This section describes the properties defined in the standard user profile repository definition. If you extend or replace the standard user profile repository definition, it is important to understand many of these standard properties. A profile repository definition can include whatever profile properties you think are useful for your ATG application. The userProfile.xml files included in ATG application modules add certain properties that are used in various ATG features or demo applications.

Some features, such as scenarios and the Targeted E-mail facility, expect certain profile properties to exist with certain specified names. If you eliminate the needed profile property, the ATG features that expect the property will not work. In some cases, you can change the profile name, but you must also configure a Nucleus component to register the new name. Sometimes you may have to change the profile name or configure a component to use a different property in several different components. If you don’t have to rename or remove a property from the standard profile definition, it is probably better not to.

If you add item-descriptors to the userProfile.xml file, make sure that the user item-descriptor is always the first item-descriptor defined in the file. Doing so prevents errors from occurring in the ACC and the Business Control Center.

If you do decide to rename or remove properties from your profile repository definition, the names of a number of these properties are registered in the /atg/userprofiling/PropertyManager component. If you rename a property that is registered in the PropertyManager, you must also register the new property name in the PropertyManager. The following section describes the PropertyManager component and lists the properties it contains.