Displaying user account pictures on ActiveRoles Server Web Interface Best Practicies

Description

ActiveRoles Server ver.6.7 and earlier doesn't provide an ability to display user account pictures out-of-the-box. This article describes how to add this ability to ARS.

lnstallation instructions

• Download the thumbnailPhoto.zip package that accompanies this article and extract the files to a suitable folder.
• Carefully read the following articles within the ActiveRoles Server SDK to gain knowledge about ActiveRoles Server Web Interface custom Entries:

• "Creating a Custom Entry"
• "Storing Customization Settings"
• "Specifying Customization Settings"

• On the server where the ActiveRoles Server Web Interface has been installed, locate the file:

  '<WI folder>\Public\CustomCode\Entries.vbs'

  where <WI folder> is the folder that the AcriveRoles Server Web Interface has been installed into. Generally, this is in the following location for ARS 6.7:

  'C:\Program Files\Quest Software\ActiveRoles Server\Web Interface 6.7\6.7.0\'

• Replace the Entries.vbs file with the Entries.vbs file located in the package
• Place the NoPhoto.jpg file from the package into the ‘<WI folder>\Public\images’ folder.
• Repeat above three steps for all servers where the ARS Web interface has been deployed.

<Res ID="CST_ENTRY_THUMBNAIL_PHOTO" Value="thumbnailPhoto"/>

<Res ID="CST_ENTRY_THUMBNAIL_PHOTO_DES" Value="thumbnailPhoto"/>

<Res ID="CST_ENTRY_THUMBNAIL_PHOTO_TIP" Value="thumbnailPhoto"/>

• Add the following XML elements to the edsaWIEntries attribute on the WorkingCopy node for the deployed sites.

<FormEntry ID="thumbnailPhoto"

ResID="CST_ENTRY_THUMBNAIL_PHOTO"

DescriptionResID="CST_ENTRY_THUMBNAIL_PHOTO_DES"

ToolTipResID="CST_ENTRY_THUMBNAIL_PHOTO_TIP"

Properties="thumbnailPhoto"

SingleValue="true" ReadOnly="true" EntryType="0"

DontShowCaption="true" IsHidden="false"

IsStatic="false" Flags="0"/>

• Reload the Web Interface to apply all changes you made from the WorkingCopy storage to the CurrentCopy storage.
• Restart the web interface by running IISRESET from an administrative command prompt.
• Using Internet Explorer, navigate to the ARS web site you wish to add the Photo to. Under ARS WI customization task, go to the user properties form customization, click 'Add Entry -> Select...' and select the thumbnailPhoto custom entry.

• Chose an appropriate location for the attribute on the form.

• Save the customized form to save your current session amendments.
• Reload the web interface to publish your changes to the web interface for all to see.
• Open the user properties form for a user that doesn't have a photo populated. You can see a new box that says 'No Photo'.

• PowerShell can be used to easily assign a photo to a user as follows:

Set-QADUser 'Sargay Kolpakov' -ObjectAttributes @{thumbnailPhoto=

[System.IO.File]::ReadAllBytes('userPhoto.jpg')}

Please note that the Set-QADUser cmdlet requires the Quest Management Shell for Active Directory to be installed. This can be found on the ARS installation media.

• Refresh the WI page by pressing F5 or by clicking on the refresh button within Internet Explorer.

• The custom entry correctly displays photos which are sized 150x120 pixels or less. To display larger photos modify the box size in the Entries.vbs file appropriately.

(Please visit the site to view this file)