The User Replicator is intended for the downloading of users, cost centers, and/or user roles from pre-defined supported files and for storing its information in the Dispatcher Paragon Management Service internal database. Dispatcher Paragon provides a REST web service as a middleware, so authentication is required.


By default, the User Replicator will not edit user entities (user, user role, cost center) created from different source (e.g. LDAP replication). To allow such editing, please see section Allow to combine user entity sources.

At a Glance

See the YSoft shell information page for information on how to run shell.

CLI User Replicator

The command for the User Replicator is "user replicate"

User Replicator do not edit another user entity (user, user role, cost centre) by default.

User Replicator has the following parameters:

  • --username Name of user connected to the rest service (administrator username)
  • --password User password
  • --tenant Tenant domain identification (if not set, the default value is 'tenant_1')
  • --host URL of Dispatcher Paragon Management Service (If not set, the default value is https://localhost . The port number may be omitted as well, default is 80.)

Example of command line arguments

user replicate --username username --password password --tenant tenant_1 --host https://localhost

With the parameters above, the .bat file for a fast run can be created:

call "<install_dir>\DispatcherParagon\utilities\Import tool\import_tool.bat" user replicate --username admin --password admin --tenant tenant_1 --host https://localhost

The following steps are needed to enable CSV file replication:

  1. Configure the replication source directory by editing the userReplicationDir configuration property through System Settings. Usually, it is an absolute path on a local computer.

    Example of root folder for replication files

  2. Create CSV files according to the structure described in the next chapter. Use UTF-8 for CSV file encoding.
  3. Configure the sending of emails when replication fails—see  Replicator e-mail configuration page.
  4. Start replicator by running command line (for its parameters, see above).
  5. For regular synchronization with the CSV file, schedule the import via system scheduled tasks.
  6. Information about replication results will be saved into the log file (ysoft-shell.log) stored next to the import_tool.bat file.

Supported file formats: CSV (separated by ';'), Microsoft Excel (XLS and XLSX).

Allow to combine user entity sources

Set configuration property allowCombiningUserEntitySources to allow to combine user entity (user, user role, cost center) sources during replication. This configuration option applies only to creating and updating of user entities.

File Structure

  • Before replication, the respective files must be stored in the directory according to the configuration (see above).
  • If you store a subdirectory in the aforementioned directory, the files from all the subdirectories are parsed recursively.
  • These files must be stored in the format shown below. The files are processed in alphabetical order based on their names. (For replication, only some of them may be used.)
  • Only one type of input information per file is allowed, e.g., you cannot import users and update card numbers in the same file.
  • Files must be imported in logical order, e.g., users must be created before a card is assigned to them.
  • The User Replicator is not able to create/modify the money accounts in Dispatcher Paragon Payment System.

Supported input types

  • User information
  • Card numbers
  • Cost centers
  • Roles
  • Mapping roles to users
  • Update of users
  • Deletion of users
  • Set user's password




Integration limitation

When creating users using CLI User Replicator, please consider migration into LDAP, as manually created users are not supported in all integrated components.



Replication of complete user list

Replicates the complete list of all users created from an external source.

<user ID>;<login,alias,...>;<first name>;<last name>;[email];<centre number>;[home directory]

The replication has the following features:

  • If the userID equals zero, then the user is updated based on the login (first record). Otherwise, the user with ID matching the userID is updated.
  • If the replicator finds an existing user, the replicator compares existing records. In the case of changes, it updates relevant data (and adds and/or removes data).
  • If the replicator does not find a user, a new one is created. The user ID for the new user is added by database sequence, not by the userID specified in the data.
  • Records not present in the list (and created by the replicator before) will be marked deleted.


PIN or card number update

Adds additional information to an existing list of users (internal and/or replicated from another source).

PINCARD;<login>;<PIN/card number>

or deprecated variant (where user login cannot contain only numbers):

<login>;<PIN/card number>
  • New PINs or card numbers will be added to corresponding records.
  • PINs or card numbers previously imported with CLI User Replicator for a user will be replaced.
  • Empty fields in place of a PIN/card number imply the removal of all associated records.
  • When importing a PIN already encrypted via MD5, add the tag md5@@ before the whole PIN
    • e.g., jondoe;md5@@PINe10adc3949ba59abbe56e057f20f883e
  • Records (for a given login) not present in the list (and created by a replicator before) will be marked deleted.

Cost center list replication

The list of all cost centers to be replicated into the internal database.

DEPT;<centre number>;<centre name>
  • Centers not included in the list (and created by the replicator before) will be removed (marked deleted).
  • Other cost centers will be added and/or updated.

Role list replication

The list of all roles to be replicated into the internal database.

ROLE;<role name>;<role description>
  • Roles not included in the list (and created by the replicator before) will be removed (marked deleted).
  • Other roles will be added and/or updated.

Assignment of user to role

The list of roles the user has been assigned to.

RMAP;<login>;<role name>
  • Only roles in the list will be kept for a user (plus the role Everyone); the others (created by replicator before) will be removed.

Set password for user

This replication type can be used to initialize a password for replicated (or any other) users.

A password is set only if the user does not have one. This should prevent the situation when the next replication overwrites the current user's password that the user chose instead of the default one (for example, via the Dashboard widget, if the password change action is enabled via their user's rights).

PASSWORD;<login>;<password>
  • Password cannot be empty and must be entered as plain text

Update of users

While the replication of users require a  list of all users (not-listed users are deleted), the update of users updates only particular users.

USERUPDATE;[userID];[login,alias,...];[name];[surname];[email];[centre number];[home directory]
  • If the userID is not empty, the user is searched by ID. Otherwise, the user is searched by login.
  • Parameters can be empty. Only filled-in values are updated for the user.
  • Users can be updated only if they were created by the replicator before.

Deletion of users

While the replication of users deletes all not-listed users, deletion of users deletes only particular users.

USERDELETE;[userID];[login,alias,...]
  • If the userID is not empty, the user is deleted based on ID. Otherwise, the user is deleted based on login.
  • Users can be deleted only if they were created by the replicator before.


 

There are two types of item in the row format prescription:

  • An item in "< >" is required
  • An item in "[ ]" are optional

Sample row:

0;johndoe;John;Doe;john.doe@example.com;0;