Setting up User Aliases

About

Usernames or user IDs can vary between systems and tools that you use on a daily basis. TrueContext provides the ability to set user aliases for TrueContext usernames to:

  • make it easier to remember your user IDs;
  • match usernames across multiple systems to make it easier to dispatch forms;
  • manage users and user IDs through third-party systems.

In the table below, the usernames in the back-office system do not match the TrueContext usernames. Adding the User Aliases in the TrueContext system allows the integration with the back-office system to be more seamless by not requiring the back-office system admins to know TrueContext usernames.

Back-Office System Username TrueContext Username TrueContext User Alias
janesmith jsmith janesmith
johndoe jdoe johndoe
john_shepard jshepard john_shepard

This way, TrueContext provides a user alias that matches up to the back-office system username, making comparison much easier.

Adding a User Alias

The ability to add user aliases to users on your team is available for TrueContext Admins through the User Profile. To do so:

  1. Navigate to the correct user and select Update.
    2019-01-10-UserAliases01.png
  2. On the Account tab, find the table titled External System Alias.
    2019-01-10-UserAliases02.png
  3. Add any System names (e.g. JF for JFire) followed by the appropriate alias that matches that user's username in the system.
    Note:If setting up a single-sign on (SSO) or SAML configuration using aliases, ensure the System Name is saml.
  4. Select Update.
  5. User aliases will be displayed on the user's Account page.
    2019-01-10-UserAliases03.png

Alias Requirements

System Aliases

System aliases are an identification tool for what non-TrueContext system or program the user is going to be linked to. System aliases:

  • must be alphanumeric, but can include the special characters _ and -.
  • are not case sensitive and have a maximum of 20 characters.
  • can only be listed once per user.
  • can be listed on multiple users on the same team.
  • can be used on multiple teams.

User Aliases

User aliases are essentially secondary usernames for users in the TrueContext system. User aliases:

  • are alphanumeric, with the same character restrictions as standard TrueContext usernames.
  • can be used multiple times per user, provided the system alias differs.
  • can be used on multiple different users on a team, provided the system aliases differ.
  • can be used on multiple teams.

System/User Alias Pairs

The combination of a system and a user alias provides a team-level unique identifier. System/User Alias pairs:

  • must be unique on the team.
    • The same system and user alias pair can be used on different teams.
  • must be a maximum of 255 characters.
  • are limited to 5 per user.

Using Aliases for SAML/Single Sign-On (SSO)

Aliases can be used to match usernames in your Identity Provider system. This is only done when the standard TrueContext username and suffix combination is not flexible enough to match. It is configured by creating an alias on the user, using saml as the system.

2019-01-10-UserAliases04.png

DREL for User Aliases

If you need to refer to the user alias used when submitting a form, the syntax is:

%u[alias] to get all aliases for the user, or

%u[alias][system] to get the alias for a specific system.