6                 Tab Concept

The value of the Tab Designer

A directory service is a valuable support to the critical business operations of almost every organization. For people in those organizations, the information kept in directory service has become a vital resource, affecting every day performance. In other words, directory services are to a large extent used for presenting and reading information. When it comes to editing a directory service, i.e. creating new objects and changing its attributes, things get suddenly more difficult. Users of directory service in general are seldom authorized to change the content in a directory service.

The NordicEdge^® Identity Manager deals with this problem by introducing the Tab Designer. A tab is a functionality that enables users to access a directory service in a controlled way. In short, objects can be created and edited without knowledge of different LDAP commands.

Tabs created in the stand alone client can be accessed by a user from either the standalone client itself or the web based client. The look and feel of the tabs is in both cases identical.

Special configuration Tabs

There are a couple of special tab that needs to be loaded in order to be able to use some features of the product.

This is a Tab that needs to be loaded in order to provide a configuration editor for policies stored in the directory. This tab and others should be stored as objects in the directory. The schema needs to be extended in order to support this.

Start the standalone client and login to the directory

Load Policy Manager Tab and save it to the directory

Start  the Tab Designer select Tools > Tab Designer or press the icon   in the toolbar. The new Tab Window appears.

Select File > Load Tab from File browse to the directory where the standalone client was installed and open the directory \NordicEdge\IDMgr\1-xml\PolicyManager

Select and open the file Nordicedge-PolicyMgmt.xml. The Tab is now loaded.

Select File > Save Tab to LDAP to save the Tab to LDAP. Browse and select in witch container to store the Tab.

This tab is used to configure and modify saved predefined searches. This is a tab that needs to be created. See more details on how to create a Tab in the Administration manual.

Create load and save a Predefined Search Tab

Start  the Tab Designer select Tools > Tab Designer or press the icon   in the toolbar. The new Tab Window appears.

Select File > New View/Edit Tab Fill in the information as in the picture below and Click Apply.

The new Tab is created and we need to add a Custom Control that is used to edit a Predefined Search.

Each icon in the tool bar represents a different control that can be created and placed in a tab through simple Drag-and-Drop technique.  

Left click on the desired control and drag it to the tab area. The cursor will change its shape to indicate the operation.

Select the control “Create a Predefine Search Control” and drag, and release it on the upper left corner in the Tab.

Click Apply. The Tab is now finished and can be saved to the Directory. Select File > Save Tab to LDAP to save the Tab to LDAP. Browse and select in witch container to store the Tab.

Identity Manager has the ability to create a link in one Directory Server to include information from Multiple Directory servers. This function is called Junction. The Junction object contains information on how to connect to other directories and witch parameters to apply and how the information will be displayed. The junction information is saved in the directory in XML format

In order to use Junction some policies and configurations has to be done.

·         The policy JUNCTION.ENABLE has to be set to true for the user to be able to create and use Junction.

·          Define the search filter to detect junction object in the Policy JUNCTION_SEARCHFILTER.

·         Define the attribute where to store the XML Data in the policy JUNCTION.XML_ATTRIBUTE.  In many cases the description attribute is used for this.

Create load and save Junction Tabs

In order to use Junction you need to create two different types of Tabs, one that creates the Junction object (Create Tab) and another to have the ability to configure and modify the Junction information (View/Edit Tab).

Tab that creates the Junction object as an organizational Unit object.

This tab is used to create Junction objects. This is a tab that needs to be created. See more details on how to create a Tab in the Administration manual.

Select File > New Create Tab Fill in the information as in the picture on the next slide and Click Apply. Note that the Containment Classes makes it only possible to create a junction object under a container, organization or organizational unit object in the Directory.

The new Tab is created and we need to add two Controls on this Tab. One text Field Control and one Custom Control that is used to configure Junction information.

Each icon in the tool bar represents a different control that can be created and placed in a tab through simple Drag-and-Drop technique.  

Left click on the desired control and drag it to the tab area. The cursor will change its shape to indicate the operation.

Select the Text Field control and drag and release it on the upper left corner.

Select the attribute “OU” in Attribute name: witch tells the Create Tab to create an organizational unit and use the attribute “OU”. Make sure that the parameters for Naming Attribute, Editable and Mandatory are checked.

Click Apply to return to the TAB

Now its time to Select the control “Create a Custom Control” and drag, and release it under the Text Field control and make sure that I looks good. Otherwise drag and drop the custom control in a good position on the Tab.

Select the wanted attribute where the junction information will be saved. In this case we will use the description attribute.

Click on the button Option for Custom Control to define that we will use a Class Name: se.nordicedge.controls.JunctionControl.

You can use the View Bundled button and browse and select this class or Wright the right class name directly in the field for class Name:

Click OK to use the class and then Apply. The Tab is now finished and can be saved to the Directory. Select File > Save Tab to LDAP to save the Tab to LDAP. Browse and select in witch container to store the Tab..

Create View/Edit Tab to configure and modify Junction information

This tab is used to configure and modify Junctions. This is a tab that needs to be created. See more details on how to create a Tab in the Administration manual.

Start  the Tab Designer select Tools > Tab Designer or press the icon   in the toolbar. The new Tab Window appears.

Select File > New View/Edit Tab Fill in the information as in the picture below and Click Apply. Note that the restriction filter will make sure to only show this Tab when an Organizational Units description attribute contains xml information witch in this scenario makes it a NordicEdge Junction object.

The new Tab is created and we need to add a Custom Control that is used to create and edit Junctions.

Each icon in the tool bar represents a different control that can be created and placed in a tab through simple Drag-and-Drop technique.  

Left click on the desired control and drag it to the tab area. The cursor will change its shape to indicate the operation.

Select the control “Create a Custom Control” and drag, and release it on the upper left corner in the Tab.

Select the wanted attribute where the junction information will be saved. In this case we will use the description attribute.

Click on the button Option for Custom Control to define that we will use a Class Name: se.nordicedge.controls.JunctionControl.

You can use the View Bundled button and browse and select this class or Wright the right class name directly in the field for class Name:

Click OK to use the class and then Apply. The Tab is now finished and can be saved to the Directory. Select File > Save Tab to LDAP to save the Tab to LDAP. Browse and select in witch container to store the Tab..

NordicEdge has made some example Tabs that are installed during the standalone client install. They are located in a subfolder under the directory structure \NordicEdge\IDMgr\1-xml

·         Subfolder Active Directory includes Tabs designed for Microsoft AD and uses Active Directory attributes.

·         Subfolder eDirectory includes Tabs designed for Novell eDirectory and uses eDirectory attributes

·         Subfolder Generic includes Tabs that could be used for most LDAP directories and uses standard LDAP attributes.

·         Subfolder SUN includes Tabs designed for Sun Directory Server and uses Sun Directory Server attributes

All these Tabs can be used as a base and be modified to fit customer needs.

Load example Tab and save it to the directory

Start  the Tab Designer select Tools > Tab Designer or press the icon   in the toolbar. The new Tab Window appears.

Select File > Load Tab from File browse to the directory where the standalone client was installed and open the directory \NordicEdge\IDMgr\1-xml\? Where ? Is replaced by the right subfolder depending on witch directory to use. Select and open a file that includes the Tab.

The Tab is now loaded and could be modified to fit customer needs

Select File > Save Tab to LDAP to save the Tab to LDAP. Browse and select in witch container to store the Tab.