Chapter 3   Configuring The Desktop


This chapter describes the following topics related to configuring the client desktop:

• Adding a Custom Provider

• Configuring an available channel
  • Specifying channel column and row layouts

• Setting desktop colors for a channel

• Specifying a customized logo for the portal home page

• Introducing the Channel Wizard

Adding a Custom Application Provider

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An application provider is the source of information, in the form of a java class, that can be displayed to a user. When the provider is added to the iPlanet Portal Server selected list of applications, the user can then choose to display this source data to an indicated area on their desktop. The displayed information is referred to as a channel. The prerequisites to loading a provider include having the java class file. Also, for a channel that will use the iPlanet Portal Server Profile Service, a corresponding .xml file would be needed.

For example, a quotation provider is added as follows. In practice, also remember to use fully qualified class names.

Copying the Class File

1. Copy the quotation provider class file into the class path of the web server. The path begins with the root install directory (for this example, the install root directory was /opt).

   In this case, the sample quotation provider is part of the Java package com.iplanet.portalserver.providers.quotations. Any sample provider included with the product must be user compiled. Upon compiling the provider, the class file would automatically be put into the class path of the web server. Therefore, for this example, treat this class file as if it came from an external source. The file is copied to:

      /opt/SUNWips/lib/com/iplanet/portalserver/providers/quotations

   To do this, the following commands are used:

   # mkdir -p                 /opt/SUNWips/lib/com/iplanet/portalserver/providers/quotations

   # cd /opt/SUNWips/lib/com/iplanet/portalserver/providers/quotations

   # cp /opt/SUNWips/sample/desktop/classes/com/iplanet/portalserver/\ providers/quotations

   # cp QuotationProvider.class

2. Import the provider's xml file using ipsadmin as follows:

   # cd /opt/SUNWips/sample/desktop/xml

   # /opt/SUNWips/bin/ipsadmin -import iwtQuotationProvider.xml

Adding the Channel to the Available Channels List

1. Log in to the admin console.

2. Click the Manage Domains link and select the default domain (for this example, sun.com).

3. Expand the Applications link and select Desktop. The Available and Selected Providers list windows will appear as shown in Figure 2-8 on page 56.

4. Type iwtQuotationProvider in the Channel Name text box. For the Class Name text box, type:

   com.iplanet.portalserver.providers.quotations.QuotationProvider

5. Click the Submit button at the bottom of this page to update the Profile Server.

Adding the Channel to a Desktop

1. Log in to the desktop as a user. Follow authentication instructions if a new user.

2. Select the Content link and add the listed Quotations channel to the desktop. The quotations channel information will be displayed.

Configuring an Available Channel

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Figure 3-1    Specifying Column and Row Layout for the Desktop

For any selected channel, attributes can be configured to restrict or allow users control over how the channel is displayed. For example, attributes can include, but are not limited to:

• Column layout

• Additional channel display attributes
  • position and size within defined column layout

  • inclusion or omission of help

  • use of a border

Specifying Column Layout

1. Locate the display layout attribute on the Desktop profile page under Applications, as shown in Figure 3-1 on page 76.

2. Select either thin-thick, thick-thin, thin-thick-thin, or thin-thin-thin layouts. The available channels will be displayed as follows.
   • for thin-thick, or thick-thin layouts, channels are displayed in the order of the selected provider list. Channel data is filled from the leftmost column with the first channel representing the first provider and so forth.

   • for the thin-thick-thin layout, thin channels are populated in the leftmost window and thick layouts are located in the center window.

   • for the thin-thin-thin layout, channels are displayed in the leftmost window only.

Additional Channel Display Attributes

From the Domain>Applications>Desktop link, the desired channel can be selected from the Available Channels List window to display its attributes. For example, a channel border can be included or omitted. In addition, other channel display attributes can be set as shown in Figure 3-2 on page 78. For example, if the channel is not to be removed, the removable box will be unchecked. If the channel is to include a Help button, the Help attribute will be checked, and so forth.

Figure 3-2    Channel Display Attributes

Setting Desktop Colors and Content

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The colors for the desktop can be modified by editing the desktop templates found in the directory /etc/opt/SUNWips/desktop. The default directory contains the templates that all users get by default. To create a "new" desktop for users copy the default directory to a new location. Modify the new templates as desired (using HTML commands to change colors). In the console, under the desktop profile, select the Display/Layout option and enter the new directory name in the Template Directory field.

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Note

Admin Console colors are located under the /public_html folder off of the installation path. There are a series of style sheets (denoted with a .css file extension) that represent various components of the admin console display. For example, navigation controls can have a different color specified in the nav......css file. The prerequisite for changing colors on the admin console is familiarity with HTML commands and syntax.

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Specifying a Custom Name and Logo for the Portal Home Page

The portal home page includes a default name for the portal page and a GIF file that displays the default logo. To customize these elements of the desktop, use the directory path:

<install path>/SUNWips/public_html/images

Within that directory are the file names representing the Product Logo and Product Name. The image file specified for the Product Logo (e.g., productLogot.gif) can be changed to the name for a loaded custom logo image file. The image file representing the Product Name (e.g., productName.gif) can also be modified to the product name for the site owner.

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Note	The logo and name images are used by more than just the desktop. These images are also referenced by the admin console, the applications, and the login templates. To create a new image for just the desktop, create a new image entry and change the templates to point to this new file.

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Introducing The Channel Wizard

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The Channel Wizard is an administrative module that assists an administrator with creating and configuring channels for the iPlanet Portal Server desktop. To start the Channel Wizard, use the administrative console to navigate to the profile of the domain, role, or user for which the channel is to be added. This is accomplished using the Manage Domains link on the iPlanet Portal Server console menu bar. In the profile menu, the Channel Wizard is identified by a link called Desktop Channel Wizard.

Creating a channel consists of the following steps:

1. Select a name and description for the new channel.

2. Choose the type of channel to create (i.e., URL scraper or Rich Site Summary).

3. Type the title to be displayed by the desktop.

4. Type the URL of the site to fetch the content.

The first page of the Wizard prompts for the channel name, which Content Provider to use, and a description of the channel. The name of the channel may only contain letters and numbers. This name is used for naming purposes within the system and is only visible to the administrator.

The next page of the Wizard prompts for the channel attributes used to build the channel data. The two most important attributes are the Title and the URL. The title is the name that is displayed in the channel on desktop. The URL is the name of the site that contains the data to be rendered by the provider in the channel. Clicking Finish on this page causes the Channel Wizard to create the channel and display a completion message.

Once a channel is created using the Channel Wizard, it is managed using the Desktop administrative module, just as with other channels. For example, if the administrator wants to have the new channel be one of the channels that are selected by default for all new users, the channel would first be created using the Channel Wizard and then it would be added to the selected channel list using the Desktop module.