Overview of Profile Options

Profile options let you configure and control application data centrally. Administrators and setup users manage profile options in the Setup and Maintenance work area.

Profile options store various kinds of information. This table lists some examples:

Type of Information	Profile Option Setting Example
User preferences	Set preferences at the user level
Installation information	Identify the location of a portal
Configuration choices	Change UI skins and actions
Processing options	Determine how much information to log
Enabling the Activity Stream	Enable agents to see the Activity Stream

Profile Option Hierarchy Levels

Profile options can be set at different levels, such as site level or user level. The application gives precedence to certain levels over others, when multiple levels are set. The levels that are allowed to be set are preconfigured with the application.

In the predefined profile option levels, the hierarchy levels and their precedence are:

Site: This level affects all applications for a given implementation. The application gives it the lowest precedence when other levels are set. If no other levels are set, however, it's the highest level.
Product: This level affects a product or product family. The application gives it priority over Site level. However, if the user level is set, the user level takes precedence.
User: This level affects only the current user. It has the highest precedence, over Site and Product.

As a best practice, set site-level profile option values before specifying values at any other level (where available). The profile option values specified at the site-level work as the default until profile option values are specified at the other levels.

This table shows an example of the predefined profile option hierarchy levels and their priorities.

Level	Priority	Example
Site	Lowest	Currency for a site is set to Euros.
Product	Supersedes Site	Currency for the product or set of products is set to UK pound sterling.
User	Highest, supersedes Product	Currency for a user is set to US dollars.

You can find additional information about profile options in the related topics.