HCL Connections Customizer

HCL Connections has an incredibly rich feature set spanning many applications, yet there is always that one thing that your users are asking about. “Can we make this behave differently?”, “Can we limit who can create external Communities?” or “How can we integrate a line-of-business application into my Community?” With the Customizer all of this can be done faster and cheaper - let us show you a few examples on how the feature set of HCL Connections can be changed effectively!

David Bell ( Senior Technical Architect @HCL)

Transcript

1. O-N-L-I-N-E O-N-L-I-N-E O-N-L-I-N-E O-N-L-I-N-E O-N-L-I-N-E O-N-L-I-N-E September 28 & 29, 2021 HCL Connections Customizer David Bell, HCL Software
2. Copyright © 2021 HCL Technologies Limited | www.hcltechsw.com Disclaimer Let's Connect 2021 - HCL Connections Customizer 3 • HCL’s statements regarding its plans, directions, and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice and at HCL’s sole discretion. • Information regarding potential future products is intended to outline our general product direction and it should not be relied on in making a purchasing decision. • The information mentioned regarding potential future products is not a commitment, promise, or legal obligation to deliver any material, code or functionality. Information about potential future products may not be incorporated into any contract. • The development, release, and timing of any future features or functionality described for our products remains at our sole discretion. • Performance is based on measurements and projections using standard HCL benchmarks in a controlled environment. The actual throughput or performance that any user will experience will vary depending upon many factors, including considerations such as the amount of multiprogramming in the user’s job stream, the I/O configuration, the storage configuration, and the workload processed. Therefore, no assurance can be given that an individual user will achieve results similar to those stated here.
3. Copyright © 2021 HCL Technologies Limited | www.hcltechsw.com Agenda 4 What is Customizer ? Deployment Options Business Value Let's Connect 2021 - HCL Connections Customizer
4. What is Customizer ?
5. Copyright © 2021 HCL Technologies Limited | www.hcltechsw.com Customizer ….. Let's Connect 2021 - HCL Connections Customizer 6 • … is an intelligent proxy service • … is a docker-based microservice • … is delivered as part of Component Pack or standalone (Customizer Lite) • … proxies requests to Connections backend services • … selectively modifies responses based on administrator definitions • … injects custom assets (e.g. .js for DOM manipulation, .css for style manipulation) into responses • … can proxy access-controlled requests to third party sites • … can inject an iFrame container and content onto a Connections page • … allows an administrator / developer to customize the Connections user experience • … is persistent / durable across Connections code upgrades • … is the same code regardless of Connections vs. Connections MT (MSP) or Component Pack vs. Customizer Lite deployments
6. Copyright © 2021 HCL Technologies Limited | www.hcltechsw.com Off-the-Shelf vs Make It Your Own Let's Connect 2021 - HCL Connections Customizer 7 • Customers tend to prefer buying standard solutions, without custom development. • Such solutions are easier to roll-out, adopt and maintain. • Connections is not deployed in a vacuum. • Customers also like to tweak, adjust and extend software products to their specific needs. • These customizations range from simple color changes to full product extensions. • Customizer helps to mediate this tension. • Simple, dynamic JavaScript and stylesheet-based customizations without touching the product code.
7. Deployment Options
8. Copyright © 2021 HCL Technologies Limited | www.hcltechsw.com Customizer Lite Let's Connect 2021 - HCL Connections Customizer 9 • Docker-Compose rather than Kubernetes • File system rather than MongoDB • Memory cache rather than Redis Docker Engine appregistry- service appregistry- client mw-proxy Docker Host Host Infrastructure Docker- Compose Connections Host WebSphere App Server 8.5.5.16 HCL Connections Connections Users / Admins HTTP Server NGINX Proxy / Load Balancer
9. Copyright © 2021 HCL Technologies Limited | www.hcltechsw.com Microservices Customizer with Component Pack Let's Connect 2021 - HCL Connections Customizer 10 appregistry -client mw-proxy Kubernetes Host Host Infrastructure Connections Host WebSphere App Server 8.5.5.16 HCL Connections Connections Users / Admins HTTP Server NGINX Proxy / Load Balancer Kubernetes Worker Kube Master Proxy Host MongoDB Redis appregistry -service
10. Business Value
11. Copyright © 2021 HCL Technologies Limited | www.hcltechsw.com Typical Use Cases Let's Connect 2021 - HCL Connections Customizer 12 • Customizations can be applied selectively, either included or excluded: • by url pattern • by user attributes of name, email, id • by header / regex patterns Cosmetic / UI Functional Integration Branding e.g. visual update / periscope A / B testing Add action buttons or menu choices e.g. navbar icons, files menu Hide buttons or menu choices (e.g. no public communities, no external file share) A / B testing Internal applications e.g. links or iframed content 3rd party applications e.g. Share to Teams
12. Demo Time • Customizer extension apps • Custom .js / .css files • Modified user experience
13. Copyright © 2021 HCL Technologies Limited | www.hcltechsw.com Additional Resources Let's Connect 2021 - HCL Connections Customizer 14 • Component Pack documentation: • https://help.hcltechsw.com/connections/v7/admin/install/cp_install_config_intro.html • Customizer documentation: • https://github.com/HCL-TECH-SOFTWARE/connections- samples/blob/main/customizer/docs/HCLConnectionsCustomizer.md • Customizer example extensions: • https://github.com/HCL-TECH-SOFTWARE/connections-samples/tree/main/customizer
14. Q & A
15. HCL Connections People Power your business, Connections powers your people.