Configure Attribute Flow Rules

Owned by Phillip Hanegan
Last updated: Apr 06, 2021
3 min read

EmpowerID supports the configuration of attribute synchronization rules for flowing attribute changes between directories and the EmpowerID Identity Warehouse. Attribute Flow rules are visually configured and are always relative to the relationship between an attribute in a directory and the corresponding attribute in the EmpowerID Identity Warehouse. Attribute Flow rules define the specific fields and attributes that are synchronized between the EmpowerID Identity Warehouse person objects and the external user accounts to which they are linked. Additionally, Attribute Flow rules can be weighted by account store. For example, if you have connected EmpowerID to an HR system as well as Active Directory, and you want any changes made to an attribute in the HR system to take priority over changes made in Active Directory or EmpowerID (while allowing changes to be made in any system), you would give a higher score for each CRUD operation originating from the HR account store and correspondingly lower scores for the Active Directory account store.

The following flow rules are available:

  • No Sync ( Red Circle) — When this option is selected, no information flows between EmpowerID and the native system.

  • Bidirectional Flow (Bidirectional Green Arrow) — When this option is selected, changes made within EmpowerID update the native system and vice-versa. For most attributes, this is the default setting.

  • Account Store Changes Only (Left Pointing Arrow) — When this option is selected, changes can only be made in the native system and are then passed to EmpowerID.

  • EmpowerID Changes Only (Right Pointing Arrow) — When this option is selected, changes can only be made in EmpowerID and are then passed to the native system.

The following CRUD operations are available:

  • Create — This operation is used to create an attribute value for an existing attribute when the value of that attribute is null.

  • Update — This operation is used to update the value of an attribute.

  • Delete — This operation is used to delete the value of an attribute.

  1. From the Account Stores tab of the Account Stores and Systems page, search for the account store you just created and click the Account Store link for it.

  2. Click the Attribute Flow Rules tab to view the current rules for the account store. Please note that the attributes available depend on the account store.

  3. To change the flow for an attribute, click the Attribute Flow drop-down located between the Person Attribute column and the External Directory Attribute column, and select the desired flow direction from the context menu.

  4. To change the score for any of the available CRUD operations (Create, Update and Delete), enter the new score in the appropriate field. By default, scores are weighted evenly, which means that a change to an attribute originating in one connected external directory has the same authority as a change to an attribute occurring in another connected external directory.

EmpowerID only considers scores for attribute CRUD operations when multiple account stores with the same user records are connected to EmpowerID, such as would be the case if an HR System and this account store were being inventoried by EmpowerID.