Introduction

User additional fields allow you to collect information about your users, besides the standard data needed for user creation (Username, Name, Surname, E-mail, User Level). Additional fields can be either filled by the platform administrator or by the users themselves. This article explains how to create and manage additional fields for users.

Use Case Scenarios

If your company wants to provide a dynamic and custom experience for their various types of users, as a Superadmin you need to identify specific user segments in the platform to target an audience for various Admin actions such as course enrollment, course catalog visibility, page/menu visibility, reporting and notification delivery.

In order to identify specific user segments, you can configure several different User additional fields that capture important user attributes. These fields may include information such as Job Title, Hire Date, Department, Location, Manager, Product, Employee Status, or anything else that may be valuable to track within the platform. With these attributes tracked for each user, you can set up groups with an automatic assignment to automate the process of identifying a user segment. You can set up broad-reaching groups that contain only one rule (for example: The “Sales” group should contain anyone whose job title contains the word “Sales”), and also narrow groups with multiple rules (for example: The “Los Angeles Sales Team New Hires” group should contain all users whose Location is Los Angeles, Job Title is Sales, and Hire Date is after x date). By creating multiple groups, you as a Superadmin can easily target various user segments for use in the platform.

Creating a User Additional Field

In order to create additional fields for users, log into your platform as the Superadmin. Access the Admin Menu by scrolling your mouse over the gear icon in the header. In the E-Learning Section, press the Users item. Press the ellipsis button in the upper right corner of the page, then press the Additional Fields button that appears. On the next page, press the Plus button.

In the slide-out panel, select the field language at the top by pressing the globe icon, then selecting your preferred language from the list. Next, select the field type from the Field Type dropdown menu: fiscal code, country (with a pre-defined list of countries), date (provides a calendar), dropdown field (up to 300 or 500 elements per dropdown, depending on your plan), free text field, upload file field, Iframe, or yes/no field.

Add a field name to the corresponding text field. For the dropdown field type, insert all of the dropdown elements into the corresponding text field, pressing the New Element button after each individual element, in order to add it to the dropdown menu.

Finally, manage the field settings:

• Mandatory Field. This field will be a mandatory field for a user profile. When this option is flagged, the user must fill in this field upon his or her next login to the platform. This option is not available when the selected additional field is Iframe.
• Invisible to the User.  This field will not be visible to the user when he or she views his or her own profile. Please note that this field would be invisible to Power Users as well, even if they have permission to edit the user's profile. The field will only be visible to Superadmins.

When you're finished, press Confirm.

Please note that it is possible to create up to 50 user additional fields in your platform.

Managing User Additional Fields

Once an additional field is created, find it in the list of all additional fields. When you hover your mouse over the field's row, the edit and delete icons will appear at the end of the row. Use the search bar at the top to search for specific fields.

You can also organize the order of these additional fields by dragging and dropping the additional field row in the list. The order will be reflected in the Additional Fields tab of the User Management panel when the user is created or edited, and in the self-registration procedure.

If an additional field was added after creating or importing your users, the field will automatically be assigned to the master data file present in the platform. However, in order to update this content, you need to import a new CSV data file for the new field, or you must create a request that prompts users to fill out the new field (if marked as required).

You can do so from the Advanced Settings menu (Admin Menu, Advanced Settings, Users tab). In this tab, flag the At the sign in the user is prompted to fill in the mandatory fields related to his profile option.

Please note that if your platform integrates with Salesforce, all users will be associated with the sfdc_user_type and the sfdc_id additional fields, even before running the first synchronization. These additional fields can neither be edited nor removed, since they are used to handle the synchronization process between the two systems.

Remember that user additional fields are also available as tags in the configuration of certificate templates.

Customizing the Additional Fields Visibility 

You can assign different fields for each branch of the organizational chart in order to optimize the users’ details related to different companies, countries, offices, or any other sorting category that you may use to classify your learners.

After creating your additional fields, you can choose which ones to assign to a specific branch of the organizational chart. To enable this option, access the Admin menu, and choose the Advanced Settings item in the Settings section. Then, reach the Users tab. In the first section (Options), flag the option to apply additional fields' visibility based on organization chart nodes. Now you can start customizing the fields for each branch. To do so, access the User Management area from your Admin Menu. On the All Users page, use the branches menu on the left side to select a branch. Hover your mouse over the branch's row, then press the ellipsis icon that appears.

From the dropdown menu, select the Set additional fields visibility item. In the slideout panel, flag which additional fields you want to assign to the branch, then press Confirm. Now, these new users additional fields are only available for the users assigned to this branch and any new users that you create in this branch. Repeat the operation for each branch of the organizational chart as desired.

When you set a user additional field as visible for a given branch, note that the sub-branches inherit the visibility of the additional field. Also, when you deselect an additional field that was previously selected for a given branch, its sub-branches will no longer have that field assigned as well.

Please Note: Branch visibility always takes priority. Therefore, if you place a user within a branch with specific additional fields assigned to it and then you also try to assign extra additional fields that are not also assigned to the same branch, the user will ONLY see fields assigned to the branch. This also applies when importing or updating users via CSV or SSO. Branch additional field visibility always takes priority over additional field visibility that is not applied from branch assignment.

As a Superadmin creating or editing users, you will be able to assign users to any branches and view all additional fields. When editing a user and viewing all of his/her additional fields in the Additional Fields tab of the Edit User right panel, you will see the list of all the additional fields that are associated with the branches to which the user has been assigned in the top part of the tab. You will also see a list of all of the additional fields that aren’t associated with the branch to which the user has been assigned in the bottom part of the tab. In this way, you can quickly see the additional fields customization for each branch.

Please be cautious when performing this action as a Power User or when the Extended Enterprise app is active, as it may restrict the visibility of some branches or additional fields. Also remember that when no additional field is selected for no branch, the user additional field section will list all the user additional fields defined in the platform.

Please Note: When moving users between branches, some additional field visibility may change, and users may be moved to a branch with mandatory additional fields, meaning that the users will be prompted to complete these additional fields before accessing their platforms again.

Additional User Field Types

In your platform, multiple field types are available for user additional fields. The field types dictate the format in which the field is populated.

• Dropdown field - This field allows you to create a list of options that can be selected as the additional field value.  The maximum number of items that can be included in a dropdown field is 300 or 500, depending on your plan.
• Text field - This field allows you to add free text (in a single string, including spaces) to populate the additional field value. There is a 255 character limit.
• IFRAME - This field allows you to iframe an external web page (as long as the page allows it to be iframed).
• Fiscal code - This field allows you to add a unique code, such as Tax ID Number or unique string of numbers (originally created as the Codice Fiscale number for Italian customers) as the additional field value.
• Country - This field allows you to populate from a preset list of countries (ISO 3166-1 standard), as the additional field value.
• Date field - This field allows you to add a date as the additional field value. Users will select from a calendar a date to populate the field.
• File field - This field allows you or your users to import a PNG or JPG file to the user's profile. An example may be a user's ID card or license. Please refer to the Best Practices & Tips section below for additional information.
• Yes/No field - This field allows you to populate a "Yes" or "No" response as the additional field value.
• Free text (Text area) field - This field allows for population by free text (including spaces and blank rows) as the additional field value. There is a 65,000 character limit.

Additional fields are used to create rules to populate users into groups. Learn more in the article Managing Groups.

Creating an Iframe Additional Field

To create an Iframe additional field, select the Iframe option from the Field Type dropdown menu when creating a new additional field. Then, enter the field name, Iframe URL, Iframe height, salt secret, and Oauth2 client.

The URL and Iframe height are the only mandatory fields, but it’s suggested to enter all of the fields to ensure proper configuration. Flag the field settings (see the previous section if you need more information), then press Confirm.

Some sources of external content may have security mechanisms in place. If this is the case, you may be required to utilize an OAuth client that you have set up in a previous step. You can switch the Advanced Settings toggle to add a Salt Secret and Repeat Secret for the iFrame. Then, select the OAuth Client from the dropdown menu, if necessary. By providing the salt secret, you are adding a checksum to the data, ensuring that the credentials for this access are maintained securely. If you do not add the salt secret, the iframe content will be launched from your platform without any additional parameters that may be required by the provider of the content. More information on salt secrets can be found here.

Please note that when a user opens this Iframe in the platform, the username and user ID will be passed to the iframe via POSTMESSAGE. For learners, the Iframe will appear in the Additional Fields section when editing their profiles.

Please note that the Iframe additional field cannot be set as a mandatory field.

Best Practices

Choose your fields carefully Remember that user additional fields are primarily used to obtain additional information for reports, creating dynamic groups, and enrolling groups of users automatically to courses.

Keep them updated Make sure that the information for these additional fields are updated and easily retrievable in order to avoid messy platform and user management. For example, if you use a system integration such as ADFS, be sure that all of the additional fields that you want to pass to your learning platform are present. This also applies to CSV updates. Keep your databases consistent.

Visibility By allowing your users to change some user additional fields that visible to them, you can allow them to automatically move from an automatic group to another, and even change which catalogs are visible to them. For example, you could create catalogs divided by different lines of products, roles, or even user seniority (Rookie, Normal, Advanced, Expert), and so on.

Branch Additional Fields By applying the additional fields to branches based on a domain of the Extended Enterprise, users can see the additional fields that are relevant to their branch only. As the Superadmin, you have the assurance that only the fields necessary for that particular branch are shown and completed by the user.

Stay organized When viewing user additional fields in the User Management area of the platform, you can use filters and various views in order to hide or filter the info you see. This may help you narrow down the info that you're viewing

Watch out for manual entry by learners In some cases, some user information may be difficult to track down in your platform. In this case, set the field as mandatory and grant visibility to the user. At the first login, he or she will be forced to fill in the information to proceed. In order to reduce entry typos, avoid text fields, and use a field where users don’t have to type in responses manually.

Notes about File field additional user field type This additional field is accessible to the user from the My Profile section for editing. A new file can be uploaded only here. To download the existing file, the user can access it from the My Activities widget and then the Additional Info section. Clicking on the file link will download it locally.

As a Superadmin, you can access the file by selecting the user from the Users page in the E-Learning section of the Admin Menu and choosing to edit a user profile. In the Additional Fields step, you will see the fields and you can click on the file link to upload a new file, overwriting the existing one. As an option, you can download the file by accessing the User Personal Summary from the All Users page, by clicking on the ellipsis menu at the end of the user row, and selecting the related option, then moving to the Additional Info tab.

Examples of additional fields Please find below a list of examples of additional fields:

• region
• country
• city
• job title
• company seniority
• role seniority
• performance management
• date of recruitment
• end of contract (expiration date)
• department
• job level
• sex gender