Customizing the Front Panel

Anyone can drag and drop a pre-existing action from the Application Manager to the Front Panel as long as the account doing the modification has the action in its profile. Actions in the /usr/dt/* or /etc/dt/* directories can be added to the Front Panel, but applications in the $HOME/.dt/appconfig directories cannot. While users can use the Create Action action, they cannot write into any of the directories where the system-wide actions are stored, so they cannot use the actions.

In the Trusted Solaris environment, the actions' search path has been changed so that actions in any individual's home directory are processed last instead of first. Therefore, no one can customize existing actions.

The Security Administrator role has the Admin Editor action, so can make any needed modifications to the /usr/dt/appconfig/types/C/dtwm.fp file and the other configuration files for the Front Panel subpanels. This guide contains two procedures that exemplify how to modify existing files to create new actions. "To Add Actions Outside of the System_Admin Folder" describes how to create an alternate mail application that can run with privilege in the Front Panel. "dtmail is the Default Mail Application" describes how to add an administrative action that can run with inherited privileges to the System_Admin folder for the purpose of editing another configuration file.

Roles can drag and drop actions from the System_Admin folder to the Front Panel. The icons can confuse normal users because the action icons only work for the roles.