2008-10-20 08:10:00
In most cases the BoKS administration GUI serves its purpose. It's pretty spartan, though it can look a bit crowded at times. This isn't altogether that strange, as FoxT have used the same GUI layout for years on end. It's getting a bit long in the tooth.
Sometimes though you'll run into things that you'd like to do from the GUI, but which aren't implemented (yet). And that's where the hacking starts ^_^ In this article I'll go over the basic structure of the GUI's files and resources, explaining the function of each part. I'll also discuss a few of the changes we've made (or are contemplating) at $CLIENT.
As is mentioned elsewhere, BoKS runs a custom webserver on ports 6505 and 6506 (default ports). This webserver gets started using the $BOKS_etc/boksinit.master script and, as the name implies, only runs on the master server.
All resources for the management GUI are stored in $BOKS_lib/gui. There you will find four subdirectories.
Keon> ls $BOKS_lib/gui
etc
forms
public
tcl
To start with, the public directory contains those few files that are accessible without having logged on. Naturally these files are limited to the various login screens, ie password/certificate/securid. Nothing more, nothing less.
The etc directory contains all the template files (.tmpl) that are used to create the GUI, as well as all of the image files. Most images are limited to the black banner at the top.
The forms directory consists of files and directories that form the menu structure of the GUI. There's a .menu file for each option in the main menu and a directory containing more .menu's for options that have sub-menus. This directory also contains all of the .form files that are used to enter or edit information.
Finally, the tcl directory contains the TCL code that does the actual work. Whenever you've edited a form to update information in the database, this code gets used to perform the actual modifications.
One of the first mods that I wanted to make to our GUI was to include the names of the BoKS domain and the master/replica server in the black banner of each page. That way it would be impossible to mix up in which domain you're working, thus lowering the chance of FUBARs. Later on I also decided it would be a good idea to include the domain name in each page's title. Of course this mod isn't as useful if you're only running one domain.
To make the desired changes we'll need to edit a number of .tmpl files in $BOKS_lib/gui/etc/eng. The changes will be making are along these lines.
Original:
<html>
<title>
Welcome to FoxT BoKS
</title>
<body><body TEXT="000000" LINK="#0000FF" ALINK="#0000FF" VLINK="#0000FF">
<table bgcolor="black" width="100%">
<tr><td align="center">< IMG SRC="@PUBLIC@/eng/figs/welcome.gif" alt="Welcome to FoxT BoKS"></td></tr>
</table>
Modified:
<html>
<title>
CAT DOMAIN: Welcome to FoxT BoKS
</title>
<body><body TEXT="000000" LINK="#0000FF" ALINK="#0000FF" VLINK="#0000FF">
<table style="color: #000000;" bgcolor="black" width="100%">
<tr><td align="center"><IMG SRC="@PUBLIC@/eng/figs/welcome.gif" alt="Welcome to FoxT BoKS"></td></tr>
<tr><td align="center">CAT DOMAIN, running on master server<i>Andijvie</i></td></tr>
</table>
As you can see, all I did was slightly modify the TITLE tag and I've added an additional row to the banner table. I've also tweaked the text colour in the banner, so it's not black on black.
The abovementioned changes need to be made in all of the .tmpl files on the master server. If you like, you could also make the mods on the replica servers, assuming that you may at one point in time need to failover to one of them. You never know when the master server might croak.
kilala.nl tags: boks, sysadmin,
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Posted by AgileCowboy
Hi Thomas,
If you want to maintain the FoxT User Interface Style color scheme this document provides you with the specifications (p6):
http://www.sharifisher.com/PDF/ui_specs.pdf
Posted by Thomas
Hi AgileCowboy,
Thank you for sharing that file with us; I certainly hope FoxT doesn't mind you sharing this document.
Reading through the PDF I initially wondered whether this document actually described the style of the interfaces of BoKS / FoxT product. None of the items described seemed familiar to me, such as menu layouts, button styles and such. I guess this style guide was created for recent products, because the BoKS 6.0 and 6.5 web interfaces still look a lot like the original GUI for 4.x and 5.x.
Posted by Sergio Fonseca
Hi!
Is there any way of having the GUI running on HTTPS? Can you please help me on this?
Posted by Thomas
Hi Sergio,
Running the BoKS GUI in HTTPS should be the default actually. Running through the setup scripting for the BoKS master it should set up a self-signed certificate, unless you provide it with a cert made by your in-house (or otherwise) CA. Instructions for all of this should be in the BoKS install guide provided with the product download.
All content, with exception of "borrowed" blogpost images, or unless otherwise indicated, is copyright of Tess Sluijter. The character Kilala the cat-demon is copyright of Rumiko Takahashi and used here without permission.