Further Configuration

6 min

Now we have done a basic configuration and created our first new user, it's time to dig deeper and understand how Activate's configuration works to further extend the configuration and align with your organisation's standards.

User Type Templates

Activate user type XML templates are used to:

Define how usernames and email addresses are generated

Define the attributes in AD to be updated

Enable/disable functions such as home drive creation and mailboxes

Specify Password rules

Templates are defined in an XML format and can be reviewed on each User Type under Roles > User Types.

This is the default User Type template. Any user type without a custom template, such as Employee, will inherit it. The following sections show you how to adjust the configuration to align with your organisation’s standards.

<template>
  <data>
    <userOU>=/data/roles/location/UserOU/OU</userOU>
    <loginName>#data/prefix|data/firstName:1|data/lastName|{#}</loginName>
    <cn protected="1">#data/attribute/displayName|{#}</cn>
    <prefix>=/data/roles/type/AccountPrefix</prefix>
    <password mustChange="1">
    </password>
    <passwordRules>
      <type>keyword</type>
      <prefix>A!1234</prefix>
    </passwordRules>
    <attribute>
      <scriptPath>=/data/roles/department/LoginScript</scriptPath>
      <axFirstName>=/data/firstName</axFirstName>
      <axLastName>=/data/lastName</axLastName>
      <initials>=/data/initials</initials>
      <displayName>%=/data/firstName% %=/data/lastName%</displayName>
    </attribute>
    <mail>
      <enable default="1">false</enable>
      <email>#data/firstName|"."|data/lastName|{#}|"@%=//Resources/Configuration/DefaultEmailDomain%"</email>
      <exchangeServer>=//Resources/Exchange Servers/Office365</exchangeServer>
    </mail>
    <directory>=//Resources/ActiveDirectory/External Directories/Azure</directory>
  </data>
  <directories>
    <home>
      <enable>false</enable>
      <homeDrive protected="1">H:</homeDrive>
      <homeDirectory>auto</homeDirectory>
      <source>=/user/homeDirectory</source>
      <create>
        <ifExists>Rename</ifExists>
        <path>\\%=/data/roles/location/UserHomeServer%\Users\%=/data/loginName%</path>
        <share>%=/data/loginName%</share>
        <template>
        </template>
        <acl>%=/data/sid%:C</acl>
      </create>
    </home>
    <profile>
      <enable>false</enable>
      <profileDirectory>auto</profileDirectory>
      <source>=/user/profilePath</source>
      <create>
        <ifExists>Rename</ifExists>
        <acl>%=/data/sid%:C</acl>
        <path>\\%=/data/roles/location/UserProfileServer%\Profile\%=/data/loginName%</path>
        <template>
        </template>
      </create>
    </profile>
    <tsProfile>
      <enable>false</enable>
    </tsProfile>
    <tsHome>
      <enable>false</enable>
    </tsHome>
  </directories>
</template>

Define Username and Email Address Generation

Activate provides an expression language that makes it simple to customise the rules for generating usernames and email addresses. This gives implementers the flexibility to define patterns that suit their organisation’s requirements.

By default, for the Employee User Type, Activate uses the first initial of the first name followed by the full last name (e.g., wevans for Wendy Evans).

For more details on defining appropriate name generation and email generation expressions, refer to the Name Generator guide.

To configure a User Type Template with the name generation expression open the Template parameter of the desired User Type.

Set the value of data/loginName to the expression, e.g. #data/prefix|data/firstName:1|data/lastName|{#}

Set the value of data/mail/email to the expression e.g. #data/firstName|"."|data/lastName|{#}|"@%=//Resources/Configuration/DefaultEmailDomain%"

Save the Template parameter

Disabling Email Address Creation

Some user types may not require the creation of a mailbox. To disable the email address creation, set the mail/enable value to false.

Directories Configuration

Depending on your organisation’s requirements, home drives and profile directories may or may not be necessary when creating a user. By default, the Create User task will not create any directories.

To enable the creation of Home Drives and Profile Directories follow these steps

Double-click the Template parameter.

To enable Home Drive creation, scroll to directories/home and change the enable tag from falseto true.

To enable Profile Directory creation, scroll to directories/profile and change the enable tag from falseto true.

Configure UserHomeServer and UserProfileServer parameters as required on the location roles. These can be just set on Roles > Locations and inherited down if there is only one server.

When new home drive or profile directory is created, if a directory with the same name already exists, Activate will rename the existing one by appending “_X” followed by a timestamp to the folder name (e.g., \\servername\Users\loginName_X23112020151715).

If you prefer not to have directories renamed, you can configure Activate to either throw an error or reuse the existing directory. To do this, update the create/ifExists tag with one of the following options:

error – Activate will throw an exception if the directory already exists.

allow – Activate will assign the existing directory to the new user.

Active Directory Attributes Updated During User Creation

During the Create User process, Activate updates specific directory (e.g AD, Azure) attributes. These attributes can be provided through the Create User task form or defined (generated or hardcoded) within the User Type template.

Here are some examples of the attributes in the default Employee User Type template.

Source	Field	Directory property
Web form	First Name	givenName
Web form	Last Name	sn
Web form	Initials	initials
Web form	Title	title
Web form	Manager	manager
Web form	Department	department
Web form	Location	physicalDeliveryOfficeName
Web form	Direct Dial	telephoneNumber
Web form	Extension	otherTelephone
Web form	Mobile	mobile
Web form	Fax	facsimileTelephoneNumber
Template	mail > email	mail, proxyAddresses
Template	directories > home > homeDrive	homeDrive
Template	directories > home > homeDirectory	homeDirectory
Template	directories > home > profileDirectory	profileDirectory
Template	data > attribute > displayName	displayName
Template	data > cn	cn
Template	data > attribute > scriptPath	scriptPath
Template	data > attribute > userPrincipalName	userPrincipalName