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4.4.2.2: Customizing the base user profile support

4.4.2.2: Customizing the base user profile support

The application developer has a few options for customizing the user profile support provided by IBM WebSphere Application Server. The Related information provides instructions and additional details about each option.

Extend the data represented in user profiles

As discussed in section 4.4.2.1, the base implementation allows Web applications to maintain several pieces of data about users. The data representation can be extended to allow the collection of arbitrary name/value pairs.

Adding columns to the base user profile implementation

Application developers can customize user profiles by adding columns to the base user profile implementation. Adding new columns is accomplished by implementing the interface:

com.ibm.websphere.userprofile.UserProfileExtender

and extending the base class:

com.ibm.servlet.personalization.userprofile.UserProfile

Extending the User Profile enterprise bean and importing legacy databases

Application developers can extend the User Profile enterprise bean itself and import legacy databases into the user profile. The main advantage in extending the User Profile enterprise bean is to gain the ability to import existing databases into the user profile. It can also be extended to simply add columns to the base user profile implementation.

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