In this four part series I will describe the process of extending the SharePoint 2013 user profile from Active Directory with additional data from a SQL Server table.  The additional data will then be displayed in users’ My Sites and SharePoint people search.

Part 1 will show the process to create the SQL Server table.  Part 2 will show the process to make the data in the SQL Server table accessible to SharePoint.  Part 3 will show the process to extend user profiles and My Sites to include the additional user data.  Part 4 will show the process to make the new user profile properties accessible in SharePoint Search.

The SharePoint environment is SharePoint 2013 Standard, with SQL Server 2008 R2 and SharePoint Designer 2013.  The steps are based on an environment where the User Profile Service has already been setup, users have been imported from Active Directory and My Sites have been configured.  It is assumed that SharePoint Search has been configured and a search site using the Enterprise Search Center template has been created.

In this post I’ll describe the process of extending the Active Directory user profiles with information from SQL Server and how to display this data in SharePoint people search and My Sites.

Open Central Administration -> Application Management -> Manage service applications and open your User Profile Service application.  Click on Configure Synchronization Connections.

On the Synchronization Connections page click on Create New Connection.  Enter a name for the connection, change the connection type to Business Data Connectivity.  In the Business Data Connectivity Entity section, select your External Content Type.  Choose to connect using a 1:1 mapping and return items based on the WorkEmail property.  Click Ok.

We now need to map the fields returned by the connection to SQL Server to fields in user profiles.  Return to your User Profile Service application in Central Administration and click on Manage User Properties.

On the Manage User Properties screen click on New Property.  I’m going to show the process to create a property called jurisdiction, which will be mapped to the jurisdiction field in SQL Server.  The process needs to be repeated for all fields you wish to add to the user profile.

Enter a name, display name and change the data type and field length to match the field you’re mapping.

Change the Policy Setting to optional, and the Default Privacy Setting to Everyone.  This allows the field to be displayed in the profile properties section of the user’s profile.  I don’t want users to be able to change the jurisdiction value, so update the Edit Settings as appropriate.  In order to display the value on the user’s profile page tick the box under Display Settings.  Ensure the Indexed box is ticked to make the property searchable.

You now need to map the user profile property to the field in the External Content Type.  Choose the Employees data source and the appropriate field to map to the user property.  Leave the direction as import and click Add, followed by Ok to save the new property.

Repeat this process for any other properties you wish to map to user profile properties.  Once you’ve mapped all the user properties run a full user profile synchronization process from Start Profile Synchronization.

Once the profile synchronization has finished, click on Manage User Profiles, then search for a user that should have been populated with data.

If you scroll through the user profile you should see your custom user profile properties have been populated.

Visit a user’s My Site and click on SHOW MORE under the user’s details to see your custom user profile properties.

In the final part of this series I’ll show you how to make the custom properties visible within SharePoint Search.