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Template Files for Analytics Custom Fields

  • Updated

Acrolinx stores the configuration of the custom user and document fields in XML template files. When you update the custom fields on the Custom Fields page in the Dashboard, Acrolinx automatically updates the XML templates. Also, when you update the XML templates, Acrolinx automatically updates the information on the Custom Fields page. Instead of configuring the custom fields in the dashboard, you can also edit these XML template files directly. This method is helpful if you generate the XML template files automatically from data in your databases. You might configure your system to generate an updated XML template file every time your system is updated with new information.

For example, suppose that your custom information forms require your users to enter their departments and the project of the checked document. The available department and project names are stored in two different databases. You now configure your system to query these databases regularly and to check if either the departments or the projects have changed. If either of these values did change, you can have your system generate a new XML template file with the updated values. This way, the custom information forms always include the latest updates in your organization.

Configuration Steps for Standard Stack

Instead of configuring the custom fields in the Dashboard, you can also edit the relevant XML template files directly. You use the user form template to define the custom fields that you want your users to complete before they start using Acrolinx. There's a sample template to help you get started.

Note

If you’ve configured the server to anonymize all user-specific data, try not to configure fields that could be used to determine the identity of individual users. For example, a field like "Room number" might be used to determine the identity of the user.

To configure the custom user fields in the XML template, follow these steps:

  1. Open your overlay of the following file:

    user_meta_data_configuration.xml

    If you haven’t yet created an overlay of this file, create a new version of the file at the following location:

    <config directory>/data/common

    • Create a new file called user_meta_data_configuration.xml, and add the following code excerpt to get started.

      <metadataconfiguration>
    <fields>
         <field name="Department" default="No Department" inputType="REQUIRED" dataType="LIST">
            <range>
                <value>No Department</value>
                <value>It</value>
                <value>Marketing</value>
            </range>
         </field>
         <field name="external" default="" inputType="PROVIDED_EXTERNALLY" dataType="STRING">
            <range/>
         </field>
         <field name="optional" default="" inputType="OPTIONAL" dataType="STRING">
            <range/>
         </field>
    </fields>
</metadataconfiguration>

      This sample code creates a form with a dropdown field for the following:

      • Department, which is required.

      • The text field external, which is provided by a third party.

      • The text field optional, which you can leave blank.

        Warning

        Note: The input type PROVIDED_EXTERNALLY currently only works with a PingFederate server.

        Warning

        Restriction: Users can’t enter more than 255 characters into text fields.

  2. Save your changes.

  3. (Optional) Clear the custom user information so that users must enter their user information again.

    You might clear the custom user information if you’ve edited the values of a field and want users to update the new fields.