Personalizing Web Site Experience Using Profile Documents
Profile documents enable designers to personalize an application. Personalization could be based on individual preferences or by associating a user to a group. Examples of individual personalization would be enabling each user to choose a background color on a page or allowing users to change a page's layout to match personal taste. An example of associating a user to a group might be in tracking user activity to personalize the user experience. If a user orders a Domino Exam Cram during a visit to your site, for example, you could associate that user to a Domino group. When that user next visits your site, he or she is shown a list of other Domino publications that may be of interest. Both types of personal information can be collected and stored in Profile documents.
Databases can contain one profile document for the database and multiple profile documents accessed by a unique key. This might be useful for designing personalized sites for users. These documents are cached when the database is opened, allowing for fast retrieval of the information as a person navigates through your site. Profile documents are created from a form designed in the database, but what makes them a little different is how they are accessed and maintained.
Profile documents do not appear in any view and are not included in the database's document count. Access to create and update profile documents is through code, so users create/update them through action buttons or agents. Table 14.9 describes the formulas and LotusScript that can be used to manipulate Profile Documents.
| Code | Description |
|---|---|
| @GetProfileField | Retrieves field value from profile document. |
| @SetProfileField | Sets the value of a field in a profile field. |
| @Command([EditProfile]) | Opens an existing document or, if one does not exist, creates a new Profile document. This is executed after all code. |
| @Command([EditProfileDocument]) | Same as preceding, except this executes where it is coded. |
| GetProfileDocument method of the NotesDatabase class | Opens an existing document or, if one does not exist, creates a new Profile document. |
| GetItemValue method of the NotesDocument class | Retrieves field value from profile document |
Database ACL applies to Profile documents. Assign Author access if Web users are creating and updating their Profile documents.