Customizing shared resources for notifications (default templates)
You can customize the common style and structure documents that are used by notifications in HCL Connections™.
Before you begin
Important:
- Starting from Connections 6.0 CR4, a new template version is provided and you can enable it by editing configuration. Go to Enabling the new notification templates for details.
- Before making any customizations, first back up your original notifications folder. In addition, ensure that any customized files are backed up before performing a product upgrade or applying a cumulative refresh or fix pack, as you might need to merge your changes again manually after making updates.
About this task
You can customize notifications that use the default templates
by updating the shared resources stored at this location:
app_server_root/profiles/dm_profile_root/config/cells/cell-name/LotusConnections-config/notifications/resources
Resource | Description |
---|---|
images | Folder containing all the shared images referenced in templates. |
nls | Folder containing all localized strings shared between templates. |
commonEEStructure.ftl | Template used for generating the Embedded Application MIME part. |
commonHeader.ftl | Used in templates to import common .ftl files into scope. Uses acquisition look-up. |
commonStructure.ftl | Holds the main FreeMarker macros and functions that make up the individual notification components. For example, action, metadata, header, and footer. |
commonStyle.ftl | One CSS style file used in all individual notification templates. |
commonUrlUtil.ftl | Specific utility functions for URL link handling. Contains the linkify function. |
commonUtil.ftl | Provides a common set of utility functions. |
Note on Freemarker acquisition: The template files that
exist in the resources folder can also be stored in the notifications folders for specific
applications. For example, if you want to customize Activities templates, you place
commonStyle.ftl at the following location:
app_server_root/profiles/dm_profile_root/config/cells/cell-name/LotusConnections-config/notifications/activities/resources
Saving
the style file in this location allows the Activities templates to pick up different styles that
override the default shared ones. Acquisition look-up ensures that templates are imported to a
directory that is local to the currently generated template. If the templates do not exist, the
parent folders are scanned and the templates from the shared resources folder are loaded. Similarly,
the images and nls resources can be stored in a directory that is local to an application folder.
The notification framework ensures that local resources are checked and used first before checking
the shared resources location.Procedure
To customize the content of a shared resource, complete
one or more of the following steps.
- To customize the existing template files:
- To edit the text strings used in the notifications:
- To customize the images used in notifications:
- To customize notifications for a specific application:
- Move the resource that you want to customize from the
location
app_server_root/profiles/dm_profile_root/config/cells/cell-name/LotusConnections-config/notifications/resources
to the resources folder contained in the application-specific notifications folder. For example, notifications/activities/resources. - Save your changes and then close the files.
- Synchronize all the nodes using the Integrated Solutions Console.
- Stop and restart the News application.
- Move the resource that you want to customize from the
location