InfoCenter Home >
4: Developing applications >
4.4: Personalizing applications >
4.4.2: Keeping user profiles

4.4.2: Keeping user profiles

IBM WebSphere Application Server provides a service for processing user profiles, called the User Profile Manager. The service is provided in the form of an EJB entity bean that servlets can call whenever they are required to access a user profile.

The key activities for implementing user profiles are summarized. For more information about each point, consult the Related information below.

  1. Customize the user profile support as necessary. Options include:
    • Using the data representation class with exactly the name/value pairs it currently allows (no action required)
    • Extending the data representation class to allow additional, arbitrary name/value pairs
    • Adding columns to the base user profile representation
    • Extending the User Profile enterprise bean itself to import existing databases

    Basically, you need to evaluate whether the user profile representation provided by IBM represents the kind of data you would like to keep about your users. You might find it desirable to customize the IBM user profile support in one or more of the above ways.

  2. Create or modify servlets to use the User Profile Manager and related user profile support classes to maintain user profiles on behalf of Web applications.
  3. Ensure the administrator appropriately configures User Profile Managers in the administrative domain.

    If the programmer and administrator are not the same person, the programmer might need to provide settings information to the administrator, based on how the programmer implemented user profiles.

Go to previous article: Best practices for session programming Go to next article: Data represented in the base user profile

 

 
Go to previous article: Best practices for session programming Go to next article: Data represented in the base user profile