What are Attribute Providers?

There are a variety of ways to provide and use attributes belonging to My webMethods Server users. Basic to each user are the My webMethods Server attributes: home page, skin, and number of lines displayed per page. In addition, there are Principal Attribute Providers:

Attribute provider	Description
Core Attributes	A set of core attributes such as user ID and email address. If the user is in the system directory service, some fields are editable. If the user is in an external directory service, all fields are read only. See The Core Attributes Attribute Provider.
User Profile	A rich set of user attributes that you can maintain regardless of which directory service the user is a member of. The attributes are stored in the My webMethods Server database. Once established for each user, the User Profile Attributes can be used for wiring globally within My webMethods Server. See The User Profile Attribute Provider.
LDAP	A set of attributes from the external directory service. You can specify which attributes are exposed from a given directory service. See The LDAP Attribute Provider.
Database	A set of attributes from an external database directory service. You can specify which attributes are exposed from a given directory service. See The Database Attribute Provider.
Notification	A set of addresses, such as email, at which the user can receive notifications from My webMethods Server. See The Notification Attribute Provider.
Dynamic	A set of attributes whose values can change depending on the roles the user is a member of. See The Dynamic Attribute Provider.

Principal Attribute Providers are useful because any attribute they expose can be made available as wiring for a portlet. For example, suppose a portlet uses a postal code to display certain information when a user views a page. If the postal code is provided by wiring from a Principal Attribute Provider, when the postal code attribute is modified within a directory service, the portlet uses the modified attribute value.