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Constructed Attribute Mapping

A Constructed Attribute Mapping is used when a destination attribute's values are constructed from static text and multiple source attribute values.

These source attribute values can optionally be modified using regular expressions and replacement values.

↓Parent Component
↓Properties
↓dsconfig Usage

Parent Component

The Constructed Attribute Mapping component inherits from the Attribute Mapping

Properties

The properties supported by this managed object are as follows:


Basic Properties: Advanced Properties:
↓ to-attribute ↓ also-depends-on-src-attribute
↓ description ↓ sync-on-every-update
↓ value-pattern

Basic Properties

to-attribute (Read-Only)

Description
Specifies the name of the attribute whose values are constructed by this attribute mapping.
Default Value
None
Allowed Values
The name of the destination attribute
Multi-Valued
No
Required
Yes
Admin Action Required
None. Modification requires no further action

description

Description
A description for this Attribute Mapping
Default Value
None
Allowed Values
A string
Multi-Valued
No
Required
No
Admin Action Required
None. Modification requires no further action

value-pattern

Description
Specifies a pattern for constructing the destination attribute value using fixed text and attribute values from the source entry. By default, any text provided in the value-pattern is copied verbatim into the target value with the exception of source attribute names embedded in '{}'s. Attributes are substituted using their source value, e.g. {uid} will select the uid attribute from the source entry and use that value in place of {uid} in the value-pattern. Attributes must have exactly one value to be used in the value construction. If the source entry has no value or multiple values for the specified attribute, the attribute value construction will fail.

Furthermore, a regular expression with a substitution pattern can be used to further manipulate an individual attribute value. The java.util.regex.Pattern and java.util.regex.Matcher classes are used to perform the substitution. The regular expression with replacement value uses this syntax '{attr-name:/regex/replacement/flags}'.

'attr-name' is an attribute name such as 'cn'.

'regex' is a regular expression using the syntax described in the java.util.regex.Pattern javadoc. The optional flags value can also be used to change how this regular expression is interpreted.

'replacement' is a replacement value that is passed to the java.util.regex.Matcher#replaceFirst or java.util.regex.Matcher#replaceAll method to perform the replacement. The 'g' (global) flag controls whether replaceFirst or replaceAll is called.

  • 'g' : Matcher#replaceAll is called instead of Matcher#replaceFirst to replace all matching values instead of just the first one.
  • 'i' : the regex pattern is compiled with Pattern.CASE_INSENSITIVE.
  • 'x' : the regex pattern is compiled with Pattern.COMMENTS.
  • 's' : the regex pattern is compiled with Pattern.DOTALL.
  • 'm' : the regex pattern is compiled with Pattern.MULTILINE.
  • 'u' : the regex pattern is compiled with Pattern.UNICODE_CASE.
  • 'd' : the regex pattern is compiled with Pattern.UNIX_LINES.
The substitution value is constructed using Java code equivalent to:

Pattern pattern = Pattern.compile(regex, flagsMask);
Matcher matcher = pattern.matcher(attributeValueInput);
String substitutionValueOutput = matcher.replaceFirst(replacement);

Here is an example to summarize these points. Suppose, the 'uid' field of the target entry needs to be populated with the initials of the first and last name followed by the user's employee number which is stored in the 'eid' attribute. For example, 'John Smith' with an employee id of 12345, would get a uid of 'js12345'. The value-pattern would be '{givenname:/^(.)(.*)/$1/s}{sn:/^(.)(.*)/$1/s}{eid}'. The employee's initials are extracted from the 'givenname' and 'sn' attributes. The '^(.).*' regular expression used for these attributes matches the entire value and stores the initial character in the $1 variable, which used for the replacement. (The 's' flag is used to guard against the unlikely event that the user's 'givenname' or 'sn' attribute includes a newline character.)

Default Value
None
Allowed Values
The pattern to use to construct the attribute value.
Multi-Valued
Yes
Required
Yes
Admin Action Required
None. Modification requires no further action


Advanced Properties

also-depends-on-src-attribute (Advanced Property)

Description
Changes to the specified source attribute will trigger an update to the destination attribute independent of any changes to the attributes that this mapping directly depends on. This property is very rarely needed. Any change detected at the source to the specified attribute will force the attribute value to be recomputed and updated at the destination (if it was out-of-sync). This property is only needed when the Synchronization Server cannot directly detect changes to an attribute. For instance in some environments, a Directory Server plugin might introduce attribute changes that do not show up in the LDAP change log, so a separate attribute is watched for changes even though its value does not directly contribute to the synchronized value.

This property does not need to be set except in very unusual situations.

Default Value
None
Allowed Values
A string
Multi-Valued
Yes
Required
No
Admin Action Required
None. Modification requires no further action

sync-on-every-update (Advanced Property)

Description
This property will cause the attribute specified in this mapping (the 'to-attribute') to get synchronized on any detected change of any attribute. This is useful when an attribute may change without any indication in the changelog. This property is very rarely needed. Any change detected at the source to any attribute will force this attribute value to be recomputed and updated at the destination (if it was out-of-sync). This property is only needed when the Synchronization Server cannot directly detect changes to an attribute. For instance in some environments, a Directory Server plugin might introduce attribute changes that do not show up in the LDAP change log.

This property does not need to be set except in very unusual situations.

Default Value
false
Allowed Values
true
false
Multi-Valued
No
Required
No
Admin Action Required
None. Modification requires no further action


dsconfig Usage

To list the configured Attribute Mappings:

dsconfig list-attribute-mappings
     [--property {propertyName}] ...

To view the configuration for an existing Attribute Mapping:

dsconfig get-attribute-mapping-prop
     --mapping-name {name}
     --map-name {name}
     [--tab-delimited]
     [--script-friendly]
     [--property {propertyName}] ...

To update the configuration for an existing Attribute Mapping:

dsconfig set-attribute-mapping-prop
     --mapping-name {name}
     --map-name {name}
     (--set|--add|--remove) {propertyName}:{propertyValue}
     [(--set|--add|--remove) {propertyName}:{propertyValue}] ...

To create a new Constructed Attribute Mapping:

dsconfig create-attribute-mapping
     --mapping-name {name}
     --map-name {name}
     --type constructed
     --set value-pattern:{propertyValue}
     [--set {propertyName}:{propertyValue}] ...

To delete an existing Attribute Mapping:

dsconfig delete-attribute-mapping
     --mapping-name {name}
     --map-name {name}