provider or contact your portal administrator.

Create a remote profile source for each profile provider from which you want to import user information.

To make a remote profile source available to portal users:

1. Install the profile provider on the portal computer or another computer.
2. Create a remote server.
3. Create a profile Web service (discussed next).
4. Create a remote profile source.

• Choose Web Service
• Main Settings
• Property Map
• Set Job
• Properties and Names
• Security (only available when editing an object)
• Migration History and Status (only available when editing an object)

Each additionally installed profile provider adds at least one extra page to the Remote Profile Source Editor. If you have installed an additional profile provider, click the help button on the extra pages for information about these pages.

• Active Directory
• LDAP

Profile Web Services

Profile Web Services allow you to specify general settings for your remote user repository, leaving the more detailed settings (like domain specification) to be set in the associated remote profile sources. This allows you to create a different profile source to import information from each domain without having to repeatedly specify all the settings.

To learn about the Profile Web Service Editor, click one of the following editor pages:

• Main Settings
• HTTP Configuration
• Advanced Settings
• Authentication Settings
• Debug Settings
• Associated Objects (only available when editing an object)
• Properties and Names
• Security (only available when editing an object)
• Migration History and Status (only available when editing an object)