Wouldn't it be nice if users could maintain their own user directory information? Now they can...

Many companies use Active Directory Services to manage their users. With the addition of SharePoint, another user directory database has been introduced - the User Profile Database. But even with SharePoint features such as Single Sign On, and automatic importing of Active Directory profile information to SharePoint, the bulk of the workload to maintain user information is still on the Administrator. What is lacking is a way to allow the owners of the user information to maintain it themselves, both safely and securely, using either database as their directory service source.

The User Directory Web Part provides an easy to use, SharePoint-based, self-service directory that allows users to maintain user information in the SharePoint User Profile Database or Active Directory. View your user organization in a user-friendly tree view by organization chart or alphabetical order by last name. Users can view all profiles but can only edit their own depending on permissions set up for the type of directory service selected. With the ability to view, search and print user profile information (such as resume or skill set), your directory services now provide value to your users as well as your entire company.

What does it do?

The User Directory Web Part has the following features:

• Both SharePoint and Active Directory Modes offer the following features:
  • View SharePoint and/or Active Directory users in a tree view structure.
  • Support viewing of both Active Directory and SP User Profile databases.
  • Maintain and delegate security for profile updating to department level.
  • Auto-fill empty user profile fields with default text to indicate no data available.
  • Search for users by name or other metadata such as skill set, or user customized fields.
  • Email notification when changes are made to user profile database.
  • Print user profile information.
  • Print Preview: Shows information from all tabs in a single page and allows user to preview it before printing.
  • Option to quickly display User Profile in MOSS Profile mode.
  • Option to display current user's profile by default.
  • Option to display a link on the Web Part toolbar to current user's (i.e. My Profile).
  • Allow the user to select which panel (Alphabetical or Organizaton panels) they want to hide from view.
  • Limit the number of items shown in the tree view.
  • Set image size for display in profile.
  • Customize the translation of text in the Web Part and tool pane.
• SharePoint User Information
  • Option to search user profile information in the MOSS Profile Index.
• Active Directory User Information
  • Ability to maintain and update contacts in Active Directory.
  • Maintain restriction on private and non-editable attributes.
  • Audit trail of changes to Active Directory.
  • Customize the order of the fields displayed on each of the tabs in the user profile for Active Directory.
  • Option to automatically save AD profile images in the Picture Library of your choice instead of AD.
  • Ability to aggregate users from multiple AD OU subtrees in AD mode by specify separate OU paths in the tool pane using ";" delimiter.
  • Option to display all users in a single OU in the Organization view.
  • Ability to set a single or multiple choice column for AD configuration.
  • Ability to Push an update to MOSS if connected to AD.
  • Ability to standardize Active Directory fields.
  • Option to Hide Disabled Active Directory User Objects.
  • Ability to resize AD photo field in Web Part.
  • Support for AD Distinguished Names (DN) which have commas.
  • Add hover text for the yellow exclamation mark displayed for some fields when in edit mode.

How does it work?

You can configure which user directory you want to use, SharePoint Portal Server or Active Directory, along with their respective access accounts. For the SharePoint directory options, you can choose whether you want to use the search feature we offer in User Directory or the Moss Profile Index. For Active Directory, you can allow users to edit their own profiles or not, assign SharePoint user groups to edit profiles (in case of a department administrator, and corporate administrators), specify an OU or multiple OUs to limit the user directory to a specific set of users, decide wither to store profile pictures directly into AD or a SharePoint Library, and select whether to hide disabled Active Directory User Objects. For both SharePoint and Active Directory, select the user attributes that you would like users to be able to search by. The available attributes are determined by the directory service you have selected. You can also set the number of items that display in the tree pane, hide the Organization or Alphabetical views from the tree pane, display the current users's profile when they access User Directory, show a link to the current users profile on the Web Part toolbar, and set the size of profile image in the Web Part. After the Web Part is configured, you can view users by Organization or Alphabetical (by last name). You can also perform an advanced search for users using the fields you configured in the Web Part properties.