Synchronization Service synchronizes data between the source and target objects using the pre-configured synchronization rules.
In the PowerShell scripts used to set up the script-based synchronization rules, you can employ the $srcObj and $dstObj built-in associative arrays (hash tables) that allow the scripts to access the current values of attributes of the source and target objects, respectively. The array keys names are names of the object attributes.
For more information about the use of the associative arrays, refer to Windows PowerShell documentation.
In addition to $srcObj and $dstObj, Synchronization Service defines the $Request built-in hash table. The $Request key names are also names of the object attributes. The $Request hash table contains new values of the target object attributes to which the target object attributes must be set after completing the synchronization process.
To clarify the use of built-in hash tables, let us consider the following scenario: you synchronize between the "mail" attributes of user objects in an LDAP directory (source connected system) and Active Roles (target connected system) using the following synchronization rule: the value of the "mail" attribute in the target connected system must be equal to that in the source connected system concatenated with current date.
For example, before the synchronization process started, the source object had the "mail" attribute: JDoe@mail1.mycompany.com, the target object had the "mail" attribute: JDoe@mail2009.mycompany.com. After the synchronization process completes, the target user will have the following mail: JDoe@mail1.mycompany.com (5 December, 2012) (if you performed the synchronization process on 5 December, 2012.
The following code snippet illustrates the use of built-in hash tables:
#Returns "JDoe@mail1.mycompany.com
$strSourceMail=$srcObj["mail"]
#Returns JDoe@mail2009.mycompany.com
$strTargetMail=$DstObj["mail"]
#Returns JDoe@mail1.mycompany.com (5 January, 2010)
$strNewMail=$Request["mail"]
The following script illustrates the use of $srcObj.
A creating task (creating step of a sync workflow as applied to Synchronization Service) causes Synchronization Service to create user identity information from a delimited text file to Active Directory using the following creating rule: the "co" attribute in all created users must be set to the name of country where the user lives. The script-based creating rule calculates the "co" attribute value basing on the user's city (the "City" attribute in the connected data source).
The following script implements the described scenario:
# --- Retrieve the City attribute of the user object in connected data source.
$userCity = $srcObj["City"]
# --- Determine the user's country
switch ($UserCity)
{
"New York" {$country = "United States"; break}
"Paris" {$country = "France"; break}
"Tokyo" {$country = "Japan"; break}
default {$country = "Unknown"}
}
# --- Return the user country. The script-based creating rule
# --- assigns this value to the "co" attribute in the created user object.
$country
# End of the script
Appendix B: Using a PowerShell script to
transform passwords
You can use a Windows PowerShell script in a password sync rule to transform passwords. This section provides some reference materials on how to write a Windows PowerShell script for password transformation.
To synchronize passwords between the source Active Directory domain and the target connected data system, Synchronization Service uses the password sync rules you configure. In a password rule settings, you can type a PowerShell script that transforms source Active Directory user passwords into object passwords for the target connected system. For example, you can use such a script if you want the object passwords in the source and target connected systems to be different.
When developing a PowerShell script to transform passwords, you can employ the $srcPwd built-in associative array (hash table) that allows the scripts to access the source object password. The $srcPwd returns a string that contains the object password.
