File Lookup Mechanism

Desktop content can be customized based on the following factors:

• Desktop type

• Locale

• Client type

The DesktopServlet performs a search for a localized file before selecting a default. In order to perform the search, the DesktopServlet uses the user’s locale attribute in the user’s directory entry (or preferredLocale attribute in the Sun Java System Access Manager) and searches for the file. The user’s directory entry stores the user’s preferred locale in the preferredLocale attribute. The value of this attribute must be in the standard International Organization of Standards (ISO) locale format. For example, for the United Kingdom, this code is en_UK.

Locales are searched from more to less specific. For example, for a locale setting of en_US_WE, the search order would be: en_US_WE, en_US, en. If the locale-specific property is not found, then the non-locale-specific version is returned (if it exists).

The /var/opt/SUNWportal/portals/portal-ID/desktop directory stores the directories that present the desktop content. In the administration console, this is referred to as desktop type. The portal customizer can include different sets of files to alter the appearance of the desktop for different groups including localizations. The portal customizer must create a directory that contains the localized content at the same location (as the default content) and append the ISO locale code to the directory name.