BIRCH - Customizing the BIRCH Home Page

Customizing the BIRCH Home Page

The BIRCH Home page $BIRCH/public_html/index.html is overwritten each time BIRCH is updated. If you were to directly edit this file, all changes would be lost the next time BIRCH is updated. However, there are numerous provisions for locally customizing this page.

Automated localization of hypertext links

When you update a BIRCH site, the customdoc.py script substitutes URLs in BIRCH documentation to point to local copies of documentation. The procedure is described on the page BIRCH - Customize Documentation. Some of the BIRCH web pages contain pseudocomments: legitimite HTML comments (ie. beginning with , which also contain command tags recognized by the customdoc.py script. As described on this page, URLs specific to the master BIRCH site at the University of Manitoba are replaced with local URLs. URLs that are required to be unchanged contain the HTML pseudocomment

<!-- DON'T CHANGE -->

which causes customdoc.py to ignore the line.

Blocks of text that should only be present on the master BIRCH site at the U. of M. are enclosed in the pseudocomment tags

<!-- BEGIN DELETE -->       
text to be deleted

<!-- END DELETE -->

Replaceable sections of the home page

Several sections of the BIRCH home page are designed to be replaceable. In $BIRCH/public_html/index.html, these sections are enclosed in pseudocomment tags such as

<!-- BEGIN REPLACE name="localident.html" -->
 <td><a href="http://www.umanitoba.ca"><img src="UMlogo.gif" alt="UM">
      </a>
      </td> 
<!-- END REPLACE -->

localident.html

This HTML code places the local logo and web site location onto the upper left hand corner of the BIRCH HOME page. In the example shown above, customdoc.py replaces this code with the contents of the file $BIRCH/local/public_html/localident.html. If that file does not exist, the space between the BEGIN REPLACE and the END REPLACE tags would be left blank.

You can change localident.html as many times as you wish, and each time you re-run customdoc.py, the new HTML will be inserted.

Other sections of the BIRCH home page can be replaced as well. In all cases, the files for local HTML code are found in $BIRCH/local/public_html. In the BIRCH distribution, most of these files contain the original HTML, but commented out. This gives you something to start with when trying to figure out how to modify them for your local system.

localadvert.html

This file contains HTML code for any special announcement you wish to place above the BIRCH ANNOUNCEMENTS window.

connecting.html

This section is for links to documentation for connecting to a server running BIRCH. It is not needed if you have installed BIRCH for a single user on a standalone PC or Mac.

The HTML for the link is found in $birch/local/public_html/connecting.html. If you want to get rid of this link eg. for a single-user machine, simply comment out the code for this link.

If BIRCH is installed on a multiuser server, edit this link to point to whichever file describes how to connect to the system.

firsttime.html

This section is for links to documentation for first time configuration steps, typically on a multiuser server installation.

The HTML for the link is found in $birch/local/public_html/firsttime.html. If you want to get rid of this link eg. for a single-user machine, simply comment out the code for this link.

If BIRCH is installed on a multiuser server, edit this link to point to whichever file describes how to set up BIRCH access (eg. newuser.py) and desktop customizations.

localacknowledgement.html

The lower right hand corner of the BIRCH home page is the location for putting acknowledgements for support, infrastructure etc.

localsystem.html

This dropdown menu is for links to documentation for the local system.

The HTML code is found in $birch/local/public_html/localsystem.html. If you want to get rid of this menu eg. for a single-user machine, simply comment out the code for this menu.

Making the changes take effect

To get your changes incorporated into the BIRCH web documentation, run birchadmin, and run Documentation --> customdoc.py.

You can do this manually by going to the $BIRCH/install-scripts directory and typing

python customdoc.py oldstr.param newstr.param htmldir.param

You can run this script as many times as you wish. It is automatically used to incorporate your localizations whenever you update to a new version of BIRCH.

Please send suggestions of comments regarding this page to psgendb@cc.umanitoba.ca