UI Page Structure and Terminology

The EmpowerID web user interface is made up of the pages within the UI container role as well as the user interfaces provided by the microservices applications (e.g. IT Shop, My Identity, etc.). The user interface within the UI container role adheres to a defined structure which is helpful to understand when supporting the EmpowerID platform and communicating with EmpowerID support staff.

Overview

• The pages in the UI container role are a responsive design web application built using Microsoft ASP.NET MVC and HTML5

• The user interface is themeable/brandable and can be branded and styled using CSS and JavaScript

• Out-of-the-box pages can be “overridden” with custom pages by copying your custom page of the same name into a mirrored folder structure called “Overrides”

• Pages can be classified based on a few specific templates that are repeated for different types of objects (e.g. People, Groups, etc.)

Navigation Sidebar

• The Sidebar is how you navigate the pages of the EmpowerID Web site and search for people and other types of resources.

• The sidebar is “security trimmed” which means that the number of sections and links in the sidebar that a user can see will differ according to the amount of access your organization has given them.

• The sidebar also contains the Global Search control

Find Pages

• Each type of object in the EmpowerID system has a Find page that lists the objects of that type stored or referenced in the Identity Warehouse

• The URL for Find pages is: https://%yourserver%/ui#Common/Find/%ObjectName%

• On the server Find pages are located under %InstallFolder%\EmpowerID\Web Sites\EmpowerID.Web.PortableAreas.Common\Views\ObjectTypeSearch

• Find pages typically contain one or more tabs listing objects of that type

• Find pages can optionally also include a Tree pane of locations on the left and an action pane of workflows and page actions on the right

View One Pages

• Viewone pages are what display a single instance of any object. For example, when clicking on the link for a group in the Find Group page the next page to load is the Viewone page for that group

• Viewone pages are typically read-only and are used to display information about an object and any related data

• More than one Viewone page can exist for a specific type of object in order to show only relevant fields in cases where a single type might have many subtypes – e.g. Account for AD versus Account for Office 365

• The specific Viewone page to be loaded is defined by logic on the SQL view and configured in what is called ResourceTypeFormIdentitifiers that define each subtype and the Viewone and Editone to load

• Viewone pages are located:

  • %InstallPAth%Root\UI\Web Sites\EmpowerID.Web\EmpowerID.Web.PortableAreas.Common\Views\ViewOne\Details

Edit One Pages

• Editone pages are what display a single editable instance of any object. For example, when clicking on the link for a group in the group’s Viewone page, the next page to load is the Editone page for that group

• More than one Editone page can exist for a specific type of object in order to show only relevant fields in cases where a single type might have many subtypes – e.g. Account for AD versus Account for Office 365

• The specific Editone page to be loaded is defined by logic on the SQL view and configured in what are called ResourceTypeFormIdentitifiers that define each subtype and the Viewone and Editone to load

• Editone pages are located:

  • %INSTALLPATH%\Root\UI\Web Sites\EmpowerID.Web\EmpowerID.Web.PortableAreas.Common\Views\EditOne

• Each Editone page will send its edited data to one or more workflows for processing

ResourceTypeFormIdentitifiers

The specific Viewone page or Editone page to be loaded for an object is defined by logic on the SQL view and configured in what are called ResourceTypeFormIdentitifiers that define each subtype and the Viewone and Editone to load

They can be seen and configured here: https://%yourserver%/ui#Common/Find/ResourceTypeFormIdentifier

Report Pages

Report pages use the same template as Find pages and are designed to show some specific view of the data

Run Workflow Page

• Workflows are run either as anonymous or authenticated

• Anonymous workflows run from:

  • https://%yourserver%/ui#aw/%workflowname%

• Authentication workflows run from:

  • https://%yourserver%/ui#w/%workflowname%

Branding the UI Role Container Web Site

• The default look and feel of the UI role container web application (not microservices) can be changed by overriding the CSS rules and images used for this website.

• The theme of the UI role container web application can be changed globally or even have a different theme for each URL you expose.

• First, create a new folder named after the FQDN or fully resolvable DNS of the tenant in the Overrides/Tenants directory of the EmpowerID Web CDN. E.g. "%INSTALLPATH%\Web Sites\EmpowerID.Web.Cdn\Overrides\Tenants\CustomTenantFolder," where "CustomTenantFolder" is the name of the folder you are creating.

• Once you have added the folder, you need to do the following:

  • Create a child folder named Themes in the custom folder. For example, if you are creating a custom FQDN folder for a Tenant with a FQDN of sso.andysbeans.com, you first create a sso.empowerid.com folder in the above-mentioned directory, then create within that folder the Themes folder.

  • Create a child folder named EmpowerID in the Themes folder.

  • Create a child folder named Images in the EmpowerID folder.

• Custom images can be placed in:

  • "%INSTALLPATH%\Web Sites\EmpowerID.Web.Cdn\Overrides\Tenants\<YourCustomTenant>\Themes\EmpowerID\Images

• Custom CSS can be added to the blank overrides.css file in:

  • %INSTALLPATH%\Web Sites\EmpowerID.Web.Cdn\Overrides\Tenants\<YourCustomTenant>\Themes\overrides.css

Overriding Out of the Box Pages

• When customizing Web pages, it is recommended that you use EmpowerID's Override technology rather than modifying the original pages.

• This allows you to quickly revert back to the original pages if the custom pages are no longer needed.

• To use the Override technology, you add your pages to an Overrides folder structure in the EmpowerID Web Sites directory and place your custom pages within that directory.

• The Overrides structure mirrors the shipping page directory structure so that pages copied into the corresponding location with the same names will be loaded preferentially

• E.g. for Viewone pages:

  • EmpowerID.Web.Overrides\Areas\Common\Views\ViewOne\Details