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Old 08-10-2011, 01:30 PM   #1
jibi
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Default Integrated BlackBerry Jump Page for BAS

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Long time, no post... where to begin...

When I first started playing with BES 5.0 a few years ago, one complaint I remember having was the lack of a "jump" page for the BAS web services. It seems that really has not been addressed by RIM over the years since BES 5.0 was introduced and I have barely played with BES 5.0 in a production environment since my initial plans were scraped "until the next service pack" ... three service packs and a couple years later and I finally have time (and the need) to deploy it. WOOT!

Background:
One of the inherent issues with Tomcat is that each application is installed and serviced from a sub-directory of the website. For example, Web Desktop Manager is serviced from /webdesktop and the Administration Console is serviced from /webconsole in BAS. With a packaged implementation, such as the one with BAS/BES, it is tough to perform any sort of customization to the overall Tomcat/JBOSS configuration. For the headache of these published URLs, some administrators have created an IIS website to serve as the "jump" page... while others have just lived with the headache of unfriendly URLs. I personally like to keep things integrated, so I decided to look into this alteration now that it is "affecting" me once again.

Configuration Details:
The folder location for the BAS service root (https://servername) can be found in C:\Program Files (x86)\Research In Motion\BlackBerry Enterprise Server\BAS\jboss\ejb\server\default\deploy\jboss-web.deployer\ROOT.war, so files can be placed in here to create an integrated "jump" page. According to the web.xml file located in C:\Program Files (x86)\Research In Motion\BlackBerry Enterprise Server\BAS\jboss\ejb\server\default\deploy\jboss-web.deployer\conf, the file list should be named one of the following names:

Code:
        <welcome-file-list>
        <welcome-file>index.html</welcome-file>
        <welcome-file>index.htm</welcome-file>
        <welcome-file>index.jsp</welcome-file>
    </welcome-file-list>
BlackBerry Jump Page:
I took the liberty of creating a custom generic "jump page" package for anyone that wants to use it. The page contains the new BlackBerry Desktop Software icon, which linked to Web Desktop Manager (webdesktop/login). It also contains a link at the bottom labeled "Administration Console" (webconsole/login). Alternatively, you can change the "Administration Console" link to be something more obscure on the page (i.e. - the copyright symbol).

To install, extract the attached package to C:\Program Files (x86)\Research In Motion\BlackBerry Enterprise Server\BAS\jboss\ejb\server\default\deploy\jboss-web.deployer\ROOT.war on each of your BAS servers. If you installed BAS to a non-default location, adjust the path above to where it is installed. The package is "root-friendly," so you do not need to extract the contents to a sub-folder.

You will need to edit the company logo image to complete the "jump" page, but it should not take much more customization than that (unless you want to create your own page from ground up). In order to remove the company logo from the page, do the following:

Open index.html with Notepad and find:
Code:
				<td align="right" class="mainTableOutsideBorder" width="49%"><img src="assets/images/corporate/CompanyLogo.png" id="company_logo" alt="Company Logo" name="company_logo"/></td>
Update to:
Code:
				<!-- <td align="right" class="mainTableOutsideBorder" width="49%"><img src="assets/images/corporate/CompanyLogo.png" id="company_logo" alt="Company Logo" name="company_logo"/></td> -->
Disclaimers: 1) I am unsure if this customization will be maintained after the installation of a service pack. My assumption would be that the files would be removed/overwritten and would need to be redeployed, but this has not been tested. 2) The "jump" page should work on all flavors of BES 5.0, but it has only been used with BES 5.0 SP3. 3) The use of this "hack" may void support from RIM, although it technically does not alter any code or configuration. 4) I'll update this post with more developments as I come across them ... feel free to add your own.
Attached Files
File Type: zip BlackBerryJumpPage.zip (39.8 KB, 8 views)
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Last edited by jibi; 08-10-2011 at 01:32 PM..
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