Administering the Profile

Many sites allow users to maintain their own profiles or at least to edit the data they provided through online forms. Commerce Server 2002 uses a feature called Customer Services to allow registered users to view and modify their profiles.

Another approach to managing users is central administration by one or more administrators. Users communicate changes through phone calls or emails, and the administrators dutifully update the profiles. This approach eliminates the possibility of incorrect data entry on the part of users and it creates jobs for administrators.

A third path is to set up decentralized administration delegated through a user hierarchy. For instance, a membership organization could designate a primary contact within a member company and give that user the power to administer all users within that organization. Commerce Server calls this feature Partner Services. In this scenario the site administrator creates the Organization profile and the UserObject profile for the delegated administrator, who in turn creates the individual user accounts. This is a similar approach to that used by the Microsoft Solution Provider program. When applying to the program, an organization names the administrator for the partners -only web site. That administrator subsequently grants permissions to other company personnel who need access to the site.

The sample sites contain a number of pages used to access profiles. Users have direct interaction with the profiling system through the following files (Table 7.4):

Table 7.4. Profiling System Pages

Page	Function
addrbook.asp	Views and edits the user's address book (Address profiles).
newaddr.asp	Adds a new address to the user's address book.
login\_guest.asp	Enters the site as an anonymous user and creates an associated anonymous profile.
login\newuser.asp	Allows the user to register with the site. If the user has an anonymous profile, it is changed to a registered profile. If the user does not have an anonymous profile, a new registered profile is created.
services\customer\account.asp	Views and changes user's profile through Customer Services.
services\partner\account.asp	Allows delegated administrators to view and modify the profile of their organization using the Partner Services feature.
services\partner\users.asp	Provides a list of users who are members of an organization. Delegated administrators can select profiles to view, modify, or delete from this list, or create new member profiles.
services\partner\edit_user.asp	Allows delegated administrators to manage the profiles of members of their organization.

The self-service of user profile data gives users a feeling of control over this information and provides the opportunity for them to keep it up to date. The same capabilities are used by administrators when they have the appropriate permissions.