The Web Client Home page is a quick-loading page designed to provide users with easy navigation into main areas of the system. Users can get back to it using the Home button on the main menu. Users can also choose to use this page as their “start” page when they launch the Web Client. This is generally more useful than the other start page options (My Alerts and My Contacts) because it loads more quickly and gives access to some of the most common tasks (finding contacts and adding new contacts).
InterAction Web Client Home Page
The page includes a form for doing quick searches for contacts and several links to other areas and help information.
Your organization can customize this page with your own logo and links. The links can be to other Web Client pages, as well as other online resources, such as your Intranet and external search engines. LexisNexis InterAction recommends customizing this page rather than changing the left-hand main menu.
About Customizing the Home Page
Customizing the InterAction Web Client home page requires you to edit XML configuration files. These files are stored on the Application Server. There are two main types of XML files you need to work with when customizing the home page:
- Page method declarations define the actual pages that you see when working in the Web Client. A page method determines the overall layout and content of the page. The Web Client home page is defined with the page method called home.
- Search list declarations define lists of links that can be placed on a page. The home page uses several of these to define groups of links on the page. You can add links to the existing lists by editing search list declarations.
Before attempting to customize the Web Client home page, you should be familiar with the basics of XML. You should understand the following terms and concepts:
- Elements and tags
- The difference between opening and closing tags
- Nesting a tag within another tag
- Attributes
- Assigning values to attributes
- Making an XML document well-formed
If you are unfamiliar with these concepts, refer to Editing XML Files for an overview. Note that you need to be comfortable working with XML in order to customize the Web Client home page.
You should also be familiar with the terms page method and nugget. For an overview, see Application Server and Web Client Architecture.
How the Home Page is Defined
The Web Client home page is defined with the page method home in the pages.xml configuration file. The page declaration defines a set of sections, columns, and nuggets.
Nuggets Comprising the Home Page
[A] Standard page framework.
[B] This page is laid out with three columns
[C] Quick search nugget.
[D] Examples of search list nuggets for displaying lists of links.
Note that each set of links shown on the page (Search for..., etc.) is produced using the formatSearchList.jsp nugget. The formatSearchList.jsp nugget displays a set of links defined in a separate search list declaration. When you place the formatSearchList.jsp nugget on a page, you provide the ID for the appropriate search list you want to use. The Web Client builds the list of links based on this declaration and displays it in the nugget.
The formatSearchList.jsp Nugget Displays Links Defined in Search List Declarations
[A] formatSearchList.jsp nugget displaying the search list home-search.
[B] formatSearchList.jsp nugget displaying the search list home-add.
[C] formatSearchList.jsp nugget displaying the search list home-message.
[D] formatSearchList.jsp nugget displaying the search list home-view.
[E] formatSearchList.jsp nugget displaying the search list home-how.
For details about XML configuration files, page declarations, and search list declarations, see Overview of the XML Reference.
How you customize the page depends on what you want to do:
- To change the overall layout of the page, you edit the home page declaration. For example, if you wanted to add a new nugget to the page, you would edit the declaration and add XML tags for the new nugget.
- To change the links displayed in the formatSearchList.jsp nuggets, you edit the corresponding search list declarations. These are stored in the searchLists.xml configuration file.
For details about these tasks, see the following: