Customizing iManager
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The iManager software can be relabelled and even renamed to match your branding needs. This will allow you to provide your clients with a Web-based Virtual Private Server administration suite that is unique to your company.

The iManager Installation Hierarchy

Before you attempt to customize iManager, it is necessary that you familiarize yourself with the default iManager installation hierarchy. When you Install iManager, it is unpacked and installed into your ~/www/htdocs/imanager directory (which will be hereafter referred to as ~imanager). In the main ~imanager directory, you will find the following files and sub-directories of interest:

ABOUT	The contents of this file contain a summary description of the software and its design purpose. References to the original software title, iManager is contained in this file. The contents of this file are displayed in the main window of the about.cgi script.
VERSION	This file defines the 'current version identifier' and the 'remote master site' which the software uses to determine if a newer version exists. References to the original software title, iManager is contained in this file, and the original master site http://192.41.5.172/imanager/. The contents of the file are primarily used by the about.cgi script.
label/	This directory contains the header and footer files which are used by iManager to present content and information. The contents of this subdirectory are explained in detail below.
strings/	This directory contains the language subdirectories, each of which has a set of the language string files that iManager includes to present content and information. In the main string library (which coincidentally is named main) of each language subdirectory, a reference to the original software title 'iManager' is found.

Relabelling iManager

iManager allows you to add your company name and logo by customizing the headers and footers of the content displayed by the program. The structure of each page that iManager builds has the following form:

 [ header ]
---------------------
 [ dynamic content ]
---------------------
 [ footer ]

The header and footer part of each page are stored in separate files in the ~imanager/label/ sub-directories. The header and footer files are opened, parsed line by line, and then displayed as part of the complete session output.

In iManager there are three types of pages: generic, help, and login. The login files are used for the login page; the help files are used for any help pop-up windows; and the generic header and footer files are used for everything else. For each type of page there is a separate header and footer:

generic_footer
help_footer
login_footer
generic_header
help_header
login_header

The default revisions of each of these files can be found in the ~imanager/label/default/ directory. It is recommended that you keep these files intact (for your future reference) and place your custom versions of these files in the ~imanager/label/custom/ directory. You can also create hostname sub-directories in the label directory and then store separate versions of these six files for each Virtual Subhost (see the examples found in the 'mail.sorenson.org' directory found in the default iManager distribution).

iManager will look for the label header and footer files in a specific order, namely:

1. ~imanager/label/{hostname}/[file]
2. ~imanager/label/custom/[file]
3. ~imanager/label/default/[file]

Caveats

When iManager reads a specific header or footer file, it looks for a few special tags:

    
__TITLE__                      (parsed for in header only)
__JAVASCRIPT__                 (parsed for in header only)
__NAVIGATION_MENU__            (parsed for in header and footer)
__ROOT_DIR__                   (parsed for in header and footer)
__AUTH_CREDENTIALS__           (parsed for in header and footer)

The __TITLE_ and __JAVASCRIPT__ tags are looked for when a header is parsed. The __TITLE__ tag is the title of the page that iManager is building. If the page being built has some supplementary JavaScript code, then it is passed into the label header function to be inserted into the header where the string __JAVASCRIPT__ occurs. Typically, a header file would include a string in this manner:

<html>
<head>
<title>__TITLE__</title>
__JAVASCRIPT__</head>

For an example of how this works, see the generic_header file.

Both the label footer and label header functions parse the __NAVIGATION_MENU__, but typically you would include this tag in the footer. iManager will replace this string with the text navigation menu appropriate for the page being built. Here is an example:

<hr noshade>
<!-- begin navigation menu -->
__NAVIGATION_MENU__
<!-- end navigation menu -->
<p>

For an example of how this works, see the generic_footer file.

The __ROOT_DIR__ is used to indicate to iManager the relative location of the imanager root directory that should be used. This is necessary to allow for sub hosts to link to iManager resources using relative URLs rather than absolute URLs. Here is an example:

<img width="350" height="100" src="__ROOT_DIR__/graphics/entry.gif">

The __AUTH_CREDENTIALS__ is scanned for and replaced by the session authorization string before the header and/or footer are displayed. It is necessary to include this tag in any hypertext references to iManager wizards inside header and footer files. For example:

<a href="__ROOT_DIR__/wizards/filemanager.cgi?__AUTH_CREDENTIALS__">File Manager Wizard</a>

For further clarification, refer to the example files located in the ~imanager/label/default/ directory. These files illustrate how to use these special tags in a complete context.

Renaming iManager

You can rename iManager by simply finding and replacing the references to the original title iManager in the following files:

~imanager/ABOUT
~imanager/VERSION
~imanager/strings/en/main
~imanager/strings/{other language subdirectories}/main

You will probably want to rename the root ~imanager directory to a name of your choosing. You would then access your renamed Virtual Private Servers administration suite using the URL:

http://YOUR-DOMAIN.NAME/new_software_title/

Please note: the information on this page applies to ITS web hosting plans. It may or may not apply to other environments. If you are looking for a feature described here, or better support from your hosting provider, please consider hosting your site with ITS!

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