Technical Notes

Using the Personalization Feature in Reflection for the Web
Technical Note 1807
Last Reviewed 30-May-2008
Applies To
Reflection for the Web 2008 (All Editions)
Reflection for the Web version 8.0 through 9.x
Summary

This technical note provides an overview of Reflection for the Web's Personalization feature. The basic implementation uses a default plug-in and data source.

Note: For information about how to personalize Reflection for the Web sessions with information stored in an SQL Server database (or any database with a jdbc driver), see Technical Note 1835.

In this note:

What is Personalization?

Personalization is the ability to customize the applet parameters for a Reflection for the Web session based on an attribute of the end user, such as identity, IP address, or DNS name. Any valid Reflection for the Web applet parameter, including device name and answerback, can be customized based on which user is running the Reflection session.

Terminology

Refer to the following terms when using the personalization feature.

Plug-in: a piece of code that enables the Reflection for the Web management server to read personalization data from a data source. Reflection ships with a default plug-in, which can be used to read personalization data from a flat file (p13n_data.txt) on the Reflection management server. You can also write a custom plug-in to read from whatever data source you prefer to use.

Data source: a file used to store data mappings of user attributes to applet parameter values. A compatible plug-in is required to read the data source.

p13n_data.txt: a flat file stored on the Reflection for the Web management server that acts as a data source file for the default plug-in. The file can be used to store personalization data. Each line in the file utilizes four fields, separated by colons, to define these attributes:

The p13n_data.txt file ships with Reflection for the Web management server and contains comments describing how to use it.

Note: The basic implementation described in this technical note uses a default plug-in and a flat file data source. However, other data sources and plug-ins, including SQL databases, are also supported. If you are interested in a custom plug-in, contact Attachmate Technical Services, http://www.attachmate.com/Products/Technical+Services/.

Enabling Personalization using the Default Plug-in

To enable the Personalization feature, you must edit two files in the ReflectionData folder to identify the default plug-in and to create the data source.

Identify the Default Plug-in

1. Edit the PropertyDS.XML file to specify that the Reflection for the Web management server use the DefaultPlugin.

2. Insert DefaultPlugin (shown in red below) between the two STRING tags to read as follows:

3. Restart the Reflection Server.

Create the Data Source

Follow the steps in this section to create a customized data source by inserting your preferred data mappings into the p13n_data.txt file.

1. Decide which parameters and properties you want to map.

• With IBM emulation, the parameter is deviceName, and the values are strings that correspond to logical units (LUs)
• With Answerback (only on VT systemsP, the parameter is declans, and the value can be any string.

Emulation	Protocol	Parameter	Value	Notes
Airlines Printer & ALC	Airgate	airgateTerminalID	any string
	Apollo	atstcpWorkstationName	any string
		atstcpGTID	an integer	GTID Value
		atstcpGTIDIndex	an integer	GTID Index
	Lantern	lanternTerminalAddress	2-byte hex value (00 - FF)
	Matip	matipAddressH1	2-byte hex value (00 - FF)
		matipAddressH2	2-byte hex value (00 - FF)
		matipAddressA1	2-byte hex value (00 - FF)
		matipAddressA2	2-byte hex value (00 - FF)
		matipAddressA2	2-byte hex value (00 - FF)
		matipAddressTA	2-byte hex value (00 - FF)	for UTS, this will set the SID property
	Sabre	sabreLniataAddress	6-byte hex value (000000 - FFFFFF)	specify either sabreLniataAddress or sabreLniataClass
		sabreLniataClass	any string	specify either sabreLniataAddress or sabreLniataClass
	Shares	udpfradLNIATA	6-byte hex value (000000 - FFFFFF)
T27	Tcpa	TcpaTerminalID	any string	in Reflection for the Web 2008
		TxTerminalID	any string	in Reflection for the Web version 9.6
UTS	Int1	int1TerminalID	any string
	Matip	(see Matip list above)
	Pepgate	pepgateSCRID	any string	specify either pepgateSCRID or pepgateRIDSID
		pepgateRIDSID	RxxSxx, where xx is 2-byte hex value	specify either pepgateSCRID or pepgateRIDSID

2. If you want to personalize a setting based on a user's identity (user distinguished name, user ID, or LDAP distinguished name), Reflection for the Web must be configured to use an authentication method that establishes user identity: LDAP, Portal, SiteMinder, X.509, Single Sign-on through IIS, or Single Sign-on through Windows. (Single Sign-on is available beginning in Reflection for the Web 7.0).

1. Verify the current access control method in Reflection for the Web. In the Administrative WebStation, click Access Control Setup. The Current Settings table lists the type of authentication in effect.
2. To configure or change the access control method, click the Configure button on the Access Control Setup page.

3. Open the <install path>\ReflectionData\p13n_data.txt file, to which you will add your data mappings. Note the traits of the file:

• The file contains comments describing the required format. Each line that begins with a # symbol is a comment.
• Each line in the data source contains four fields, which are separated by colons (:).
• The syntax is for data mapping is

• The pipe symbol (|) means "or." For example, the first two fields in the line above would be interpreted as

• DN means "distinguished name" (for LDAP configuration).
• A field can either be blank or contain an asterisk (*) to indicate "all."
• In the fourth field, each parameter=value set is separated by a comma.

4. Edit the p13n_data.txt file by adding uncommented lines that contain your desired data mappings. Use the sample data source and the scenarios below as a guide. After you complete your edits, save the file.

Sample Data Source

The following table describes and displays sample values for each field in p13n_data.txt.

Field 1	Field 2	Field 3	Field 4
User Identity (see Note below)	DNS name or IP Address of end user machine	Session name	Comma-delimited list of applet parameters and values
[USER DN | ID]	[DNS | IP]	[SESSION]	[PARAM="VALUE"] [,PARAM="VALUE"] ...
john	machine1.atm.com	session1	testParam="ddd"
cn=john,ou=sales, dc=acompany,dc=com	150.215.70.5		testParam1="ddd", testParam2="eee"
	150.215.70.*
	150.215.*.*
	150.*.*.*

Note: When the default plug-in is used, LDAP groups cannot be used for User Identity (Field 1). Other plug-ins and methods, however, can provide this functionality.

Scenarios

The following scenarios may help you determine how to enter specific lines to map your data preferences in the p13n_data.txt file. The scenarios progress from less specific entries to more specific (and therefore more restrictive) entries.

Scenario A

Set the device name to aaa and set all session titles to Company XYZ Session for all users:

The three colons (:::) are equivalent to wildcards for the User Identity, DNS/IP, and Session name fields.

Scenario B

Set the device name to bbb for a session named session1, regardless of the user identity or DNS/IP address.

The two leading colons (::) are equivalent to wildcards for the User Identity and DNS/IP fields.

Scenario C

Set the device name to eee for any user accessing session1 from this IP address, 10.125.170.120.

The leading colon (:) is a wildcard for the User Identity field.

Scenario D

Set the device name to eee for any user accessing session1 from this IP address, 10.125.170.*.

The leading colon (:) is a wildcard for the User Identity field. The asterisk (*) acts as a wildcard for the last octet of the IP address and will match any address in the 10.125.170.* subnet.

Scenario E

Set the answerback value to a specified value for each listed user when session2 is accessed from a machine with DNS name *.xyz.company.com.

The asterisk (*) acts as a wildcard in the domain name, *.xyzcompany.com.

Airlines Printing Sessions

In Airlines Printing sessions, there can be multiple routes per session. To specify which route the parameter is intended for, use this syntax:

Note: For personalization, the colon (:) must be preceded by a backslash (\) because the personalization data parser uses a colon as a field separator.

Follow these examples.

• Configuring an ALC session using MATIP:

• Configuring an Airlines Printing session using MATIP:

Verify the Changes

After you enter the lines into the data source and save the p13n_data.txt file, open a session for which you added personalized settings, and verify that the affected fields are populated.

Here are some ways to verify the changes:

• Verify that the terminal session behaves as expected.
• Check the values in the Reflection for the Web emulator user interface.

• Verify the values of the applet parameters in the HTML for the terminal session. To view the HTML:

1. In the Administrative WebStation, click Session Manager and click a session name to edit the session.
2. Choose the radio button to Display session embedded in a web browser window. Click Save settings.
3. Launch the session or ask a user to run the session. In the browser, view the HTML source for the session web page.

Related Technical Notes

1796	Customizing the Login and Links List Pages in Reflection for the Web
1835	Personalizing Reflection for the Web Using the SQL Plug-in