Getting Started with Creating and Importing Users

Loading people records is important if you need TeamDynamix to know about people before they ever log in to TeamDynamix. This article summarizes ways that people records can be created or updated.

This getting started article will help administrators to manage and import users using the TDAdmin or the people import utility . The user must have the Admin access in TDAdmin.

Overview

Users are anyone who can authenticate into TeamDynamix. All Users along with other types of people records (see below) are all stored in the TDNext application, People. To manage Users typically, you will do so via the TDAdmin console.

When tickets have a required requestor field, projects have sponsors, or assets have an owner, a relationship with a user record is created.

TeamDynamix can store three types of people records: contacts, customers, and users. Customer and user records are used most often, while contacts are rarely used because they cannot be the requestors of a ticket or the sponsors of a project.

User records can be created manually, or the Windows-based people import utility supports code-free user import.

Where to Find This

This feature appears in the TDAdmin interface.

Navigate to Users following these paths:

• TDAdmin > Users & Roles > Users

Where to Start

Creating Users

Users can be created on at a time, or there are several ways of importing user records.

Manually Creating a User in TDAdmin

To manually create a TeamDynamix user:

1. In TDAdmin, click Users and Roles in the left navigation.
2. Click the Users tab.
3. Click the Create button.
4. Enter in the Username and select Next.
5. In the next window, provide the following:
   1. Select appropriate security role and password (all required)
   2. Enter in First Name, Last Name, and email address (all required)
   3. Provide any non-required demographic details about the User being created.

People Application

The People application has an Import button that lets people with the right security role and application settings create people records in bulk.

People Import Utility

he TeamDynamix People Import Utility allows you to simply place a file of user data to be updated, queried from you system of record, in a directory, and the file will be uploaded to the TDX API endpoint and processed into your environment on a set schedule listed below (see related articles for more details).  This allows you to avoid having to do your own API scripting and avoids the corresponding rate limiting imposed on those external API calls. This Windows-based utility can run on a VM on a server, and will take a .csv, .xls, or .xlsx file, convert it into .xlsx if necessary, and then send the file into your environment for processing.

Web API and Manual Bulk Import Process

The Web API has an import endpoint that lets you create customer or user records. (The general help for our RESTful APIs services is located at https://yourTeamDynamixDomain/TDWebApi/)

You send this import an Excel file a list of people, starting from a template. You can remove optional columns, and if you have custom people attributes you can add them by adding columns that have the same name as your custom attributes.

When you send the file, it will be queued to run as part of the nightly batch process. You can see the submitted job in your Import Jobs.

For each row the import sees, it first looks for an existing people record. (This matching process is described in the API documentation.) If there is a match, the import will update the person using the values for that row. If there is not a match, the import will create a new record.

Please note that this process:

• may report errors, for example if required fields are missing for a user. Please check the status of import jobs after they are run
• runs at night, but has a “hard stop” and is not guaranteed to process the entire file. This is typically an issue with initial data loads; your consultant can help make sure your import completes over the course of a few nights.

You may also manually upload Excel files for import processes at TDAdmin> Users & Roles> Import Jobs.  This is also the same location you can see status and log information on all uploaded import Excel files.

All uploaded Excel files are processed on the following schedule:

Production

• 3 AM ET - 7 AM ET
  The system will continuously accept and process imports submitted anytime between 3 AM ET and 7 AM ET, in addition to any queued items from before the processing window.

Sandbox

• 3 AM ET - 7 AM ET
  The system will continuously accept and process imports submitted anytime between 3 AM ET and 7 AM ET, in addition to any queued items from before the processing window.

• 9 AM ET
  This is an additional, one-time processing window for SaaS customers. All currently pending imports in the queue will be processed. As soon as the back-end processing system has completed all queued items it will stop and not process further imports until the next window.
• 12 PM ET
  This is an additional, one-time processing window for SaaS customers. All currently pending imports in the queue will be processed. As soon as the back-end processing system has completed all queued items it will stop and not process further imports until the next window.
• 3 PM ET
  This is an additional, one-time processing window for SaaS customers. All currently pending imports in the queue will be processed. As soon as the back-end processing system has completed all queued items it will stop and not process further imports until the next window.
• 6 PM ET
  This is an additional, one-time processing window for SaaS customers. All currently pending imports in the queue will be processed. As soon as the back-end processing system has completed all queued items it will stop and not process further imports until the next window.

Web API Single User Creation

The Web API also has an endpoint to create users one at a time. To do this you need to write a program.
This endpoint is rate-limited, meaning your program must add a pause between creating new users to keep from sending too many at once. The endpoint is rate-limited to ensure that overall TeamDynamix performance is not impacted.

Self-Registration

Self-registration is a way to create user records using the information coming from your single sign-on or authentication provider.

If self-registration is configured and enabled for your organization, when someone logs in to the TeamDynamix Client Portal but does not already have a user record, they can sign in using their organizational credentials that exist within your LDAP or SSO provider.

Deciding on a User Creation Method

Here are some guidelines to help you decide the best way to create user records in your organization.

Do you have single sign-on, LDAP, or AD authentication providers?

If you have single sign-on, LDAP, or AD authentication providers then you have the option of using self-registration and loading customer records.

Depending on your needs, you can use the attributes from these providers to create user records in different ways. You could have one self-registration profile for everyone, or several depending on attributes that come from your authentication provider.

You can then load customer records via the bulk people import.

Self-registration is a great way to “upgrade” customer records when people log in.

Do you have an identity management solution that can create people?

If you have an identity management solution that executes processes when people are added that solution may be able to create people one-at-a-time via the people API. Just note that this solution may need a delay as well to respect rate-limiting.

Will you let technicians create people records?

Some organizations allow technicians to create people records, for example to track parents, alumni, or others who have not been loaded into TeamDynamix. Typically, technicians are expected to check to see whether a person already exists, and then they create a record if the person does not already exist.

Other organizations are concerned about too many duplicate person records and do not let technicians create people records.

If you let technicians create people records, then you can often let more time elapse between people imports. For example, some organizations might load customer records manually once a month.

Updating User Records Via the API

You can use the bulk people import to update records when people change.

Some organizations send two bulk imports: one for new people, and another for updates to existing people. You may want to send updates separately if you do not want to overwrite attributes like the security role.

There are a few things about people that you cannot change via the API. These changes will need to be done on the user record one at a time:

• Changing people from customers to users.
• Changing user passwords.
• Changing the TeamDynamix username.

Activating or Deactivating a User

Once a user account exists, you can activate or deactivate it as necessary. Deactivated user accounts do not count against your license counts.

1. In TDAdmin, navigate to Users & Roles > Users.
2. From the list of users, click the name of the person you would like to activate or deactivate, or use the Search field to find a specific user.
3. At the top of the user window, click Activate or Deactivate.
4. [confirm?]

Removing a User

There is no way in TeamDynamix to remove a people record. Your two options are to deactivate the person or merge a person into another person. Merging is intended for duplicate records.

Converting Customers and Users

TeamDynamix administrators can manually convert customer records to user records. For more information on Customers vs Users, see What is the difference between People Records? Users, Customers and Contacts.

Converting a Customer to a User

Note that if a customer is converted to a user, they will not be able to log into TDNext until you explicitly grant them access to the TDNext application. Be sure to grant the new user application access to TDNext and any other applications to avoid this issue.

To convert a customer record to a user record:

1. In TDAdmin, navigate to Users & Roles > Users.
2. In the top right corner, click the Filter icon.
3. From the Classifications list, uncheck all but Customers, then click Apply.
4. Click on the Name of the Customer you would like to upgrade to a user.
5. At the top of the window, click Actions, then click Convert to User. A new window will open.
6. Enter a Username for the new user.
7. Select a Security Role for the new user.
8. Unless you are using LDAP authentication, leave Auth Provider to TeamDynamix.
9. If you are using SSO, leave the Auth Provider to TeamDynamix, and SSO will be used.
10. Enter a local TeamDynamix password in the Password and Confirm Password fields.
    If you are using LDAP or SSO authentication, this password will not be used. It is local to TeamDynamix only.
11. Click Save.

Converting a User to a Customer

Converting a user to a customer will remove the individual's ability to log in to TeamDynamix.

To convert a user record to a customer record:

1. In TDAdmin, navigate to Users & Roles > Users.
2. In the top right corner, click the Filter icon.
3. From the Classifications list, uncheck all but Users, then click Apply.
4. Click on the Name of the User you would like to downgrade to a Customer.
5. At the top of the window, click Actions, then click Convert to Customer.
6. Click Save.
7. At the prompt, click OK.