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Configuring widgets

Add and configure widgets on the Home, Communities, and Profiles pages.

Before you can add gadgets that are deployed externally, you must configure locked domains. Locking domains isolates semi-trusted gadgets and prevents them from accessing SSO tokens. Similarly, you must prevent DOM access to the parent page of the gadget iFrame because it might be used to forward sensitive data to external sites. For more information about locked domains, see the Enabling locked domains topic.

You can add widgets to the widget catalog to meet the needs of your users. Use the widget catalog to administer OpenSocial gadgets for HCL Connections, including Embedded Experience and Share Dialog gadgets, and gadgets and iWidgets that are specific to the Home page. Ensure that the widgets that you add to the catalog are from trusted sources. To configure widgets for communities, see the Administering widgets and remote applications topic.

  1. To add a widget to the widget catalog, complete the following steps:

  2. Log in to HCL Connections as an administrator.

    Note: To add widgets to the Home page, you must be logged in as an administrator. If you do not see an Administration option display under the My Page option in the navigation sidebar on the Home page, this means that you are not configured as an administrator of the Home page app. For more information, see the Configuring the Home page administrator topic.

  3. Open the Administration view.

  4. Click Add another widget to display the Add new widget form.

  5. Specify whether you are adding a widget that is based on the iWidget specification or the OpenSocial gadget specification.

    To enable users to integrate applications such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn into their HCL Connections client experience, select OpenSocial gadget. Selecting OpenSocial gadget opens the Gadget settings with Activity stream or Share dialog subform, where you can specify the following options:

    1. For Security, select either a Trusted or a Restricted security type.

      Make your selection based on the following considerations:

      • Trusted gadgets can access a wider selection of container APIs and they can interact with HCL Connections data. Even though a gadget is marked as trusted, its data access is still isolated from SSO data when used in combination with locked domains.
      • Select Use SSO token for trusted enterprise gadgets. Selecting this feature disables all the security that is provided by locked domains for this particular gadget.
      • In general, gadgets must be written to use OAuth unless they are connecting to a legacy system that is not OAuth enabled. Since HCL Connections v4.0, all of the Connections APIs are OAuth-enabled. Currently, SSO is not a standard OpenSocial feature, but specific to the Common Rendering Engine (CRE). Some IBM® Containers, such as Notes® Social Edition, do not support the SSO feature.
      • Restricted gadgets are limited in terms of the OpenSocial features. For example, they are not able to open model dialogs. In general, scope gadget feature access as narrowly as possible. Use this setting if the gadget does not require the additional page API features provided to trusted gadgets. Note: If locked domains are not configured, do not add external (restricted) gadgets to HCL Connections.

    2. For UI integration points select where the gadget is to be inserted in the user interface: Show in Share dialog or Show for Activity stream events or both.

      Note: Your gadgets are displayed after the HCL Connections gadgets in the Share dialog.

    3. Select the Server access via proxy preference:

      • Only outside the intranet prevents the gadget from accessing your intranet servers. Unless configured, the system deems a server as part of the intranet if it is part of the WebSphere® SSO domain. If this scoping is too narrow, it can be expanded using more configuration settings.
      • All servers allows the gadget to access URLs both in your intranet and outside it.
      • Custom rule defined for this gadget in the proxy-policy.dynamic file enforces settings that are defined in the policy file. For more information, see the Configuring per-host proxy access rules for OpenSocial gadgets topic.
        1. In the Service Mappings section, create a new mapping between an OAuth client, such as Facebook or Twitter, and its associated service. Also, you can edit or remove an existing mapping.

      Note: This setting manages the association of the clients with individual gadgets.OAuth clients must be pre-configured using wsadmin commands.

      1. Click Add Mapping to create a new mapping between an OAuth service and an OAuth client. In the fields that display, select an OAuth Client name and enter the associated Service Name.
      2. Select an existing mapping in the map list and then click Edit Mapping to update the mapping.
      3. Select an existing mapping in the map list and then click Delete Mapping to remove that mapping from the list. For more information about OAuth tokens, see the Configuring OAuth for custom gadgetstopic.

  6. Enter a name for the widget in the Widget Title field.

  7. Enter a short description of the widget in the Description field.

  8. Enter the web address for the XML widget descriptor in the URL Address field.

    This address must be prefixed with HTTPS and must be an absolute web address.

  9. Enter the widget location in the Secure URL Address field.

    This address must be prefixed with HTTPS and must be an absolute web address.

  10. Enter the web address for an icon to associate with the widget in the Icon URL field. Icon URL represents the widget when it is docked in the widget palette.

  11. Enter the location of an icon to display for the widget in the Icon Secure URL field.

    This icon is displayed when the widget is docked in the content palette.

  12. Select Use HCL Connections specific tags to indicate if the widget deployment descriptor uses specific HCL Connections tags to represent the URLs of the HCL Connections applications.

  13. To display the widget in the My Page view, select Display in the My Page view.

    You must display the widget in the My Page view or the Updates view, or both.

  14. To display the widget in the Updates view, select Display in the Updates view.

    You must display the widget in the My Page view or the Updates view, or both.

  15. To display the widget when users open the Home page for the first time, select Opened by default.

    The widget doesn't display for existing users, but it is available from the widget palette so that they can add it whenever they want.

  16. To enable multiple instances of the widget to be used, select Multiple widgets.

    Each widget instance has its own properties. For example, if you are using a widget that displays bookmarks for a specific tag, you can enable multiple instances of the widget so that you can follow different tags in each widget.

    Note: This setting is applicable only for iWidgets. Only one instance of an OpenSocial gadget can be loaded at a time.

  17. If there are specific HCL Connections applications that must be included in your deployment for the widget to function correctly, select the required applications in the Prerequisites area.

    Note: When an HCL Connections application is selected as a prerequisite but that application is not installed, the widget is not displayed on the Home page. For gadgets that declare dependencies this way, they act as though they are disabled for the purposes of whitelisting.

  18. Click Save.

If you add widgets that are hosted on third-party servers, you might need to update your proxy configuration. For more information, see the Configuring the AJAX proxy for a specific application topic.

Parent topic:Administering gadgets for HCL Connections and widgets for Home page

Related information

Configuring the AJAX proxy for a specific application

Configuring the Home page administrator