How to Change a Profile Property
For the latest version of Commerce Server 2007 Help, see the Microsoft Web site.
You use the Profiles Schema Manager to change profile properties to update the data that you want to collect from the Web site. For example, you create a profile definition with a property that you use to collect data about the country/region in which the users who visit the Web site live. When you view the data that is collected with that profile property, you discover that a property of type string is not the most useful way to collect location data from the users. You can change the attributes of the property so that the property collects data that is more useful.
To change a profile property
Expand Commerce Server Manager, expand Global Resources, expand Profiles, expand Profile Catalog, expand Profile Definitions, and then click the profile definition that contains the property that you want to change.
In the Properties list, expand the property group that contains the property that you want to change, and then click the property that you want to change. Or, click the property group that you want to change.
In the Commerce Server Manager, in the right pane, in the Attributes section, do the following:
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Display Name
Type a display name that contains a maximum of 127 Unicode characters.
Description
Edit the description for the property. The description can contain a maximum of 127 Unicode characters.
Type
Select the property type. The default property type is string. The property type of this attribute must be the same type as the data member to which this attribute is mapped.
Type Reference
Click the ellipsisbutton [...] to select the site term or profile you are adding to the property definition. This feature is available only if you have selected the type site term or profile.
In the Commerce Server Manager, in the right pane, in the Advanced Attributes section, click Active.
In the Map to Data box, click the ellipsis button [...] to open the Data Source Picker dialog box, and then select the data member to which the property maps.
In the Data Source Picker dialog box, expand the data source that contains the data object that contains the data member with which you want to map the property.
Expand the data object that contains the data member with which you want to map the property, and then select the data member.
Click OK.
In the Commerce Server Manager, in the right pane, in the Advanced Attributes section, do the following:
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To do this
Key Type
Select a key type from the drop-down list. Each profile definition requires a property that is a primary key and a property that is a join key, or a property that is a dual key (both primary and join).
Required
Specifies that this property is required on the Web site. However, the Profiles Schema Manager does not enforce this attribute. This attribute is read-only if you have selected a key type.
Exported
Select this option to specify that this property will be imported into the Commerce Server Data Warehouse. You can export only mapped properties.
You cannot export properties that are multivalued and of the type Boolean or properties of type binary, longstring, or password.
Defer Cache
Select this option to specify Commerce Server will not load this property the first time that the profile is retrieved, but will load it when this property is accessed. Each deferred cache property is retrieved individually from the OLE DB provider when the property is accessed.
Multi-valued
Select this option to enable the collection of multiple values that are associated with this property. This value is unavailable if you have selected a key type for the property.
Searchable
Select this option to specify that this property is indexed in the underlying data store and is available for searching using the Find By function.
RDN
Type the relative distinguished name (also known as RDN) for a directory store. Set this value if this property maps to a RDN attribute of an LDAP class in the underlying store.
Hashing Key
Select this option to indicate that Commerce Server will use this property to distribute profile instances across multiple data source partitions.
This property is read-only for non-partitioned data sources. You must query on this key to retrieve profiles.
Click Apply.
To save the profile definition, click the Save icon on the toolbar.
The profile definition is saved with the changes.