Cisco CME GUI Customization Via XML

You can customize Cisco CME GUI features to provide a customer administrator login. This Cisco CME facility is used if you as a reseller are setting up a system for your end customer and that person wants to perform certain administrative functions on the system while you remain responsible for other items. You can use the system administrator login and access all system GUI features. You can limit the items your end customer sees in the GUI (using the customer administrator login) to those he or she is responsible for managing.

The following sections discuss how to customize the Cisco CME GUI features, and change the look and feel of the GUI pages with a sample XML file. The Cisco UE GUI cannot be customized in this manner.

The Cisco CME system administrator defines what a customer administrator can do by defining and setting the tags in an XML file. The XML file can be read in through the CLI to control the set of GUI functions allowed for a customer administrator.

Based on the existing Cisco CME XML Schema Template file, you might create a sample.xml and copy it to your router's Flash. In the sample.xml file, you can use tags with values of Show or Hide to allow or deny the customer administrator access to the corresponding GUI features.

If a tag item is missing from the XML file, the default behavior is to show. The customer administrator's access is equivalent to the system administrator under the following circumstances:

• No XML file exists in Flash
• After a no web customize load command is executed on the router (this command can be written to nonvolatile RAM [NVRAM])

You configure Cisco CME to allow GUI customization using the sample.xml file as shown in Example 13-20.

Example 13-20. Using an XML File for GUI Customization

telephony-service web admin system name admin password admin web admin customer name Cisco password Cisco web customize load sample.xml

Cisco CME XML Schema Template

The Cisco CME XML Schema Template is shown in Example 13-21. This sample template lists all the GUI features available to be customized using XML tags. You can select each to hide or show. By default, all features are shown in the GUI pages if neither Hide nor Show is specified.

Example 13-21. Cisco CME XML Schema Template

[Hide | Show] [Hide | Show] [Hide | Show] [Hide | Show] [Hide | Show] [Hide | Show] [Hide | Show] [Hide | Show] [Hide | Show] [Hide | Show] [Hide | Show] [Hide | Show] [Hide | Show] [Hide | Show] [Hide | Show] [Hide | Show] [Hide | Show] [Hide | Show] [Hide | Show] [Hide | Show] [Hide | Show] [Hide | Show] [Hide | Show] [Hide | Show] [Hide | Show] [Hide | Show] [Hide | Show] [Hide | Show] [Hide | Show] [Hide | Show] [Hide | Show] [Hide | Show] [Hide | Show] [Hide | Show] [Hide | Show] [Hide | Show] [Hide | Show] [Hide | Show] [Hide | Show] [Hide | Show] [Hide | Show] [Hide | Show] [Hide | Show] [Hide | Show] [Hide | Show] [Hide | Show] [Hide | Show] [Hide | Show] [Hide | Show] [Hide | Show] [No | Yes] [No | Yes] [No | Yes] [1-6]

Guidelines for GUI Customization

You can customize the GUI with the XML file shown in Example 13-21 any way you like based on the requirements you and your end customer have for using the GUI. This section explains some general guidelines for what is best to do when customizing the GUI.

Generally, you should not allow the customer administrator to do the following:

• Add or delete a line
• Add or delete an extension
• Add or delete a phone

You might use the Hide tag for the following:

• Paging
• Intercom
• Call history

On the View Extension menu, you might use the Hide tag for the following items:

• Sequence Number (including both the Search-by page and the Extension Information page)
• Extension Type
• Huntstop
• Preference
• Hold-Alert
• Translation Rules

On the View Phone menu, you might use the Hide tag for the following items:

• Paging
• Display Maximum Number of four lines

On the Change Extension menu, you might use the Hide tag for the following items:

• Normal DN
• Sequence Number
• Extension Type
• Huntstop
• Hold-Alert
• Preference
• Translation Rules
• Paging DN
• IP Multicast Address and Port

On the Change Phone menu, you might use the Hide tag for the following items:

• Phone Sequence Number
• Paging Information

On the View System Configuration menu, you might use the Hide tag for the following items:

• IP Phone URL
• IP Phone Loads
• Transfer Pattern
• Voice Mail Number
• Call History Information
• Maximum Number of IP Phones
• MWI Server Setting

On the Change System Parameter Configuration menu, you might use the Hide tag for the following items:

• Dialplan Patterns
• Transfer Patterns
• System Time
• Voicemail Number
• Maximum Number of IP Phones

GUI Customization Sample File (sample.xml)

By default, the customer administrator has full access to the Cisco CME GUI. The customer administrator can be limited to certain GUI features by a GUI customization file defined by the system administrator. Using the XML template given in Example 13-21, Example 13-22 shows a sample GUI customization file (sample.xml).

Example 13-22. Sample GUI Customization File

Hide Hide Hide Show Hide Hide Hide Hide Show Hide

Features not specified in the sample.xml file are shown in the GUI by default. Thus, every feature you want to hide must be explicitly stated in the file. After the sample.xml file shown in Example 13-22 is installed on a Cisco CME system, the customer administrator can no longer access the following features, because they are tagged with Hide in the XML file:

• Add Extension
• Delete Extension
• Sequence Number
• Huntstop
• Preference
• Hold-Alert
• Translation Rules
• Intercom

Figure 13-11 shows that the add and delete buttons and the Sequence Number column are hidden from the customer administrator GUI (limited access). Compare it to Figure 13-12, which shows all the hidden features for a system administrator who has full access to the GUI.

Figure 13-11. GUI Customization (Limited Access)

Figure 13-12. GUI Customization (Full Access)

Style Sheet

Cisco CME supports a style sheet to make it easier for you to customize the GUI's look and feel by controlling the font, size, and alignment of GUI HTML pages. You can specify multiple style sheets. The style sheet is not limited to the hard-coded filename in Cisco IOS. Cisco CME also uses all feedback, error messages, and action state strings from an HTML file. This allows you to customize the GUI's look and feel to your own style and with international language support if needed.

If you are a service provider offering Cisco CME as a hosted customer premises equipment (CPE) solution, or a reseller offering your customers the option to own or brand the systems you provide, this is a Cisco CME facility you can put to good use to customize the GUI to look like your system. Large enterprises that have IT conventions on what application GUIs should look like can also use this facility to customize the GUI to fit better within your own conventions.

The customizable HTML capability opens the code for you to view and change GUI frames. Here are some examples:

• Add your own logo along with the Cisco logo
• Customize the set of functions provided to your customers (useful for a service provider)
• Develop a localized version of the GUI that fits your country's style and language

The Cisco CME style sheet template is part of the Cisco CME GUI files loaded in the router's Flash and can be modified to suit your needs. Note that any GUI customization implemented might be specific to an individual Cisco CME software release and might need to be modified if the Cisco CME release is changed.

Note

The Cisco Technical Assistance Center (TAC) does not support customized and localized GUI files.