Customizing iManager
The iManager software can be relabelled and
even renamed to match your branding needs. This will allow you to
provide your clients with a web-based virtual server administration
suite that is unique to your company.
The iManager Installation Heirarchy
Before you attempt to customize iManager, it is necessary that you
familiarize yourself with the default iManager installation heirarchy.
When you Install iManager, it is unpacked
and installed into your ~/www/htdocs/imanager directory (which
will be hereafter referred to as ~imanager). In the main
~imanager directory, you will find the following files and
subdirectories of interest:
ABOUT
|
The contents of this file contain a summary description of the software
and its design purpose. References to the original software title,
iManager is contained in this file. The contents of this file
are displayed in the main window of the 'about.cgi'
script.
|
VERSION
|
This file defines the 'current version identifier' and the 'remote
master site' which the software uses to determine if a newer version
exists. References to the original software title,
iManager is contained in this file, and the original master
site 'http://192.41.5.172/imanager/'. The contents of the file
are primarily used by the 'about.cgi' script.
|
label/
|
This directory contains the 'header' and 'footer' files which are
used by iManager to present content and information. The contents
of this subdirectory are explained in detail below.
|
strings/
|
This directory contains the language subdirectories, each of which has
a set of the langauage string files that iManager
includes to present content and information. In the main
string library (which coincidentally is named main)
of each language subdirectory,
a reference to the original software title 'iManager' is found.
|
Relabelling iManager
iManager allows you to add your company name and
logo by customizing the 'headers' and 'footers' of the content displayed
by the program. The structure of each page that iManager builds
has the following form:
[ header ]
---------------------
[ dynamic content ]
---------------------
[ footer ]
The header and footer part of each page are stored in separate files
in the ~imanager/label/ subdirectories. The header and footer
files are opened, parsed line by line, and then displayed as part of
the complete session output.
In iManager there are three types of pages: 'generic', 'help', and
'login'. The 'login' files are used for the login page; the 'help'
files are used for any help pop-up windows; and the 'generic' header
and footer files are used for everything else. For each type of
page there is a separate header and footer:
generic_footer
help_footer
login_footer
generic_header
help_header
login_header
The default revisions of each of these files can be found in the
~imanager/label/default/ directory. It is recommended that
you keep these files intact (for your future reference) and place
your custom versions of these files in the
~imanager/label/custom/ directory.
You can also create "hostname" subdirectories in the label
directory and then store separate versions of these six files for each
Virtual Subhost
(see the examples found in the 'mail.sorenson.org' directory
found in the default iManager distribution).
iManager will look for the label header and footer files in a
specific order, namely:
- ~imanager/label/{hostname}/[file]
- ~imanager/label/custom/[file]
- ~imanager/label/default/[file]
Caveats
When iManager reads a specific header or footer file, it looks for a
few special tags:
__TITLE__ (parsed for in header only)
__JAVASCRIPT__ (parsed for in header only)
__NAVIGATION_MENU__ (parsed for header and footer)
__ROOT_DIR__ (parsed for in header and footer)
__AUTH_CREDENTIALS__ (parsed for in header and footer)
The __TITLE_ and __JAVASCRIPT__ tags are looked for when a header is parsed. The
__TITLE__ tag is the title of the page that iManager is building. If the page being built
has some supplementary JavaScript code, then it is passed into the label header function
to be inserted into the header where the string "__JAVASCRIPT__" occurs. Typically, a
header file would include a string in this manner:
<html>
<head>
<title>__TITLE__</title>
__JAVASCRIPT__</head>
For an example of how this works, see the generic_header file.
Both the label footer and label header functions parse the __NAVIGATION_MENU__,
but typically you would include this tag in the footer. iManager will replace this string
with the text navigation menu appropriate for the page being built. Here is an example:
<hr noshade>
<!-- begin navigation menu -->
__NAVIGATION_MENU__
<!-- end navigation menu -->
<p>
For an example of how this works, see the generic_footer file.
The __ROOT_DIR__ is used to indicate to iManager the relative location of the
imanager root directory that should be used. This is necessary to allow for sub hosts
to link to iManager resources using relative URLs rather than absolute URLs. Here is
an example:
<img width="350" height="100" src="__ROOT_DIR__/graphics/entry.gif">
The __AUTH_CREDENTIALS__ is scanned for and replaced by the session authorization
string before the header and/or footer are displayed. It is necessary to include this tag in
any hypertext references to iManager wizards inside header and footer files. For
example:
<a href="__ROOT_DIR__/wizards/filemanager.cgi?__AUTH_CREDENTIALS__">
File Manager Wizard</a>
For further clarification, refer to the example files located in the
~imanager/label/default/ directory. These files illustrate
how to use these special tags in a complete context.
Renaming iManager
You can rename iManager by simply finding and replacing the references
to the original title 'iManager in the following files:
~imanager/ABOUT
~imanager/VERSION
~imanager/strings/en/main
~imanager/strings/{other language subdirectories}/main
You will probably want to rename the root ~imanager directory to
a name of your choosing. You would then access your renamed virtual
server administration suite using the URL:
http://YOUR-DOMAIN.NAME/new_software_title/
