Profile Management

Note that this page is only relevant for versions 9.1.x and below. For Profile Management in 9.2.x and above, see Profile Management.

A user profile consists of some or all of the following elements:

• Toolbar: All built-in or customized toolbar categories, items and settings. By default, a user always starts with a default toolbar containing several items for managing built-in tables such as Customers, Tasks and Opportunities.

• Layouts: Any customized data form layouts including tab settings, custom tabs and fields. By default, a user does not have a Layouts file and his data forms load with only built-in tabs.

• Homepages: This consists of two dashboard files: The dashboard homepage for the ClayStudio management tool, and the dashboard homepage for all ClayStation tools including ClayOutlook and Web ClayStation. The default homepages contain some pre-defined graphs and lists, each appropriate for managers and users respectively, displaying information on built-in tables such as Tasks and Opportunities.

• Settings: Various settings and configuration options, many of them defined in Tools/Options, the rest defined in the “Customize This List…” features (e.g. default columns in lists, filter lists, table lists, indicator lists, default sorted columns). All settings have default values.

The Toolbar and Homepage files are generated automatically on first login, the Settings and Layouts files are only created when something is customized. To see more information on the actual files and their locations see below.

Document Template files (zip, html and support files) can be deployed to users via the Profile Management tool from version 9.0 and up, or by using Role Deployment. They are NOT saved when the user clicks on 'Save My Profile'. See Sharing Deploying Templates for more deployment options.

The files are stored together with the profile files at ClayCentral, but are stored in a separate Document Template folder at the client side.

If Document Template files are found at ClayCentral when the user is retrieving a new profile, all of the template files and subfolders will be copied along with the profile files onto the client's computer.

An important note regarding settings: Not all of the settings in Tools/Options are stored by default inside the Settings file and are therefore not part of the user profile. Some settings are stored, by default, in the local Windows registry only. These include:

• Settings that may be machine-specific such as the pathname to the Document Templates folder.
• Settings that are user-specific such as the GUI language, or mail-server settings for mail-merge.
• Settings that are usually personal preferences set individually by the user and not by a manager or administrator. For example, the behaviour of windows in the taskbar, or whether to popup messages.

The reason these settings were separated is due to the primary goal of the Profile Management feature, which is to allow managers to easily push profiles, company policies and common business tools onto users without overwriting their personal preferences.

As of version 9.0, settings may be defined individually using Profile Management to instruct Digital-Clay to store them either in the profile, or in the local registry.

For the locations of profile files on the hard drive, see Digital-Clay Files.

Clients always load and save profiles using local hard-drives for the simple reason that clients also need these files while working offline.

Note that local profile files are stored in the Windows settings folder for the current Windows user, and in a sub-folder per Digital-Clay user. This means that even if the same Windows user logs in to Clay using more than one Clay user, the profiles are maintained in separate folders.

When using Profile Management features in ClayStudio (or when a user clicks on 'Save My Profile'), profiles are stored on the ClayCentral machine and synchronized with the local user's profile next time he logs in. Profile Management may be used for any of the following purposes:

• Administrators can centrally manage toolbars, layouts, homepages and/or settings for all users, or sets of profiles for specific groups of users.
• Managers may set or encourage standard company procedures and policies by setting specific settings and homepages, and deploying them to their subordinates.
• Managers and power-users can share and synchronize specific layouts or toolbar items which they created with other users.
• Document Templates can be shared and deployed.
• Although the primary purpose of this feature is not meant for roaming profiles, by saving profiles at ClayCentral, this can be achieved, with the exception of some machine or user-specific settings (see Settings).
• Since saved ClayCentral profiles are all stored in one place, this makes it easy to backup everyone's profiles whether they are generated and deployed by administrators or customized by the users themselves.

This is how it works:

• When Clay clients are loaded, even while still offline, the last user's profile (or the default user profile) is loaded.

• Saving a profile means sending it to ClayCentral for storage and synchronization. A profile is saved either by clicking on Tools/Save My Profile, or when using Profile Management before loading another user's profile. Every time a profile is saved at ClayCentral, it is given a new ProfileID to ensure that the user gets the updated profile when he logs in.

• Using Profile Management in ClayStudio, other user's profiles may be loaded temporarily using the Load Profile button. This copies any existing ClayCentral profile files to the local machine overwriting the current profile, therefore it asks whether the current profile should be saved first. If the user does not have a saved profile, the default user profile is loaded.

• Changes can be made to the currently loaded profile (as long as the profile isn't locked - see Locking). Changes are always saved to local files.

• The currently loaded profile may be sent to any number of users using the Set Profile button. In this example, the profile is saved for John as well as two other users in the same Workgroup.

• When a user logs in to ClayCentral, the local ProfileID is compared to the ClayCentral ProfileID (if it exists). If they are not the same, the new profile is sent to the user, overwriting his old local profile. In this case, if the Administrator logs in again, it will revert back to the previously saved profile since the local ProfileID no longer matches.

In addition to the local and ClayCentral saved profiles per user, there exists a third option for deploying profiles (even for users that don't exist yet), based on their Roles. See Role Deployment for details.

Role profile and Document Template files will only be copied to the user's ClayCentral profile if the user does not already have these files. I.e. the order of priority is:

1. ClayCentral User profile
2. ClayCentral Role profile
3. Local client profile

When sending a profile to users using the Profile Management tool, the complete profile may be sent, or only specific parts of it. For example, the Layouts may be centrally managed by the administrator so that everyone sees the same view, but users may be allowed to customize their Toolbars. In this case, only the Layouts are sent so as not to overwrite the user's preferences. In addition, specific toolbar items and layouts may be sent to users without overwriting their other personalized toolbar categories or table layouts. Also see above regarding Settings.

The following options are available for each Profile element (Toolbar/Layouts/Homepages/Settings):

1. Make no changes. No files are saved or overwritten.
2. Save and lock. This profile element is sent to ClayCentral and the user is locked from making any further changes to this profile element. See below for an explanation on Locking.
3. Clear and unlock. The ClayCentral file for this profile element is deleted (NOT the local user's profile), and the user is unlocked, allowing him to make changes.
4. Save single item only (Toolbar and Layouts only). This allows sending specific sub-items inside the Toolbar or Layouts without overwriting any others. Locking a user is optional in this case.

A user may be locked from making any changes to any of his four Profile elements. When a user is locked, buttons for customizing that element are disabled, or, in the case of some settings (“Customize This List…”), the customizations made by the user are only temporary and not saved to his Settings file.

The locks are saved in the User record in four fields: Lock Toolbar/Lock Layouts/Lock Homepages/Lock Settings.

The idea behind locking is the fact that centrally managed profiles can easily conflict and overwrite changes made by a user to his own profile. In order to avoid such conflicts and loss of heavily customized profile data, sending/managing a profile and locking a profile need to be mutually inclusive.

In other words, as soon as you send a profile using the Profile Management tool, the user is automatically locked from making further changes so that further updates will not overwrite his data.

In a scenario of a single profile deployment with no plans to change the profile in the future, or if you wish to remove the locks manually for whatever reason without deleting the user's ClayCentral profile, the locks may be removed as follows:

1. Go to Customize Layouts and select the User table.
2. Add a custom fields tab and add the four Lock fields to the tab.
3. Open the user's record and unlock his profile as necessary.
4. Have the user re-login to ClayCentral.

Profiles consist of four types of files, and a profile ID:

• Toolbar.XML: All items contained in the user's toolbar.
• Layouts.XML: All customized data form layouts for that user.
• Settings.XML: Various settings per user that are usually set and managed centrally. Some settings that are usually personalized (not managed) are saved in the local registry only.
• HomeStation.sds and HomeStudio.sds: The saved homepage dashboards.

The ProfileID file contains an identifier that is compared to the local ID when a user logs in. If any of the profile files are changed, the ID is also changed and therefore the local profile is updated.

Notes:

• Profiles are stored locally under C:\Documents and Settings\<WindowsUserName>\Local Settings\Application Data\DigitalClay\<DigitalClayUserName>
• Each Digital-Clay user's profile is stored in a separate sub-folder in case multiple users log in using the same machine and Windows user, or if one user wants to use multiple profiles.
• Saved profiles (when the user clicks on Save My Profile or the administrator sends a profile using Profile Management), are also stored under C:\DigitalClay\Profiles on the Central machine and copied locally to the client machine when the user logs in.
• Profiles saved at Central may also include Document Template files (zip, html and support files).
• Some of these files may not exist until the appropriate client is run and is customized.
• Profiles are not uninstalled automatically.