Data Director Implementation Guide

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External Links (Custom Start Workspace Components)

Custom components are defined using the externalLink element.

An externalLink allows the display of either pages requested from an external URL, or custom HTML and JavaScript code.

The following code snippet is an example of a custom

Start workspace

component. Two parameters are passed as part of the URL, such as:

http://www.bing.com/search?q=bddUserName&hl=en

<bddApplication …>
    …
    <uiExtensions>
      …
      <dashboard> 
        <externalLink name="bing_username" type="IFRAME" url="http://www.bing.com/search"
            displayName="Bing search">
          <param name="q" bddParamName="USERNAME"/>
          <param name="hl" staticValue="en"/>
        </externalLink>
        …
      </dashboard> 
    </uiExtensions>
    …
  </bddApplication>

External Link Parameters (Static and Dynamic)

Any number of parameters can be configured for the URL specified in the externalLink. Parameters can be static or dynamic.

Parameter	Description
Static	Have pre-defined values specified in the IDD configuration file. The following example shows a static parameter definition that uses the staticValue attribute: <param name="hl" staticValue="en"/>
Dynamic	Substituted at run time. The definition of a dynamic parameter contains the attribute bddParamName, and the value of this attribute is substituted with data available at run time. The following dynamic parameters are supported: Login name of the logged IDD application user (bddParamName="USERNAME") Encrypted login name of the logged IDD application user (bddParamName="USERNAME_ENCRYPTED") Password of the logged IDD application user (bddParamName="PASSWORD") Encrypted password of the logged IDD application user (bddParamName="PASSWORD_ENCRYPTED")

Parameter

Description

Static

Have pre-defined values specified in the IDD configuration file. The following example shows a static parameter definition that uses the staticValue attribute:

<param name="hl" 
staticValue="en"/>

Dynamic

Substituted at run time. The definition of a dynamic parameter contains the attribute bddParamName, and the value of this attribute is substituted with data available at run time. The following dynamic parameters are supported:

Encrypted login name of the logged IDD application user (bddParamName="USERNAME_ENCRYPTED")

Password of the logged IDD application user (bddParamName="PASSWORD")

Encrypted password of the logged IDD application user (bddParamName="PASSWORD_ENCRYPTED")

External Link Components (IFRAME and IGOOGLE)

Two types of externalLink components are supported: IFRAME and IGOOGLE.

IFRAME: IFRAME components ( type= " IFRAME ") display a page requested from external URL. You cannot use websites such as Google and Facebook with iFrame because of the privacy policy of the websites. Ensure that the external link is for a website that is compatible with iFrames.
The URL is constructed from the value specified using the url attribute and the specified URL parameters.
The preceding XML snippet defines an IFRAME component displaying a page requested from a dynamically-generated URL. This URL is constructed from the string " http://www.bing.com/search", the static parameter with name "hl" and the value "en", and the dynamic parameter with name "q" and value substituted at run-time to the name of currently logged IDD application user.
For example, if the logged-in IDD application user has a login name of 'admin', this component displays a page requested from the following URL:
http://www.bing.com/search?q=admin&hl=en
IGOOGLE: IGOOGLE components ( type= " IGOOGLE ") are used to embed JavaScript imported from an external URL (constructed from the value specified using the url attribute and the specified URL parameters) and custom HTML code.
A component defined as
' <externalLink name="component_name" type="IGOOGLE" url="<external URL>"/>'
adds a
Start workspace
component constructed from a single HTML tag <script>:
<script url="external URL"/>

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Table of Contents

Data Director Implementation Guide

Data Director Implementation Guide

External Links (Custom Start Workspace Components)

External Links (Custom Start Workspace Components)

External Link Parameters (Static and Dynamic)

External Link Components (IFRAME and IGOOGLE)