About Profiles

A profile is a collection of attributes that can be used as a template in the Orchestration Console application. By using profiles, you can reuse the same collection of attributes in multiple places without having to redefine the attributes every time.

In the Orchestration Console, profiles are used to represent real world concepts like stores, customers, and addresses. Each profile is defined by its Display Names, a set of Default Attributes, and a set of Custom Attributes. The default attributes of a profile are predefined and cannot be changed.

You cannot add or remove default attributes. However, you can modify the settings of the default attributes.

You can add custom attributes to a profile and you can use profiles as custom attributes for other profiles.

Base vs. Custom Profiles

There are two types of profiles in the Orchestration Console: Base Profiles and Custom Profiles.

Base profiles are supplied by default and are a key part of the system. Users create Custom profiles by using the Orchestration Console.

Base and custom profiles have default and custom attributes. When creating a custom profile, the default attributes are always the same. However, each base profile has a different set of base attributes depending on the base profiles use. For both base and custom profiles, you can add custom attributes of different types. For example, text, date, yes/no choices, or numbers. You can also select any shared or embedded profile as a custom attribute.

Base Profiles

Base profiles are specific default profiles which are provided with the Orchestration Console. While they can be modified, you cannot create or remove base profiles and the default attributes cannot be removed. The base profiles included in the Orchestration Console are: Address, Customer, Fulfillment Location, Organization, Payment Profile, Store, and Warehouse.


Base Profile Name	Profile Type	Address	Customer	Fulfillment Location	Organization	Payment Profile	Store	Warehouse
Address	Embedded	X	X	X	X		X
Customer	Shared				X		X
Fulfillment Location	Shared						X	X
Organization	Shared		X
Payment Profile	Embedded		X			X
Store	Shared		X
Warehouse	Shared			X

Figure 1 - Base Profile - Usage

Custom Profiles

Custom profiles are profiles that you create for use in the Orchestration Console. You can either create an embedded or shared custom profile to use later in another custom profile or in a base profile.

For example, custom profiles could be setup and used for customer preferences, store preferences, loyalty cards, or pick & pack floor plans.

For each custom profile, you can create different instances that will use the attributes that have been selected for the custom profile. Each different set of attribute values represent a unique instance of the profile. You can also filter profiles by name or base attribute value.

All custom profiles have the same set of default attributes. For more information about attributes, see Attribute Type Settings.

Shared vs. Embedded Profiles

Profiles can also be either Shared or Embedded.

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Shared profiles are used when you want to link multiple profile instances to the same profile instance. A profile instance is a collection of attribute values.
For example, a Newsletter profile. All customers that subscribe to a newsletter can be linked to the same instance of the newsletter profile.
Shared profiles can be used on their own or included in another profile. For example, a Store (Shared) profile.

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Embedded profiles are used when you want to link a profile instance to an instance of another profile .
For example, the address profile where each customer's address is unique to that customer.

Embedded profiles can only be included in another profile. For example, an Address (Embedded) profile in a Customer (Shared) profile.

The Shared Customer profile could include the following profiles:

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Stores profile (Used to record the preferred stores of a customer)

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Organizations profile (Used to record which organization(s) the customer belongs to )

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Address profile (Used to record addresses that are used by a customer)

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Payment profile (Used to record saved payment preferences).

Profile Settings

When you create a new profile, you must specify the type of profile and various settings for the type of attributes that you choose. The settings available vary depending on the type of attributes specified.

You must also specify whether or not the profile can have more than one value of an attribute of type lookup, or more than one instance of type profile.
For example, a customer profile having multiple address profiles (shipping and billing) would be an example of Number of Profiles Allowed - Many.

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For more information about the type of profile and settings, see Create a Profile Attribute Lightbox

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For more information about the Entity (Profile) Reference settings and the Number of Profiles Allowed (One or Many), see Attribute Type Settings.

Profiles Workflow

Use this workflow to help you understand the sequence of steps that are required to create profile templates, create profile instances, and link or associate profiles.

Create a Profile Template by using Customer > Administration. Typically, a system administrator creates and maps the content of Profile Templates.

Create instances of Profiles by using Customer > Profiles. Typically, a content manager or security administrator creates content for Custom Profiles.

Link Profile Templates as required by using Customer > Administration. Typically, a content manager or security administrator adds associations between Profiles.

Link Profile Instances as required by using Customer > Accounts. Typically, a content manager or security administrator adds associations between Profiles.

There is an exception, Store Profiles are edited in Settings > Administration.

REFERENCES

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Manage Profile Templates

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Manage Profile Instances