User profiles are like other content in that they can be found on searches. Because of this, information that people give about themselves — including interests and areas of expertise — can be a great source of information for people looking to have a question answered. A person's profile can include biographical and professional information, along with links to content they've contributed.
On the Profile Settings page, you'll find three sections: Settings, Default Profile Fields, and Custom Profile Fields The Settings section enables you to fine-tune certain profile settings, including who can see essential fields by default. You can also set whether to show the user's full name, or allow profile images or personalized home pages. For more information on configuring these settings, see Letting Users Control Their Own Settings.
Changing Profile Fields
In the Default Profile Fields section, you can define the exact profile template you want to provide users so they can complete their profile. The application includes several commonly used fields by default, and you can add customized fields as well. Keep in mind that if you allow people to register themselves, you can define a form with a subset of these customized fields for a person to complete when they register.
To edit an existing field, click Edit. See the Editing Fields section for information on how to edit a field's properties. To create a custom field, click New Field. See the Customizing Fields section for information on adding new profile fields.
Editing Fields
Click a field's Edit link to edit the field's properties. When you edit a profile field, you're defining its behavior in the system -- who can see it, whether it's editable, and so on.
Be sure to consider whether or how a field should be visible. For example, in some communities people might not want their phone number widely visible.
Give some thought to how people will be using profiles -- to introduce themselves or to find other people, for example -- then select or clear attributes accordingly. For example, making too many fields required could have the effect of discouraging people from completing them. The following list describes the attributes you can assign the profile field.
- Required -- People won't be able to save a profile when they leave a required field empty.
- Filterable -- When a field is filterable, people can type or select values of the field to make a list of people shorter. For example, someone viewing a long list of people in the community could make the list shorter by filtering on the hire date, specifying that the date be no earlier than last year.
- Searchable -- A searchable field is seen by the search engine.
- Editable -- People can edit their editable profile fields.
- Externally managed -- An externally managed field is associated with an external user directory, such as LDAP. Select this to include this field among those that can be synchronized with the external system. You'll need to separately set up synchronization. For more information, see Synchronizing with User Authentication Systems.
Customizing Fields
The Custom Profile Fields section is where you can create customized fields for user profiles. When you add two or more custom fields, you can adjust the order by clicking the up or down arrows in the Order column.
- Click New Field to create a new profile field.
- Select the field type. You can choose from date, text, number, or many more types to help provide the best user experience for this field's information.
- Click Continue.
- Enter the field name. This is a label that identifies the field content, and it may be different than what the user sees in their profile.
- Enter the Language Display Name, and click Add Translation for each language you want to provide translations for. This is what the user sees in their profile field.
- Select the relationship to user for field visibility. This indicates how the
releationships between users determines who can see this field. Set this field
considerately because some sensitive information should have limited visibility.
You can also set the default and enable user's to edit their own profile field's
visibility. For example, some people may be more comfortable publishing their
phone number than others. Note: Only visible fields are available when searching or browsing.
- Select one or more of the following attributes for the field:
- Required -- People won't be able to save a profile when they leave a required field empty.
- Filterable -- When a field is filterable, people can type or select values of the field to make a list of people shorter. For example, someone viewing a long list of people in the community could make the list shorter by filtering on the hire date, specifying that the date be no earlier than last year.
- Searchable -- A searchable field is seen by the search engine.
- Editable -- People can edit their editable profile fields.
- Click Finish.