The key to any user provisioning into Bridge is to identify the UID. This is a unique value owned by every user, and it does not require a specific string or number of characters.

A best practice if you have an HRIS is to integrate Bridge so that you can avoid manual upkeep of your users. This can be accomplished by sending a flat file to an SFTP that is owned by your company or Bridge for Bridge to pick up in a cadence of your choosing (our autoCSV documentation is here).

If provisioning users manually and you are using Bridge for your internal employees, we advise using company email. If email is not an option, then you can use an HRIS ID or a unique value that combines a consistent character string for all employes.

UID, or “Login ID” when mapping, is the only field required to process a CSV. There will be fields that auto-populate, but you can drag and drop them away from the column headers to remove those fields from being uploaded.

These fields are the foundation for groups, enrollments, engagement surveys, and reporting.

Some important things to remember in this process:

• An email is necessary to send welcome emails
• If you map the Login ID to an email address, then the UID and the email address will populate, and if notifications are enabled, a welcome email will be sent
• We advise getting your account setup before sending welcome emails, so this means you would map the UID as a separate column and leave the email blank and unmapped
  • We would also advise turning off notifications when doing a company upload for the first time
  • When you are ready to go live, you can map just UID and email for users (with notifications enabled) to trigger all welcome emails yourself
  • If you accidentally add user emails with notifications off, the Bridge Support team can trigger these on your behalf if you submit a support ticket to support@bridgeapp.com 
• The UID cannot be changed by CSV
  • It can be changed in the UI
  • It can be changed via API
  • If you need to change the UID in bulk for any reason, you can reach out to Bridge Support at support@bridgeapp.com who will need a file with the historical UIDs and the new UIDs to make this change on your behalf
• Data cleanliness is key to user management
  • This data is critical for you to make smart groups that automate enrollments
  • Check that there is character uniformity
    • States may be abbreviated or spelled in full (i.e. CA, Cali, California)
    • Job titles may be abbreviated (i.e. Junior Developer, Jr Developer)
    • Departments may be case sensitive (i.e. finance, Finance)
• The First Name and Last Name will first populate Full Name and Sortable Name
  • If the Last Name changes for a life event, the last two fields will not update unless Full Name and Sortable Name are mapped separately

The “Manager ID” key creates the manager relationship with the hierarchy. It is the only way to provision the manager role. A manager ID must also exist as a UID in order for the manager relationship to hold. If the manager ID is not yet a user, the direct report will be provisioned with no manager relationship.

The autoCSV logs will show an error.

The user will still be provisioned into the account, and if they belong to any smart groups based on their custom fields, they will get auto-enrolled in content, but they will not be put into a manager group.

There are four default fields for users in Bridge:

• Job Title
• Department
• Hire Date
• Manager

These cannot be removed, but they are not required to map.

SIDE NOTE. These fields are not in the standard Analytics Transcript. To use them, you’ll either want to leverage Advanced Analytics through the Advanced Analytics Analyst or by double mapping these fields as custom fields (with nomenclature to differentiate the two headers to avoid confusion).

All Performance functionality (i.e. Skills, 1:1s, etc.) is based on default Job Title and manager associations from the default fields.

You can add as many custom fields as you need for your users. Please consider these values when you are planning groups, enrollments, engagement surveys, and reporting. Here are some helpful articles:

• How do I automate content enrollments with smart groups?
• Best Practices for using categories and smart groups to expose content to learners
• How should I organize content for learners?
• How should I set up my smart groups?
• How do I set up the account to train customers and partners?
• How should I set up managers in Bridge?
• How do I set up engagement surveys?

Custom fields are created upon the initial mapping exercise. They are then identifiable by the ability to remove (small blue “x”) or rename them in the interface upon future mappings. Removing custom fields is not possible if the field is being used in a smart group.

In this example, the “FT/PT” custom field is not being used for a smart group. There is the blue “x” next to that field. It can be deleted. Once you delete a custom field and process a file, that field and associated data will be removed from the user profiles. If you do not want to map it for an upload but you keep the tile in place, the field will remain on the user profiles.

Be sure you name your custom fields to be easily identifiable and unique (i.e. no duplicates).

Modifying field values can significantly impact group affiliations and user enrollments. It can also impact enrollment sources. If content was completed based on a historical smart group affiliation where a re-enrollment was set, that re-enrollment will be impacted because the user is no longer affiliated with that smart group and, therefore, not affiliated with that enrollment source (and the re-enrollment).

If a large volume of your users transition between groups in an upload and you notice any discrepancies, you can reach out to Bridge Support at support@bridgeapp.com and they can run a resync on a group or learning item.

We have a Bridge test plan that you can follow here.

If helpful, you can download a sample user upload file from our resource library here.

Our integrations are always being enhanced, so please reach out to support@bridgeapp.com if you have any questions about your specific scenario. They can connect you to your Bridge Success Team member if you need additional assistance.

You can find a table of contents of our important links for getting started in Bridge here, including SSO and other technical information.