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Configure people data connections

Use the Data Model > Data Connections node to configure data connections that can synchronize specific data from an external source.
Use people data connections to synchronize data related to people.

Properties tab

In the Data Source field, specify the Data Source that contains the external data that you want to synchronize.

Under Data Source, check the Show Advanced Synchronization Details check box for a more in-depth logging when pulling information from the Data Source.

This option is only available in the People data connection and only for text attributes.

Mappings tab

Specify which external data you want to synchronize and how.

  • At Look up people on, specify the method that identifies people in Identity Director AND in the external data.
  • Select Ignore duplicates, Allow inserts, Allow updates, and Allow deletes (marked for deletion) as additional synchronization options.
    These options are particularly useful if you have synchronized the data connection before.

    If you select Allow inserts, it is mandatory to map the people property Person Name to a value in the Data Source.

  • If you use a Data Source for Microsoft Active Directory users, map the people property Person Picture to the Data Source field Picture. With person pictures, you can visualize the person in the Web Portal.
    • If the data connection cannot retrieve a picture, the default picture is shown.
    • If person pictures are provided via a URL that requires security credentials, you cannot use other credentials than the ones to access the Data Source.
    • If you use file references:
      • Use the file URI scheme file://host/path. Each URI needs to represent an absolute path.
      • Only use UNC paths. Example file://server/folder/file.txt
  • Select the people property Marked for deletion to mark people for deletion (or to remove this property), based on a conditional expression. For example, if the external data contains a value Account Disabled, and you have configured an expression Account Disabled=Yes, matching people are marked for deletion when you synchronize the data connection.
  • Select the people property Mark as inactive to mark people as inactive (or to remove this property), based on a conditional expression. For example, if the external data contains a value Account Expired, and you have configured an expression Account Expired = Yes, matching people are marked as inactive when you synchronize the data connection.
  • Click to create a custom mapping by combining multiple fields from the Data Source, and/or using functions.

Additional context

Specify additional organizational context. This is only applied to new people who you added after the previous synchronization of the data connection.

Diagnostics

View information about the previous synchronization, including its duration and the number of affected records.

  • If you added people manually, and then synchronized external data, any manually-added person with the same people identifier as a person in the external data inherit the settings from the external data.
  • If the Show Advanced Synchronization Details option is enabled, the Diagnostics section will display detailed change information for each person. Only changes for text attributes are registered. For example:
    Updated Person "Mihai Rosca"(no change)
    Employee Number changed from 014780 to ""(no change)
    Last Name changed (restricted)(restricted)
    Office changed from Bucharest to "" (no change)
    Manager changed from David Somerfield to John West(full change)
    Role changed from Product Manager to Senior Product Manager(full change)
  • When you enable the Show Advanced Synchronization Details option, make sure you save your changes before going to the Diagnostics sections. Otherwise, the detailed log will not be loaded and no information will be displayed.

  • Note that, after synchronizing larger amounts of information when the Show Advanced Synchronization Details option is enabled, it will take longer for the page to load.
See also