Profile Fields are used to store the unique attributes of each user in your LMS. These attributes include things such as name, title, location, department, hire date, etc.
Profile fields values can be used as the basis for user roles, granting access to content, organizing groups of users, and assigning learning, as well as filtering data in reports.
Adding Profile Fields
The Profile Fields Manager is located in the Admin Tool → Users tab → Profile Fields. Here you can see, organize, create, edit, & delete Profile Fields.
A Profile Section is a way to group like profile fields together and help organize them within a profile. Profile Sections are indicated by the blue bar above the groups of Profile Fields. To move a Profile Field to a new Profile Section, simply click and drag the Pancakes (the stacked icon to the left) and drop the Profile Field under the Profile section that you would like.
Note: When adding a field it will always be added to the first profile field section - this can then be moved to a desired section via the pancakes.
There are 6 Profile Field Types. The Profile Field type determines what kinds of data can be used in a given field, and how it can be used. Below are the various types and accompanying descriptions:
Cannot be used for Permissioning Content
- Text - enables a unique response. (This is perfect for Profile Questions.)
- User-to-User - To connect your users in to a management tree. See the User-to-User Overview for more info on this feature.
Can be used for Permissioning Content
- Select - Creates a drop-down menu of available values. Note: these values need to be added to the profile field for the drop down to appear in the rules engine. Any values in a datafeed will be automatically created for Select Fields.
- Date - MM/DD/YYYY format for birth date, hire date, etc.
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Linked - Creates a dynamic Profile Field that can be linked to another Profile Field. This essentially means ‘if this then that’. For example, if you wanted to set up a linked profile field titled ‘Region’ and have the region field values auto-assign to a user based on their location, you could do so with linked profile fields.
For example if the user's Location is A,B, or C then the Region can be auto-assigned to the region StartOfAlphabet.
But if the Location is X,Y, or Z, the Region could instead be assigned to the Region EndOfAlphabet.
- Hierarchy - Much like a User-to-User field, but with the ability to use with non-user fields. See the Hierarchy Overview for more info on this Paid Feature.
Additional options include:
- Required - Yes/No.
- Visibility - Who can access this value.
- User Profile Tile - Should this Profile Field be displayed on User Profile Tile? Display 5 Max
- User editable - Yes/No.
- Allow multiple values: Yes/No.
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Select & Linked Fields have several sort options either Alphabetical by Title, Alphabetical by Code, or by Number of Users.
- You can also set a Display Format which will determine how the Profile field is viewed throughout the site.
Note: if you’d like to change any of these settings after the profile field is created you can easily change them. The only setting that cannot be changed is the profile field's Type.
Which existing Select & Linked Profile Fields, values can be added. Simply re-open the profile field click ‘Add Value’ and choose a title for that value. You can also choose to add a code, if necessary. For example, if you have classified locations by a code and title, you could add both.
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