Defining a custom task

As an administrator, you might want to create a custom task for your business or organization. You must define these custom tasks before you can assign them to a view.

About this task

A custom task represents an external web application that provides services beyond what is supplied by IBM® Security Identity Manager. It is defined by a unique identifier, a URL, and optional parameters. The task can be associated with Security Identity Manager views such as Auditor, or Supervisor, and others. Only users that are associated with those views have access to the custom task. Custom tasks are defined in the administrative console, and are available in the Identity Service Center if the user is authorized to access the task.

You can select the Start task in new window check box to enable the user to view the custom task in a new browser window. By default, this check box is not selected. If you create a custom task without selecting this check box, when the user starts the task in the Identity Service Center, it is started in the inline frame, or iframe, of the browser window that contains the Identity Service Center. However, if you select the check box, when the user starts the task, it is started in a new browser window or tab, depending on the configuration of the browser.

If you create a custom task that specifies a URL corresponding to the Security Identity Manager administrative console, you must select this check box.

Note:
  1. If the web application cannot run custom tasks in a browser iframe, that is, inline frame, you must select the Start task in new window check box.
  2. You can disable headers on some applications for better integration. For example, you might want to create a custom task in the Identity Service Center for the Self Service user interface. To turn off headers so that it integrates better with the Identity Service Center, see Customizing website layout.

Procedure

  1. From the navigation tree, select Set System Security > Manage Views.
  2. On the Define Views page, click Manage Custom Tasks in the Views table.
  3. In the Manage Custom Tasks table, click Create.
  4. On the Create Custom Task page, type the task identifier suffix for your task.
    The suffix cannot contain spaces, quotation marks, hash tags, or equal signs. The combination of the identifier prefix and the identifier suffix is the name that identifies your custom task.

    You can define a label for the custom task by editing the ISIM_HOME/data/CustomLabels.properties file. The name of the property is CUSTOM_<Identifier suffix> (all in capital letters). The value must be what you want to display in the Identity Service Center. For example, if the identifier suffix is consoleui, then the property to add to CustomLabels.properties can be CUSTOM_CONSOLEUI = Identity Manager Console UI.

  5. Optional: Type information that describes the custom task in the Description field. To enable the translation of the description, add a prefix $ to the description string and provide a translation for that property in ISIM_HOME/data/CustomLabels.properties, where ISIM_HOME is the IBM Security Identity Manager installation directory.

    If you want to display Custom task as the description of the task in the Identity Service Center, you must enter $customTask in the Description field. You must also add an entry in CustomLabels.properties: customTask = Custom task.

    If you want to translate the description in another language, you must edit the CustomLabels_xx.properties file, where xx is the locale. For example, CustomLabels_fr.properties might have an entry customTask = Tâche Personnalisée.

  6. Type the URL that links to your custom task.
  7. Optional: Type the URL that links to the image you want to display on the task card.

    When you specify the URL for the icon, ensure that you review the following guidelines:

    • The default icons that are displayed within the "cards" for the Identity Service Center home page are .png files.

      None of these icons exceed the following dimensions of 263 x 65 with a 32-bit color depth.

      Use this sizing guideline for custom images so that your custom images display correctly in the Identity Service Center.

    • The custom image files can be in the following web browser supported image formats, such as jpg, gif, or png.
    • Before you begin, upload your custom image files through the virtual appliance dashboard.
      1. In the dashboard, go to Configure > Custom File Management.
      2. Upload the files to the ui/images directory.
    • The URL for Icon must be in the following form:

      custom/ui/images/<your file name>

  8. Optional: Specify a menu category for the header.
    You can also select from the two predefined menu categories:
    • manageAccess
    • requestStatusTodo
  9. Optional: Select the Show on home page check box to display the task card on the home page.
  10. Optional: Select the Start task in new window check box to display the custom task in a new browser window when the user starts the task in the Identity Service Center. If the custom task URL corresponds to the Security Identity Manager administrative console, you must select this check box.
  11. Optional: To specify whether the task is visible only to the logged in user, other users, or both, add a task parameter with parameter name as viewtype. Specify one of the following values:
    self
    The task displays when the persona is set to Manage Self.
    others
    The task displays when the persona is set to Manage Others.
    both
    The task displays when the persona is set to either Manage Others or Manage Self.
  12. Optional: Create custom task parameters.
    Repeat these steps for each custom parameter you want to create.
    1. In the Task Parameters table, click Create.
    2. Specify a parameter name.
    3. Specify a parameter value
    4. Click OK.
  13. When you are finished, click OK.
    The Success page is displayed.
  14. Select an action or click Close to return to the Define Views page.

What to do next

You can now assign the custom task to a view.