Understanding Configuring and Customizing the FIM Portal

Applies To: Forefront Identity Manager 2010

One of the requirements for most enterprise environments is the ability to easily customize and configure the layout and design of the FIM Portal in Microsoft® Forefront® Identity Manager (FIM) 2010 to better match a particular work environment. You can do this by creating and modifying the following FIM user interface (UI) configuration resources:

  • Portal Configuration resources

  • Navigation Bar resources

  • Search Scope resources

  • Homepage resources

  • Resource Control Display Configuration (RCDC) resources

The conceptual information outlined in this document is complemented by the following document, which provides step-by-step, hands-on guidance for these features:

For an overview of FIM 2010 documentation and guidance for using it, see the Documentation Roadmap.

If you have questions regarding the content of this document or if you have general feedback, post a message to the Forefront Identity Manager 2010 TechNet Forum.

This document contains the following sections:

  • Components of the FIM Portal UI

  • Portal Configuration

  • Navigation Bar Resources

  • Homepage Resources

  • Search Scope Resources

  • Resource Control Display Configurations

  • Supported Scenarios for FIM Portal Customization and Extensibility

FIM Portal Customization

Components of the FIM Portal UI

You can control how resources are displayed in the FIM Portal by using different UI configuration resources. The following figure shows the different parts of the FIM Portal that you can customize by using UI configuration resources.

Sections of the FIM Portal

  1. The Banner and Logo appear at the top of each FIM Portal page. (See Part 1 of Figure 1.) You can set them in the Portal Configuration resource. There is only one Portal Configuration resource for each FIM deployment. It also contains other FIM Portal global settings, such as cache duration. For more details about the Portal Configuration resource, see the Portal Configuration section of this document.

  2. The Navigation Bar is the vertical menu on the left side of the FIM Portal. (See Part 2 of Figure 1.). The Navigation Bar helps the user move among various self-service and information technology professional (IT pro) tasks. The list consists of selected Navigation Bar resources. Each item in the list points to a unique URL. For more details about the Navigation Bar resource, see the Navigation Bar Resources section of this document.

  3. Search scopes appear on the upper right area of each FIM Portal page. (See Part 3 of Figure 1.) A search scope includes a search input box and a search scope drop-down list. The search scope is critical for controlling what appears in a page list view, that is, the main area of a portal page where resources are listed. For example, the search scope All Distribution Groups (DGs) displays all the DGs in the system, while the search scope My Distribution Groups (DGs) displays only the DGs for which the requesting user is an owner. Users can enter their search string in the search input box and click the search icon beside the box to look for matches within the search scope that is defined in the drop-down box. Each entry in the search scope drop-down box maps to a Search Scope resource. IT pros can define the behavior of different search scopes and show different search scopes on different FIM pages by creating and modifying a Search Scope resource. For more details about Search Scope resources, see the Search Scope Resources section of this document.

  4. The Homepage includes text and links that lead the end user to explore different features in FIM. It has three areas:

    1. The center region (See Part 4 of Figure 1.)

    2. The right region (See Part 5 of Figure 1.)

    3. The administration region (See Figure 2.)

      Homepage Administration

    Each link maps to a Homepage resource. You can define where a Homepage resource appears and how it appears on the homepage by creating or modifying a Homepage resource. For more details about Homepage resources, see the Homepage Resources section of this document.

A Resource Control displays a resource in FIM in detail. You can customize the detail view of a resource by using the Resource Control Display Configuration (RCDC) resource. There can be as many as four different detail views for each resource type. The views in create, edit, and view mode are shared by all users who have rights to see them. Only members of the Administrator set can use the advanced view. For more details about RCDC, see the Resource Control Display Configurations section of this document.

The following is a detail view of a resource in create mode. (See Figure 3.) An end user with the correct privileges sees this view during the creation of a resource. This view appears as a modal dialog box.

Detail view of a resource in create mode

The following is a detail view of a resource in edit mode. (See Figure 4.)An end user with the correct privileges sees this view during the editing of an existing resource. This view appears as a modal dialog box.

Detail view of a resource in edit mode

The following is a detail view of a resource in view mode. (See Figure 5.) An end user with the correct privileges sees this read-only view during the viewing of an existing resource. This view appears as a nonmodal dialog box.

Detail view of a resource in view mode

The following is a detail view of a resource in advanced mode. (See Figure 6.) This view is created by the system. A member of the Administrator set sees this view during the viewing of an existing resource in advanced mode. This view lists all the attributes of the resource type in a system-defined order. There are two tabs in this view, one for all the common attributes that all types of resources share and one that includes all attributes that are specific to a particular type of resource. This view is usually used for administrative or troubleshooting tasks, and it cannot be customized.

Detail view in Advanced Mode

Portal Configuration

You can use the Portal Configuration resource to set FIM Portal global settings. There is only one Portal Configuration resource for each FIM deployment. The setting is shared by all instances of FIM Portal clients. The following is a list of global settings that you can modify by using Portal Configuration resource.

Customize the Banner and Logo in the FIM Portal

There are three attributes that you can modify to customize the Banner and Logo:

  • Branding Center Text - This text appears in the upper center of the Banner and Logo area. (See Part 1 of Figure 1.) This attribute takes a string of characters no longer than 448 in length, inclusive.

  • Branding Left Image - This is the image on the left side of the Banner and Logo area. It takes a relative URL, which points to an image under the FIM site collection, for example, ~/_layouts/images/MSFIM/logo.png, where the absolute path for this URL is https://localhost/identitymanagement/_layouts/images/MSFIM/logo.png.

  • Branding Right Image - Similar to the Branding Left Image, this image appears on the right side of the Banner and Logo area. It takes the same input format as Branding Left Image.

Customize the duration to see UI updates

  • Global Cache Duration - This attribute determines how long it takes for UI configuration changes to be visible to users. Global UI configuration information is cached in FIM. Until the cache expires, changes that are made to the UI will not appear. These UI configuration changes include changes to Portal Configuration, Search Scope, Navigation Bar, Homepage, and RCDC resources. The user has the choice of either waiting for this duration to expire or manually reset Internet Information Services (IIS) to see the UI changes. By default, the Global Cache Duration is set to 24 hours, represented in seconds. To modify the refresh time, enter an integer that represents the duration in seconds.

  • Navigation Bar Resource Count Cache – As an option, you can append a resource count number to any navigation bar entry. For more information about this number, see the Navigation Bar Resources section of this document. This attribute represents the time, in seconds, after which the count number will be refreshed. The default setting is 600 (10 minutes).

  • Per User Cache Duration - Each user has a list of cached settings that are unique to them. These settings include their rights to see basic UI elements and user time zone information. Their session information will be refreshed after this duration expires. This value takes an integer that represents the duration in seconds. The default setting is 14,400 (4 hours).

Customize List View settings

List View is the control that appears in pages such as Users and All Distribution Groups. You can customize two settings on these lists. The customization will be applied globally to all occurrences of List View in the FIM Portal.

  • List View Items per Page - This setting specifies how many entries are shown in each page of a List View. By default, this value is set to 30. The larger this value, the longer each page will take to load. However, when the pages are loaded, you have a larger cached set of results that you can quickly navigate through.

  • List View Pages to Cache - This setting specifies how many pages will be cached in memory to make navigation between the pages appear faster for the users. The default value for this setting is 3 (the target page and the pages immediately preceding and following it). A larger value increases the time that the user has to wait for an initial query to retrieve all pages. However, a larger value also means that navigation between pages that are cached is faster.

Change Time Zone settings

  • Time Zone - There are two time zone settings in FIM Portal. One is the global time zone setting; the other is the user time zone setting. The user time zone setting is specific to each user, and it can be edited within each user’s profile. The global time zone setting appears in FIM Configuration. If the user does not have the time zone value set on his or her profile, the global setting is applied. The user time zone setting is refreshed whenever Per User Cache Duration expires. The global time zone setting is refreshed whenever the Global Cache Duration expires.

Each entry in the Navigation Bar has a corresponding Navigation Bar resource that you can use to customize it. You can customize the following attributes in a navigation bar resource.

Customize Navigation Bar resources

  • Display Name - This is the displayed label of the Navigation Bar resource. This attribute is mandatory, and it takes a string of up to 448 characters, inclusive.

  • Description - This attribute is a field where Portal Administrators can enter comments on the Navigation Bar resource. It does not appear anywhere else in the portal other than in the detail view of a Navigation Bar resource. This attribute is optional. It takes a string of up to 448 characters, inclusive.

  • Navigation URL - IT pros can use this field to specify the URL of the target page. This URL must be unique among all Navigation Bar resources. If it is a duplicate of another Navigation Bar Resource, neither Navigation Bar resource will appear in the Navigation Bar. This field does not support new pop-up URLs, and it will not appear in the Navigation Bar if a pop-up URL is used. It supports only relative URLs, such as ~/identitymanagement/default.aspx.

  • Resource Count - This attribute takes a FIM XPath expression and shows the count of the matches that satisfy the XPath expression. The count appears behind the Navigation Bar resource. The count is refreshed after the Navigation Bar Resource Count Cache expires in the Portal Configuration. This is an optional field that affects the performance of the Portal. By enabling this feature, you will experience a longer initial loading time for the Portal and a longer loading time after the Portal Configuration Global Portal Cache expires. The more Navigation Bar resources that have this feature enabled in your system, the longer the load time will be.

Give privileged users permission to view a certain set of Navigation Bar resources

  • Usage Keywords - This is a multivalued string attribute, with each entry delimited by a new line. Portal administrators can use this attribute to customize which set of users can see which set of Navigation Bar resources. You can create a set of Navigation Bar resources based on a particular Usage Keyword value. You can then create a Management Policy Rule using this set to grant certain privileged users permissions to read these Navigation Bar resources. To allow the same set of users to see a new Navigation Bar resource, you simply add that particular Usage Keyword in the new Navigation Bar resource. The new resource will automatically transition into the Navigation Bar set. For detailed steps to grant permission to users to view Navigation Bar resources, see Introduction to Configuring and Customizing the FIM Portal in the FIM documentation.

  • BasicUI – This attribute is an out-of-box Usage Keyword for Navigation Bar resources. By adding this Usage Keyword, you can ensure that all users see the Navigation Bar resource. Conversely, you can hide a Navigation Bar resource from all users by removing BasicUI from its Usage Keyword list.

Arrange Navigation Bar resource positions

  • Parent Order - There are two levels of order in Navigation Bar. Navigation Bar resources in the first-level order appear as section titles, bold and indented towards the left. Parent Order determines which first-level Navigation Bar resource the current Navigation Bar resource appears under. The lower the Parent Order, the higher in the Navigation Bar the resource appears. 0 is reserved for out-of-box Home Navigation Bar resources, and it cannot be reused for other Navigation Bar resources. We recommend that you leave some room between the numbers so that new Navigation Bar resources can be created between existing resources.

  • Order - Order determines where the Navigation Bar resource will be placed under the first-level Navigation Bar resource. The lower the Order, the higher in the section it appears. 0 means that the Navigation Bar resource is a first-level Navigation Bar resource. We recommend that you leave some room between the numbers so that new Navigation Bar resources can be created between existing resources.

Note

The combination of Parent Order and Order must be unique; otherwise, the conflicting Navigation Bar resources will not appear.

Localize Navigation Bar resources

When the language pack is installed and users want to customize how Navigation Bar resources are localized, they can do so by using the Localization tab of the Navigation Bar resource. This tab consists of following settings:

  • Supported Languages - This is a list of languages that the Portal is localized in, determined by the languages that you select when you install the FIM language pack. By selecting one of the languages, you can specify how the Navigation Bar resource’s display name and description is translated to that language.

    Note

    You must provide a value for Neutral language before proceeding with other languages; otherwise, the translation for other languages will not be applied.

  • Localized Display Name - In a localized Portal environment, the localized display name appears in the selected Internet Explorer language setting. (In Internet Explorer, click Tools, click Options, and then click Languages). When the localized display name is not present, it defaults to English.

  • Localized Description - In a localized Portal environment, the localized description appears in the selected Internet Explorer language setting. When the localized description is not present, it defaults to English.

Homepage Resources

The Homepage is divided into three regions: the center region, the right region, and the administration region. You can customize each of the links (with or without descriptive text) in the Homepage by using a corresponding Homepage resource. The following section contains a list of settings that you can customize for a Homepage resource.

Note

The Navigation Bar is not part of a Homepage resource. It is a separate resource type that appears on all pages in the FIM Portal.

Change Homepage resource basic information

  • Display Name - This is the displayed label of the Homepage resource. This attribute is mandatory, and it takes a string of up to 448 characters, inclusive.

  • Description - This is the text that appears underneath a Homepage resource. This attribute is optional, and it takes a string of up to 448 characters, inclusive.

  • Image URL - This is the URL for the image that appears on the right side of a Homepage resource. It takes a relative URL that points to an image under the FIM site collection, for example, ~/_layouts/images/MSFIM/logo.png, where the absolute path for this URL is https://localhost/identitymanagement/_layouts/images/MSFIM/logo.png.

  • Navigation URL - Use this field to specify the URL that the user is going to navigate to. The URL supports pop-up URLs, absolute URLs, and relative URLs.

  • Resource Count - This attribute takes a FIM XPath expression and shows the count of the matches that satisfy the XPath expression. The count appends to the Homepage resource, and it is refreshed after the Navigation Bar Resource Count Cache expires on Portal Configuration. This is an optional field that will affect the performance of the Portal. By enabling this feature, you will experience a longer initial loading time for the Portal and a longer loading time after Portal Configuration/Global Portal Cache expires. The more Homepage resources with this feature enabled in your system, the slower the load time will be.

Give privileged users permission to view a certain set of Homepage resources

  • Usage Keywords – Usage Keywords for Homepage resources work in the same way as Usage Keywords for Navigation Bar resources. (See the Give privileged users permission to view a certain set of Navigation Bar resources section for more details.)

    BasicUI is an out-of-box Usage Keyword for Homepage resources. By adding this Usage Keyword to a new or existing Homepage resource, you can ensure that all users see it.

Arrange Homepage resource positions

  • Region - There are three regions that a Homepage resource can appear in: the center region, right region, and administration region. There are four options to place the resource in the regions:

    1. Center Region of Homepage - This is also known as region 1.

    2. Right Region and Administration Page - This is also known as region 2.

    3. Right Region of Homepage - This is also known as region 3 

    4. Administration Page - This is also known as region 4.

  • Parent Order - There are two levels of order in each of the Homepage regions. Homepage resources in the first level appear as section titles, and they are bold. Parent Order determines which Homepage section the current resource appears in. The lower the Parent Order, the higher in the Homepage region the resource appears. The value must be a positive integer. (0 is not a valid value.) We recommend that you leave some room between the numbers so that you can create new resources between existing resources.

  • Order - Order determines where the new Homepage resource will be placed under the first-level Homepage resource. The lower the Order is, the higher in the section it appears. 0 means that the Homepage resource is a first-level Homepage resource. We recommend that you leave some room between the numbers so that you can create new resources between existing resources.

Localize Homepage resources

Localizing Homepage resources works in the same way as localizing Navigation Bar resources. (See the Localize Navigation Bar resources section for more details.)

Search Scope Resources

The search control in FIM Portal consists of a search input box and a drop-down box that is used for scoping the search. There are different search behaviors associated with each entry in the search scope drop-down box. Each entry is customized by a corresponding Search Scope resource. The following sections list all the customization tasks that you can perform on a Search Scope resource.

Change Search Scope resource basic information

  • Display Name - This is the displayed label of the Search Scope resource. This attribute is mandatory, and it takes a string of up to 448 characters, inclusive.

  • Description - FIM portal administrators can enter comments for the Search Scope resource in this field. It does not appear anywhere else in the portal other than in the detail view of the resource. This attribute is optional, and it takes a string of up to 448 characters, inclusive.

Hide or display Search Scope resources to privileged users

  • Usage Keywords – Usage Keywords for Search Scopes work in the same way as Usage Keywords for Navigation Bar resources. (See the Give privileged users permission to view a certain set of Navigation Bar resources section for more details.)

    BasicUI is an out-of-box Usage Keyword for Search Scope resources. By adding this Usage Keyword to a new or existing Search Scope resource, you can ensure that all users see it.

Embed a Search Scope resource in a List View control

  • Usage Keywords - Usage Keywords are used as a way to determine which search scopes are displayed on which list view page. Keywords are specified in a search scope to match the default keywords of a page, or multiple pages. When a page is loaded, it returns all search scopes that contain the keyword of that page. For example, when the My SG Memberships page is loaded, any search scopes with the keyword MySecurityGroupMemberships will appear in the Search within list on that page. A search scope can contain multiple keywords, and multiple search scopes can use the same keyword.

    Typically, the Usage Keyword for a resource's list view page is the resource type’s system name. Usage Keywords that are of the resource type’s system name make the search scope appear on the page that lists all instances of that resource type. For example, a Search Scope resource that contains the Usage Keyword WorkflowDefinition will appear in the Workflow Definition page. It will also appear in the Filter Builder whenever the WorkflowDefinition resource type is selected and the search attribute is Resource ID.

    For example, a user defines a Filter Builder as “Select workflow definition that matches all of the following conditions, Resource ID is <reference>”. When the user selects the reference, the user sees search scopes that have the WorkflowDefinition Usage Keyword.

    Usage Keywords can also be used in UOCIdentityPicker. For details, see the “UOCIdentityPicker” section in the RCDC XML Reference (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=183265).

    The following table contains a list of Usage Keywords that do not follow standard naming rules, along with the page on which they appear in the FIM Portal.

    Keyword Page where the Search Scope will appear

    Global

    Homepage

    When you use this Usage Keyword, either the GlobalSearchResult Usage Keyword or the Redirecting URL should be added. The default search result will direct the user to the Global Search Result page, which corresponds to GlobalSearchResult. If you do not add this Usage Keyword or Redirecting URL, the user will not see the results properly.

    GlobalSearchResult

    This is the search result page when search is run from the Homepage. (Also see Keyword Global.)

    AllDGs

    All Distribution Groups

    AllSecurityGroups

    All Security Groups

    MySecurityGroups

    My Security Groups

    MyDGs

    My Distribution Groups

    MySecurityGroupMemberships

    My Security Group Memberships

    MyDGMemberships

    My Distribution Group Memberships

    Security

    Used in the Identity Picker to select members for a security group.

    Distribution

    Used in the Identity Picker to select members for a distribution group.

    MailEnabledSecurity

    Used in the Identity Picker to select members for an e-mail-enabled security group.

    Customized

    Used in any Identity Picker in the advanced detail view of a resource. By including this Usage Keyword, you include a generic list of search scopes that will allow the user to search for all resources based on their resource types.

    Forest

    Used in the Identity Picker to select a forest configuration for a domain configuration.

    Person

    Users

    AttributePicker

    Used in the Identity Picker inside the Management Policy Rule Detailed View to select an Allowed Attribute. It is also used in the Identity Picker to select Allowed Attributes for Filter Permission.

    MyRequests

    Manage My Requests

    SearchRequests

    Search Requests

    MyApprovals

    Approve Requests

    Resource

    All Resources

    DeniedEmailTemplate

    Used in the Workflow Definition detailed view in the Activity Definition UI when you create an owner approval activity. This is used in the Identity Picker for selecting Denied Email Templates.

    NotifictionEmailTemplate

    Used in the Workflow Definition detailed view in the Activity Definition UI when you create an owner approval activity. This is used in the Identity Picker for selecting Notification Email Templates.

    TimeoutEmailTemplate

    Used in the Workflow Definition detailed view in the Activity Definition UI when you create an owner approval activity. This is used in the Identity Picker for selecting Timeout Email Templates.

    SchemaObject

    All Schema pages, including All Resource Types, Attribute Types and Bindings pages.

Arrange Search Scope resources position

  • Order - When multiple search scopes are displayed on a list view page, this attribute determines the position of the Search Scope resource in the corresponding Search Scope drop-down box. The lower the value, the higher in the list it appears. The value is global across all instances. For example, if the search scope Users has a higher order than the search scope Groups, it will appear higher in the list in any drop-down list where they are both specified. The value is any positive integer, and it should be unique within each drop-down list. We recommend that you leave some room between the values so that new resources can be created between existing resources.

    Important

    It is possible to create two or more search scopes with the same Order value, and no error will be returned. However, if two or more search scopes with the same Order value are in the same drop-down list, one or more of the search scopes will not appear. Therefore, we strongly recommend that all search scopes have a unique Order value.

Define how a user searches

  • Attribute Searched - When a user enters a search string, the search string is queried against one or more attributes. This setting defines which attribute or attributes the search string is queried against. Enter one or more attribute system names here, separated by a return key. For example, if DisplayName is entered here and the user has entered John in the search box, the search queries for DisplayName contains John. When DisplayName is used, only the operator contains is used. For all other attributes, the operator startswith is used for performance enhancement. If multiple attributes are defined here, they are linked between the query statements. For example, If DisplayName and AccountName are entered here, when a user searches for John, the query looks for DisplayName contains John or AccountName starts with John.

  • Search Scope Filter - This field takes a FIM XPath expression. It is a precondition with which the query is run. For example, if a user enters /Person here and DisplayName and AccountName in Attribute Searched, when the user searches for John using this search scope, the following query runs: /Person[contains(DisplayName, ‘John’) or startswith(AccountName, ‘John’)]. This search returns all users whose display name contains John or whose account name starts with John.

  • Search Scope Preview – You can use this control to preview the results of Search Scope Filter. To preview what the XPath returns, update the XPath, and then click Next, Previous, or other tabs to navigate away from and then back to this page to see the refreshed list.

Define how to render search results

There are three settings that users can customize regarding how the search results are rendered.

  • Resource Type - This is the system name of the resource type to be returned. For example, if you only want to return Person resources, select Person in this control. If you want to return mixed resource types, you must select Resource.

  • Attribute To Display - This control defines columns to be displayed in the results pane. You must enter the attributes that you want to see in the results pane in order and then separate each attribute by semicolon, for example,

    “DisplayName;AccountName;Description”

  • Redirecting URL - By entering a redirecting URL, you can navigate the user away to that URL after the search is run. This URL is a relative URL, for example: ~/identitymanagement/aspx/groups/AllDLs.aspx.

Localize Navigation Bar resources

  • This works the same way as localizing Navigation Bar resources. (See Localize Navigation Bar resources for more details.)

Resource Control Display Configurations

RCDCs are configuration resources that are used to control how details of a resource are displayed in the FIM Portal. An RCDC can include customization of titles, descriptions, screen layouts, and which and how attributes are displayed. FIM includes several preconfigured RCDCs that you can customize using an XML configuration file, or you can create a new RCDC for custom resources. You can customize the following settings to display the detail information of a resource.

Change RCDC resource basic information

  • Display Name – The display name for RCDC is used to distinguish different RCDCs in the All RCDC list. We recommend that you choose a different name to avoid confusion.

Specify which resource type to apply customization to

  • Target Resource Type - This specifies which resource type the RCDC applies to.

Customize the detailed view of a resource

  • Configuration Data - This is an XML file that follows the RCDC reference guide. This is where a user can determine which attributes to show or display and how these attributes are displayed. For more information, see the RCDC XML Reference Guide in the FIM documentation. Also see the Supported Scenarios for FIM Portal Customization and Extensibility section in this document for information about what customizations and extensibilities are supported.

Specify the mode in which the view is displayed

This determines in what mode the user will see the detail view that is defined by the RCDC Configuration Data. The RCDC can be applied to one or more modes for a given resource type. If there is a RCDC defined for that resource type for the same mode, only the most recently updated RCDC will be applied.

  • Apply to Create – applies to the view that is displayed when you are creating a resource.

  • Apply to Edit – applies to the view that is displayed when you are editing a resource's properties.

  • Apply to View – applies to the view that is displayed when you are viewing a resource's properties.

Localization

When the language pack is installed and users want to provide customized localization to the detail view of a resource, they can do so by using a combination of schema localization and the Localization tab of the RCDC resource. The tab consists of following settings:

  • Language - This is a list of languages that the Portal is localized in. The list depends on the languages that you selected when you installed the FIM language pack. By selecting one of the languages, you can specify how certain strings that are defined in Configuration Data XML can be localized.

    Note

    You must provide a value for Neutral language before proceeding with other languages; otherwise, the translation for other languages will not be applied.

  • String Resources - This is an XML file that contains a list of string symbol pairs. String symbol pairs are used to define UI text and labels that are not found in the schema. FIM uses this file to translate the specified strings into the language of the browser's preferred locale. When the detail view is viewed in a different language, the localized string in that language is displayed. For more information, see Introduction to Configuring and Customizing the FIM Portal in the FIM documentation.

    The following are recommendations for treating the text and labels in an RCDC control:

    • You should always bind string resources to appropriate schema elements. An example of this is the control’s display name, which is bound with the attribute’s Display Name value. For more information, see the Resource Control Display Configuration XML Reference (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=183265) in the FIM documentation. This is the preferred alternative because, when the schema administrator changes the Display Name and Description in the schema attribute and binding, all the text and labels that are associated with these elements are being updated. Because the schema management supports localization of the Display Name and Description of a schema element, the text and labels also are localized appropriately.

    • When using schema elements does not apply, use String Resources to display text and labels. An example of this is the hint text that appears underneath a text box control. This solution makes it possible for the text and label to be localized when it appears in the user’s preferred locales.

    • If all of the above do not apply, you can use a static string.

Supported Scenarios for FIM Portal Customization and Extensibility

The following sections contain lists of the FIM Portal customization and extensibility scenarios that are supported and not supported by Microsoft Customer Service and Support.

Customization

You can customize the FIM Portal by managing the FIM UI Configuration resources that are described in this document.

Supported scenarios:

  • Basic viewing and editing of the out-of-box Portal Configuration, Search Scope, Homepage, Navigation Bar, and RCDC resources

  • Basic viewing, creation, editing, and deletion of all new custom Homepage resources, new custom Search Scope Resources, new custom Navigation Bar resources, and new custom RCDCs

  • Use of external links in Homepage resources

  • Search Scope Search Filters that support the FIM XML Path Language (XPath)

  • Adding new RCDC sections and controls that are based on the RCDC configuration data for new and existing resource types

  • Marking existing controls, which calls for code-behinds in existing RCDC configuration data, as invisible

  • Hiding new and existing tabs in new and existing RCDC configuration data by removing the read permissions to all attributes on that tab

  • Localizing the text and labels in the Search Scope, Homepage, Navigation Bar, and RCDC resources by means of the supported methods that are described in this document

  • Creation of new Help documentation that is linked in RCDC pages

  • Modifying existing default Help documentation

  • Adding a new custom SharePoint theme that derives from a FIM Sharepoint theme to customize the FIM Portal

  • Creation of a SharePoint site that coexists on the same SharePoint server as FIM 2010

Unsupported scenarios:

  • Creation and deletion of a new Portal Configuration

  • Deletion of out-of-box Portal Configuration, Search Scope, Navigation Bar, Homepage resources, and RCDC resources. After these resources are deleted, they cannot be recovered.

  • Use of external links in Navigation Bar resources and Search Scopes

  • Changing controls that have code-behind in out-of-box RCDCs

  • Any other dialects and syntaxes for the Search Scope Search Filter, other than the FIM XPath dialect

  • Modifying and deleting existing controls that call for code-behinds in configuration data of an existing RCDC

  • Setting the default value on any RCDC controls

  • Adding a custom site in the FIM SharePoint site collection

  • Localizing the text and labels that are not covered in portal UI configuration resources. This includes the title of a FIM page, such as All Distribution Groups.

Extensibility

Developers and independent software vendors (ISVs) can extend the FIM Portal beyond what can be customized out of the box. The key areas for developer and ISV extensibility are as follows:

  • Any custom control or Web page can access the FIM Web service directly. Any control and web page can talk to the FIM Web service.

  • Programmatic interaction with controls on the FIM Portal is explicitly not supported. At this time, Microsoft has no plans to supply these as webparts.

  • Customers and ISVs can link new pages as an external link to the FIM site by means of UOC hyperlink control or homepage links. For more information, see the Resource Control Display Configuration XML Reference (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=183265).

  • Customers and ISVs can create a SharePoint site that coexists on the same SharePoint server as FIM. However, adding that site to the FIM SharePoint site collection is not supported.

The following are the extensibility scenarios that are supported and not supported for developers and independent software vendors (ISVs):

Supported scenarios:

  • Creating a new XSLT for an RCDC summary page layout rendering

  • Customer/ISV controls and pages that can talk to the FIM Web service (fully supported) or any other service

Unsupported scenarios:

  • Any custom code-behind. This includes any new Event and Handler controls in the RCDC configuration data XML

  • Invoking code-behinds in new places in existing RCDC configuration data or in new RCDC configuration data

  • Implementing new RCDC data sources

  • Implementing new types of controls for the RCDC (for example, date picker) and using it in RCDCs

  • Using additional RCDC data sources in an existing RCDC configuration data, for example, adding a group data source to the existing user RCDC

  • Using existing RCDC data sources other than the documented sources in a new RCDC configuration data, for example, copying the RCDC for a special type of security group and expecting the data source or code-behind to work the same way

  • Programmatic interaction between custom controls and controls on the FIM Portal

  • Adding new custom controls to the existing FIM Portal

  • Removing existing controls from an existing page or a page that is derived from a FIM master page