How to create a custom naming format in AD based on your organization?

Objective: Create a customized naming format for the various naming attributes of AD objects or accounts.

Solution: ADManager Plus provides a custom naming format builder that enables you to create as many personalized naming formats as necessary, according to your organization's requirements.

ADManager Plus provides users with two naming formats:

• Regular custom naming format
• Advanced naming format, which can handle specific conditions, such as scenarios where the first name is empty, or the middle name begins with a specific character, and more.

Steps to create a normal or regular custom naming format using ADManager Plus

1. Navigate to Admin > Custom Settings > Naming Formats.
2. Click the Add New Format icon.
3. In the Format Name text box, provide a suitable name to the naming format you are about to create, e.g., LogonName Format.
4. Choose FirstName from the Select Data drop-down menu. From the drop-down box to the right of Select Data, choose the part of the first name that you would like to format, i.e., First word, Last word, Every word etc.
5. Choose the number of characters from the with drop-down, such as All, First, Last, or Nth.
6. From the Characters drop-down, choose the word casing you want.
7. Now, click Add. The Format Value will reflect the corresponding values you configured, and the Preview will display a sample output for more clarity.

   Note: The number that you enter in the box that appears after you choose the First, Last, or All option is to mention the number of characters that will be considered for formatting. For example, let's say you want to format the first four letters in the name Johnsmith in the upper case; you would give First followed by 4.

8. To format the last name of the user, choose LastName from the Select Data drop-down, and choose All words in the drop-down box to the right of the Select Data drop-down. Now, select All in the box following with to specify the number of characters. Choose the required case from the Characters drop-down box, and finally click Add. The output value will appear as the Format Value.
9. Click Show Advanced to configure the requirements for the Naming Formats values.
• Limit the resultant format value length to: Provide the maximum length of the resultant value of the Naming Format.
• Remove umlaut accents: Select this option to remove umlauts used in the values provided for the Naming Formats. Click Accent removal patterns to add the letters that must replace the specified characters with umlauts.
• Remove Specified Characters: Check this option to restrict the use of any special characters. Click Char removal patterns to add the list of special characters that must be restricted.
• Trim unwanted spaces and dots: Select this option to remove the spaces before the First Name and after the Last Name.
• Word Delimiter: Enter any special characters based on which the first word or last word of any naming attribute will be identified.

Example: If First Name (Last word) is John-Smith and the Last Name is Doe, then the sample output will be SmithDoe.

10. Click Save. Now the naming format is ready to be used in user creation templates.

Steps to create an advanced naming format in ADManager Plus

1. Navigate to Admin > Custom Settings > Naming Formats.
2. Scroll down to the bottom half of the available naming formats and click Add Advanced Format.
3. Enter a name in the Advanced Format Name field. e.g., New Display Name Format.
4. From the Default Format without any conditions drop-down, choose the format that will be applied when none of the conditions are true.
5. Now, add the conditions by clicking the Add Condition button.
6. Select either Match all the following or Match any of the following depending on the criteria you want to set.
7. Now set the first condition value by choosing from the drop down. Click the + icon to add another condition.
8. Now, choose the format that has to be applied if the above condition is true and click OK.
9. Click Save.

By creating and using customized naming formats, it will be easy to avoid duplicate names in Active Directory.

Use cases

Use case 1

For example, if the norm for creating user logon names in your organization is to add the first letter of a user's first name, middle name, and last name, followed by a three digit number, it would look like,

1st character of FirstName + 1st character of MiddleName + 1st character of LastName + a random three digit number

You can configure this custom naming format in ADManager Plus by following these steps:

1. Navigate to Admin > Custom Settings > Naming Format.
2. Click Add New Format.
3. In the Format Name field, provide a suitable name. E.g., LogonName Format.
4. From Select Data drop-down, choose FirstName and in the drop-down box next to it, choose First word.
5. Choose First in the drop-down box next to with, choose the casing that is required in the Character box, and click Add. The Format Value will reflect the corresponding values of your choice.
6. Repeat the above steps to format MiddleName and LastName as well. In both cases, Choose First in the drop-down box next to with and specify the number of characters as 1.
7. Now to add random numbers as mentioned in the above example, from Select Data, choose RandomNumber with 3 characters and click Add.
   Note: You can customize the random number by configuring the number of digits and the range for the random number.
8. Click Save.

Use case 2

Consider a scenario where the logon names for an organization's employees are expected to follow this format:

First character of every word in the first name + Last word of Last name

You can configure this custom naming format in ADManager Plus by following these steps:

1. Navigate to Admin > Custom Settings > Naming Format.
2. Click Add New Format.
3. In the Format Name field, provide a suitable name to the naming format you are about to create. E.g., LogonName Format.
4. From the Select Data drop-down, choose FirstName and in the drop-down box next to it, choose Every word, and from the with drop-down, choose First character.
5. Choose the word casing you want and click Add. The Format Value will reflect the corresponding values of your choice.
6. Now to format last name, choose LastName from the Select Data drop-down, and choose Last words. In the drop-down right next to with, choose All
7. Pick the required casing from the Character drop-down and click Add.
8. Click Save.

Use case 3

Let's say your organization follows a naming format for logon names with the first name followed by certain characters from the last name and a date (for example, date of joining of the employee).

First Name + 2nd char of last name + Date format (yymmdd)

You can configure this custom naming format in ADManager Plus by following these steps:

1. Navigate to Admin > Custom Settings > Naming Format.
2. Click Add New Format.
3. In the Format Name field, provide a suitable name. E.g., LogonName Format.
4. From the Select Data drop-down, choose FirstName, and in the next field, select All words.
5. Select All characters from the drop-down next to with, choose the casing you want, and click Add. The Format Value will reflect the corresponding values of your choice.
6. Fill in all the fields to format the last name. To format the second character in the last name, choose Nth Char and enter the value as 2 in the drop-down next to with.
7. Pick the required casing from the list and click Add.
8. To add the date format, choose DateFormat from the Select Data drop-down, and click Add.
   Note: The default format for Date is %-DyyyyMMdd%. This can be modified as required in the Format Value field.
9. Now, click Save.

Use case 4

Consider a scenario where the display names for an organization's employees are expected to follow this format: First Name +.+ Middle Name +.+ Last Name.

During bulk management operations, importing a CSV file is the easiest solution. The above naming format works perfectly when the imported CSV file contains values corresponding to the above format. But what will happen if any of the name attributes (say Middle Name) in the CSV file are missing? The Display Name would then be John..Smith. This is definitely awkward to comprehend and a deviation from organizational naming standards.

This is where the Advanced Naming Format feature proves useful as it provides you with an alternate naming format that can be used under abnormal conditions like the one discussed above (Middle Name missing for a user in the CSV file).

Using the Advanced Naming format, administrators can define an alternate naming format, say First Name +.+ Last Name, and apply it whenever the Middle Name is missing in the CSV file arises.

For the above example: If the Middle Name is missing, then the alternate naming format will be: Display Name will be First Name +.+ Last Name i.e. John. Smith

You can configure an Advanced Naming Format in ADManager Plus by following these steps:

1. Navigate to Admin > Custom Settings > Naming Formats.
2. Scroll down to the bottom half of the available naming formats and click Add Advanced Format.
3. Enter a name in the Advanced Format Name field. e.g., New Display Name Format.
4. From the Default Format without any conditions drop-down, choose the format that will be applied when none of the conditions are true. In this case, we'll choose our default format: First Name +.+ Middle Name +.+ Last Name.
5. Now, add the conditions by clicking the Add Condition button.
6. Select either Match all the following or Match any of the following depending on the criteria you want to set. In this case, we're going to choose the former.
7. Now set the first condition value by choosing MiddleName from the first drop-down and is empty from the drop-down to the right. Click the + icon to add another condition, and choose MiddleName then contains space.
8. Now, choose the format that has to be applied if the above condition is true. We'll choose the First Name +.+ Last Name format and click OK.
9. Click Save.