Add User Interface Elements

You can add user interface elements to IBM® Cognos® Connection to connect to external applications or to modify the functionality of IBM Cognos Connection. You can restrict the appearance of these new user interface elements based on different types of users.

The xml:lang attribute of the label and tooltip elements corresponds to the product locale in use at the time of the portal page generation. If a new product locale is added to IBM Cognos software, you must add a translation for the label and tooltip fields. When no label or tooltip is found that matches the product locale, nothing is displayed.

The graphic referenced by the icon element must exist in the c10_location/webcontent/ps/portal/images directory.

To add a user interface element in IBM Cognos Connection, you must modify the system.xml file.

Procedure

  1. Stop the IBM Cognos service.
  2. Open the c10_location/templates/ps/portal/system.xml file in an XML or text editor.
  3. Use the following syntax in the <system> element to add a user interface element: 
    <param name="ui_add">
<!--list of user interface elements-->
</param>

    For example, the following XML code adds an option to start a Google search in a new browser window.

    <param name="ui_add">
	<CRN_HEADER_OPTIONS>
		<item>
			<url>http://www.google.com</url>
			<target>_blank</target>
			<label xml:lang="en">Google</label>
			<tooltip xml:lang="en">Google</tooltip>
			<label xml:lang="fr">Google</label>
			<tooltip xml:lang="fr">Google</tooltip>
			<label xml:lang="de">Google</label>
			<tooltip xml:lang="de">Google</tooltip>
			<label xml:lang="ja">Google</label>
			<tooltip xml:lang="ja">Google</tooltip>
			<icon>action_search.gif</icon>
		</item>
	</CRN_HEADER_OPTIONS>
</param>

    For information about all the user interface elements that you can add, see Elements You Can Add. Ensure that you match the case of each user interface element you want to add.

  4. Specify one or more groups or roles you want to view the new interface element by adding their IDs as values of the show attribute.

    Use the IDs as documented in the topic Referencing the required groups or roles in the system.xml file. Separate IDs using spaces.

    Here is an example:

    <param name="ui_add">
	<CC_VIEW_TOOLS>
		<item show="Administrators RSUsers g1 g2">
			<url>http://my_server_url/myApplication</url>
			<target>_blank</target>
			<label xml:lang="en">My_label in English</label>
			<label xml:lang="fr">My_label in French</label>
			<label xml:lang="de">My_label in German</label>
			<label xml:lang="ja">My_label in Japanese</label>
		</item>
	</CC_VIEW_TOOLS>
</param>
  5. Save the file.
  6. Restart the IBM Cognos service.

    Tip: There can be only one <param name="ui_add"> element in system.xml. Therefore, all items you want to add must be placed inside this element.

Parent topic: Add or Hide User Interface Elements Based on Groups and Roles