vCAC UI Customization

[Jalps]

We are using vCAC 5.2.

As per our requirement, we need to display a customized User interface when user tries to create a new virtual machine request.

Ex. When user click on New machine request, we need to show our own UI page with some details about virtual machine, then only it will create a new virtual machine request.

Anyone have some suggestion or Idea about implementation of this features? or is possible to attach a new UI while creating virtual machine?

Thanks,

Jalps

[d-fens]

A very easy approach is to use the vCAC ODATA REST service and create a thin wrapper around it (for example with LightSwitch with which you can create HTML5 jQueryUIMobile based interfaces). For an example see http://d-fens.ch/2013/10/19/vcac-provision-a-virtual-machine-blueprint-from-powershell/ .

The idea is to use the SubmitVirtualMachineRequest method in the vCAC REPO service to initiate a machine request. You can do this with any client that can create REST calls. LightSwitch makes it easy to bind vCAC to its UI as it understands vCAC ODATA REST interface natively.

Regards, Ronald

[Jalps]

Thanks for your reply Ronald,

We are trying to customize the vCAC self service portal, where we need to implement a new UI for provision a machine.

The link which you provided might be useful, but is it used in vCAC self service portal?

It will be very helpful for us if you provide some more detail or link to implement new UI in self service portal.

Thanks & Regards,

Jalps

[d-fens]

If you really want to use the vCAC SelfServicePortal (the addon you have to install additionally which is based on the Telerik Kendo interface) you should keep in mind that this will be gone when you upgrade to vCAC 6. but apart from that you can actually customise it, as it is a template driven web site that uses template that are based on the Microsoft ASP.NET MVC model with the Razor rendering engine. you might want to have a look at msdn to find out more about this. In addition the Telerik web page should give you more information on how to use th Kendo controls.

But as I wrote, this customisation will not survive the into version 6.

In case you are talking about the "self service portal" portion of the administration console, there is actually not much I am aware of that you can easily customise.

Regards, Ronald

[PaulDND]

Has anyone been able to customize the VCAC 6.0 UI, is there any resources or documentation out there on doing it?

[T1gerShark]

As of 6.1 there may (or may not) be a new API to leverage to create new overlay UIs which will effectively be like rewriting your own UI.

For the time being, however, one can still edit elements of the UI (for example, the Request page is in an IFRAME), which can be found in the installation path on the IaaS Server.

It is recommended to create Redirects in the web.config file on the IaaS machine, and to create new files, copying the older files, otherwise upgrades and patches may break any changes you have made.

This is a common request and I understand the concerns here, many of us are facing the same challenges.

What kind of customisations are you looking to achieve exactly? Maybe I can help.

[poorem]

One of the most lamented UI features that customers grumble about is the Cost Profile table on the request screen if they're not using them.

I'd say that the other major headache for people can be the CPU / RAM selectors on the machine blueprint request panel. So many customers of mine want "t-shirt" sizes (e.g. small, medium, large) and to have the standard options hidden completely.

[T1gerShark]

Michael Poore Indeed. This is a common request. The older Self Service Portal that came with 5.2 was fantastic in this sense because it certainly made things a lot prettier.

Currently, you can use something like jQuery embedded in your aspx pages to override the look and feel of the controls, and also implement interaction logic.

For example, you could use JQuery to hide the CPU control, and then put another control in its stead.

Whenever a user interacts with the new control, get JQuery to update the hidden control as well so that the post back doesn't break.

It's a bit of a hack, but I believe it's achievable. Again, when patches or upgrades are released against the IaaS Server, these changes will need to be reapplied because they may be overwritten.

Does it make sense?

[poorem]

Yep, thank you. It makes sense although it’s convoluted and, as you say, could be overwritten.

Can’t wait for some improvements in this area.