Dynamic User Lookup Data Available in NEIS 4.1

One of the cornerstone features of the Non-Employee Identity Suite (NEIS) is the ability to interactively design Registration Forms. These forms are used both for self-service registration and while editing profile information.

Version 4.1 of NEIS enhances this capability by allowing the System Administrator to provide dynamic Lookup Data for individual fields on Registration Forms. This feature allows the administrator to constrain – based on data feeds from external systems – the values that an end-user can specify when filling in information.

Prior to NEIS 4.1

Prior to version 4.1 of NEIS, it was possible for the System Administrator to constrain the values available for individual fields by dragging-and-dropping a Select control onto the form. However, the pre-canned values must be entered on the designer, for each Registration Form, and cannot be updated programmatically.

NEIS_4.1_User_Lookup_Data-A

This is a great solution for fields where the available values are known beforehand and change rarely, if ever. However, this is not a great fit for data that changes frequently and may be displayed on multiple Registration Forms.

New Experience

Version 4.1 of NEIS builds on the existing support for constraining data entered on Registration Forms. It is still possible to use the Select control as described in the previous section.

In addition, it is now possible to use the Import / Export feature of NEIS to import Lookup Data. This is possible with the introduction of the new Resource Type: “User Lookup”.

NEIS_4.1_User_Lookup_Data-B

By specifying this new Resource Type in the Import / Export section of NEIS – whether for a scheduled job or uploaded file – the System Administrator can import a CSV file containing Lookup Data for one-or-more SCIM attributes for the “User” Resource Type.

NEIS_4.1_User_Lookup_Data-C

The expected columns in the CSV are:

  • Attribute – the SCIM attribute that will be constrained on Registration Forms
  • Key – the value that will be written to the “User” resource – can be the same as the Label
  • Label – the value that will be displayed to the user in the dropdown list – can be different than the Key

For instance, prior to importing Lookup Data, the field for the “Title” SCIM attribute on the “Default” Registration Form allows the user to freely type a value:

NEIS_4.1_User_Lookup_Data-D

After importing a CSV for the “User Lookup” Resource Type with the following data:

Attribute,Key,Label
Title,title1,Title 1
Title,title2,Title 2
Title,title3,Title 3
Title,title4,Title 4
Title,title5,Title 5
Title,title6,Title 6
Title,title7,Title 7
Title,title8,Title 8
Title,title9,Title 9
Title,title10,Title 10

Users will be constrained by the values supplied during import:

NEIS_4.1_User_Lookup_Data-E

To remove previously imported Lookup Data, the System Administrator can import a blank CSV feed:

Attribute,Key,Label

To import Lookup Data on an ongoing basis, the System Administrator should use the Schedule Job tab of the Import / Export screen.

We hope you love this new feature as much as we do! For more information, please refer to the latest NEIS User Guide.