Complex mapped properties in Sharepoint

Question

Is there any way to set a more complex mapping in a sharepoint profile? What I'm trying to do is set it so that a user's picture is set as the equivilent of

String.Format("http://sharepoint/Photos/{0}_{1}.jpg", givenName, sn)

But the properties only seem to support a simple 1-1 mapping of AD to profile attributes.

Answer 1

I don't think there is a way to do this, other than writing a custom timer job to populate the profile fields by querying AD.

Answer 2

It's possible to map SharePoint profiles to data sources other than AD, for example if HR data is stored in a custom database a BDC model can be made, which can be used as a data source for user profile importing.

For this scenario it sounds like you'd be better off doing as the above poster suggested and just writing a timer job that queries the user profile service for users with an empty picture property, and setting it to your custom URL.

Answer 3

Thanks guys, I'm going to stick with the previous solution though, which was updating one of the extension attributes in AD to the formatted string, then mapping that directly to the profile field.