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Scenario 1: Synchronize external data to build the organizational structure

In your organization, organizational information is probably stored at various locations, like Microsoft Active Directory, or in an HR or financial database. The organizational structure in your environment can combine this information. Although you can recreate an organizational structure manually in your environment, it is much more convenient to synchronize this information with its source directly. You can achieve this with a combination of Data Sources and Data Connections:

  • Data Sources.
    A data source specifies the external source of the data that you want to synchronize. This can be Microsoft Active Directory, a CSV file or a database. For example, if the external source is a CSV file with data about employees, a data source specifies this data. You can configure data sources in the Setup and Sync Tool.
  • Data Connections.
    A data connection can synchronize specific data from a Data Source. For example, if this source contains data about employees, you can configure a data connection to synchronize the ID and full name of each employee only.

In this scenario, we will configure the organizational structure of your environment by synchronizing data from two csv files, AdventureWorks Employees.csv and AdventureWorks EmployeeDepartments.csv, which are linked from this topic. These files contain sample data that allows you to build an organizational structure.

First, you need to configure two Data Sources, one for AdventureWorks Employees.csv and one for AdventureWorks EmployeeDepartments.csv.

  1. Open the Setup and Sync Tool.
  2. Click Data Model > Data Sources.
  3. Click Add, select the provider Comma Separated Values (CSV) and click OK.
  4. On the Properties tab, specify Employees in the Name field.
  5. In the File name and location field, browse to the file AdventureWorks Employee.csv and click OK. You cannot refer to data sources by using a local path (e.g. C:\...) because the Management Portal is web based. Instead, you need to specify the host name of the specific server that stores the data source (e.g: \\VM-WIN2012\Datasource\HRfile.csv) and the credentials to access this location.
  6. In the Delimiter field, select the semicolon (";") as delimiter.
  7. Click the tab Diagnostics > Preview Data to view a preview of the data in the CSV file.
  8. Click OK to close the Comma Separated Values window.
  9. Repeat the previous steps to configure the Data Source Employees and Departments for AdventureWorks EmployeeDepartments.csv.

Next, you need to configure three data connections to synchronize organizational elements from the Data Sources: the data connections Departments, JobTitles and CountryRegionName.

  1. In the Management Portal, click Data Model > Data connections.
  2. Click Add. This opens the New Connection page.
  3. Select Organization.
  4. On the Properties tab, specify Departments in the Name field.
  5. In the Data Source field, select Employees and Departments. Click Preview data to preview the external data.
  6. Click the Mappings tab.
  7. In the Look up on field, select Name.
  8. In the Place in field, select Organization\Departments.
  9. Map the property Name to the Data Source field Department.
  10. Leave the other settings as they are and click Save.
  11. Click Synchronize. Identity Director will automatically jump to the Diagnostics tab and show a log with information about which organizational elements have been added.
  12. Repeat the previous steps to configure the data connection JobTitles that synchronizes items from the Data Source Employees and Departments in the organizational element Organization\Roles. After that, configure the data connection CountryRegionName that synchronizes items from the Data Source Employees in the organizational element Organization\Locations.
  13. Click Organization to view the results.

In this step, you need to configure a data connection People that synchronizes people from the Data Source Employees. For this purpose, you first need to configure an additional people identifier.

  1. In the Management Portal, click Data Model > People Identifiers.
  2. Click Add in the taskbar.
  3. In the Name field, specify EmployeeID.
  4. Click Save.
  5. Click Data Model > Data connections.
  6. Click Add.
  7. Select People.
  8. On the Properties tab, specify People in the Name field.
  9. In the Data Source field, select Employees. Click Preview data to preview the external data.
  10. Click the Mappings tab.
  11. In the Look up people on field, select EmployeeID.
  12. Map the property EmployeeID to the Data Source field EmployeeID.
  13. Map the property Person Name to the Data Source field FullName.
  14. Leave the other settings as they are and click Save.
  15. Click Synchronize. Identity Director will automatically jump to the Diagnostics tab and show a log with information about which persons have been added.
  16. Click Organization to view the results.

In this step, we are going to configure three data connections to classify people in the organizational structure: one for Departments, one for Roles and one for Locations. For all three data connections, use the Data Source Employees and Departments.

  1. In the Management Portal, click Data Model > Data connections.
  2. Click Add.
  3. Select Classifications.
  4. On the Properties tab, specify Department Classification in the Name field.
  5. In the Data Source field, select Employees and Departments. Click Preview data to preview the external data.
  6. Click the Mappings tab.
  7. In the Look up people on field, select EmployeeID.
  8. In the Using data field field, select EmployeeID.
  9. In the Assign people to field, select Organization\Departments.
  10. In the Look up on field, select Name.
  11. In the Using data field field, select Department.
  12. Leave the other settings as they are and click Save.
  13. Click Synchronize.Identity Director will automatically jump to the Diagnostics tab and show a log with detailed information.
  14. Repeat the previous steps to configure the data connection Role Classification that classifies people in the organizational element Organization\Roles. After that, configure the data connection Location Classification that classifies people in the organizational element Organization\Locations.
  15. Click Organization to view the results.