An example of profile metadata configuration for a database : | ... | <attribute> | <attribute-name>user.name.given</attribute-name> | <type>java.lang.String</type> | <access-mode>read-only</access-mode> | <usage>mandatory</usage> | <display-name xml:lang="EN">User name</display-name> | <description xml:lang="EN">The user name</description> | <mapping> | <column> | <column-name>USER_NAME</column-name> | </column> | </mapping> | </attribute> | <attribute> | <attribute-name>user.name.nickName</attribute-name> | <type>java.lang.String</type> | <access-mode>read-write</access-mode> | <usage>optional</usage> | <display-name xml:lang="EN">Nick name</display-name> | <description xml:lang="EN">The nick name</description> | <mapping> | <column> | <column-name>NICK_NAME</column-name> | </column> | </mapping> | </attribute> | ... | For an LDAP store, the mapping would contain LDAP configuration mapping information. And that information is used by the ProfileModule implementation to perform the mapping. It is also available at runtime in a read only manner so that the different tools we have can leverage them to display the information in an appropriate manner based usually on type / usage / access mode. Tools can be UserPortlet, etc... View the original post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=3987170#... Reply to the post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=posting&mode=reply&a...