- Created by Seibert Media employee on Jul 22, 2019
Linchpin User Profiles - Documentation
Create a meaningful and up to date profile
See the documentation for your Release
All profile field types and special fields
The Linchpin User Profiles App for Confluence provides a multitude of different field types. On this page you find all of them explained, along with examples for common use cases.
Common field options for all field types
There are several options that apply to every field type. Others are specific to certain field types. These are the options they all have in common:
- Field label: This will be what your users see as field label when editing their profiles, and also what readers will see when they look at a profile page. So make sure it's unique and clear.
- Help text: Users will see this text as a tooltip included in their edit profile form.
- Category: Each profile field belongs to a profile category. They are shown as headings for blocks of information when editing or visiting a profile.
- Field type: This drop down field allows you to select the appropriate kind of field for the information you want to store and show.
- LDAP attribute name: If you synchronize your data with an LDAP resource, you can add the respective LDAP attribute name to every LUP profile field type. If the user exists in the user directory, the LDAP attribute will determine the profile value and the user cannot edit this value within Confluence. If the user does not exist in the user directory (or if you leave the LDAP attribute field blank), the profile field can be edited from within Confluence.
Please be aware that this feature only works after the LUP profile sync has run. The sync runs automatically every 3 hours, but can be triggered manually (Confluence administration --> Scheduled Jobs --> Bulk profile update (LDAP sync)).
Please make sure that you enter the correct LDAP attribute name. If the name is incorrect, the profile field will be blank for all users (and not editable).
- In profile: Decide whether you want to show this information on the profile page or not.
- In vcard: Decide whether you want to include this information in the vcard or not.
These settings only apply if you choose "information mode" in the vCard tab
- Required: Check the activate checkbox if you want this field to be mandatory. If it is, and if you enable the profile completion wizard, this field will be included in the wizard.
All profile field types
Text input
A text input field type is a single line of text which a user can complete as desired. It has no further options other than the default options for all profile fields.
Usually you use it for all data that's simple text information which you can (or want) not to limit to a set of options. Think about personal information like hobbies, favorite books or movies or about work related information like special skills or fields of expertise.
Text fields have an additional option which will transform regular text into a link. The option requires the administrator to enter a URL which will be shown in every profile. Optionally, a link text can be set to mask the plain URL. Links can't be edited by a user.
A URL can be static or dynamic. Dynamic URLs contain placeholders which point to another profile field. Those placeholders will be resolved and updated when their referenced field content changes.
Example
Let's say there is a field "Twitter handle" with the key cup.field-10. To add a link to your users Twitter timeline you just need to add a new text input field, turn it into a link and insert the URL https://twitter.com/{cup.field-10}. Save the configuration and after some moments every user has a personal link to his or her own Twitter timeline.
![](/download/attachments/35916172/custom-profile-fields-confluence-multiline.png?version=1&modificationDate=1563798206000&api=v2&effects=drop-shadow)
Multiline Text input
A multiline text input field type is a text which a user can complete as desired. It can consist line breaks and links to other websites (URLs) which get clickable in the profile view. With this field it is possible to create longer texts, e.g. some personal information about the user. It has no further options other than the default options for all profile fields.
Usually you use it for all data that's simple text information which you can (or want) not to limit to a set of options. Think about personal information like hobbies, favorite books or movies or about work related information like special skills or fields of expertise.
Select
If you want your users to pick one single value out of a selection of values you define, you'll use the select field type.
You can add as many options as you need. Simply click on Add option and a set of two fields will appear. Type in the text you want to be shown and stored as value in the first field. The second field ist for ordering your fields. If you don't enter anything there, they'll be shown in the order they were created. If you want to change that order, simply type numbers in this second field.
You can modify the option text any time. Used option fields update automatically after changes.
Usually this is used for information like location or department.
Multi select
If you want your users to pick all applicable values out of a selection of values you define, you'll use the multi select field type.
You can add as many options as you need. Simply click on Add option and a set of two fields will appear. Type in the text you want to be shown and stored as value in the first field. The second field ist for ordering your fields. If you don't enter anything there, they'll be shown in the order they were created. If you want to change that order, simply type numbers in this second field.
You can modify the option text any time. Used option fields update automatically after changes.
Use it to let your users show language or other professional skills, for task forces or special teams they engage in or similar information.
![](/download/thumbnails/35916172/cascade_empty.png?version=1&modificationDate=1563798206000&api=v2&effects=drop-shadow)
![](/download/thumbnails/35916172/cascade_filled.png?version=1&modificationDate=1563798206000&api=v2&effects=drop-shadow)
Cascade Select
With this field you'll define a hierarchical lup field to structure your values. Imagine you have a lot of products, with groups and categories to combine them. Every product has its responsible person, every group has its team leader and every category has its manager. So if you want to find the responsible persons for a certain product, the manager must have been assigned every single product he is responsible for.
- Absolute path on server to a file in Excel or CSV format (.xlsx/.csv), which contains all selectable data.
- Save the field (The file will be uploaded and validated in this step)
- Edit the field again and import the data
The file import button only works after saving the profile field and re-editing it.
Example
Cat-Number, Category, Group-Number, Group, Product-Id, Product 1, foodstuffs, 1, vegetables, aa, tomato 1, foodstuffs, 1, vegetables, ab, potato 1, foodstuffs, 2, fruits, ac, cherry 1, foodstuffs, 2, fruits, ad, apple 1, foodstuffs, 2, fruits, ae, banana 2, tools, 3, hand, ba, hammer 2, tools, 3, hand, bb, nipper 2, tools, 4, electric, bc, drilling machine
This cascade_selection_example.csv contains two categories ("foodstuffs", "tools"), which contain several groups ("vegetables", "fruits", "hand", "electric") and products ("tomato", and so on).
The first row are the field headlines. The uneven columns are the ids ("1", "aa"), which are needed to structure / sort the output. The even columns contain the actual values ("foodstuffs", "hand" or "banana").
After importing the given file, you'll get a cascading profile field. When your users edit their profile and select a node, they are also assigned to every subnode. In this example the user selected "banana", so he's only assigned to "banana". Additionally he selected "tools", so he's also assigned to "hand", "electric", "hammer" and so on.
This can be used to show responsibilities for certain areas or similar information.
Date input
If you want your users to pick a date from a small datepicker popup.
Use it to let your users enter dates. The most common use is a birthday field.
User select
Let your users select another user with an autocomplete functionality. The chosen user's profile page will be linked automatically.
This field type can be used to show relationships between colleagues, for example a scrum team can select their product owner or members of a department can select their superior. Please note that this field only accepts one entry.
Phone Number
The Phone number field lets your users start a call with the allocated phone number. This field makes use of the "tel:" protocol to make phone numbers clickable in the profile and all the LUP Macros. The number has to be configured in a way to support the automatically added "+" sign. (e.g. 49-0611-205700).
We will clean the number of all characters that are not numbers.
Instant Messanger
Let your users start a 1on1 Chat with the contact person of their choice right from the profile or the vCard.
For the instant messenger field you have to configure the following information:
First, choose the instant messenger protocol.
In the current release we only support XMPP, one of the following releases will allow a more flexible configuration.
Next, choose a link text (e.g. "Contact me") users will see in their profile and all the Custom Profile Macros. If you leave this field empty, the user will see the whole jabber ID as a placeholder. (e.g. k.holmes@jabber.com).
We will automatically add the "@". So, just fill in the "jabber.com" and we will do the rest.
Finally you can choose whether you would like the user to put in his username, or get this information from your LDAP or XML-file data source.
Language select
Let your users select a language from a complete list of all languages. Users can choose several languages, so this might be an alternative to a multi select for showing language skills and the like.
Please note that this field doesn't change settings like the language of the user interface for Confluence or any contents. It's only a simple information about the user that can be shown. But we are working on a field for this option in an upcoming Release.
Country select
Let your users select a country from a complete list of all countries. Users can choose several languages, so this might be an alternative to a multi select for showing language skills and the like.
Please note that this field doesn't change settings like the language of the user interface for Confluence or any contents. It's only a simple information about the user that can be shown.
Retrieved from LDAP
If you set up an LDAP field, add the LDAP attribute name which should be retrieved for each profile update.
Field type vs. LDAP attribute
If you want your LDAP resource to deliver profile information, you have two options that affect the possibility to edit fields.
Option 1: Define any field type like text, select, etc., and add an LDAP attribute additionally.
This retrieves the data from your LDAP resource, as long as the user can be found in that resource. The user cannot edit this data.
If the user isn't found, he or she can edit the field manually.
Option 2: Define your field as "Retrieved from LDAP"
This option retrieves the data only from your LDAP resource. The field never is editable, even if the user isn't found in your LDAP resource.
In both cases the LDAP connection is strictly read only, so there's never any data written back to your LDAP resource.
Releated topic: CUP - Alternative LDAP connection
Retrieved from XML
If you set up an XML field, add the XML node name which should be retrieved for each profile update. Releated topic: CUP - XML import
Please note: If set, a user can't edit this field by themselves, if the xml file contains a value for the user in this field.
Special fields
Display name
As a confluence administrator you can flexibly define the look of your users' full names.
Go to the LUP Profile Editor on the administration screen and switch to the special fields tab. Insert your desired values into the text box labelled 'full name' to set up a user's displayed full name. Use any of your previously created LDAP fields in curly brackets as variables.
For example: {cup.academictitle-1} {cup.firstname-2} {cup.lastname-3}
Read/write permissions
The Linchpin User Profiles will never write anything back into your LDAP resource, it uses the data strictly read only. This setting is solely needed für the full name feature to work.
Profile Picture: URL, LDAP attribute or Confluence
For more information see the Profile Picture (LUP 2.17) docs.
Dependent field
This field type is a tool to define a conversion from any profile field (e.g. an alphanumeric code) to an output (e.g. a human readable description) for your users’ profile pages, depending on the returned value. You can define any number of dependencies. Users cannot edit these fields. As soon as a user edits a referenced field all dependent fields will be updated immediately. For non editable profile fields like the user locale or the confluence groups there is a scheduled job which updates all dependent fields for all users.
A dependent field cannot depend on a cascade select or another dependent field.
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