Embedding custom pages from BMC Helix Innovation Studio or external sites

The following illustration shows a high-level overview of the end-to-end process of embedding custom pages:

Before you begin

• Make sure you have administrator access to the BMC Helix Digital Workplace admin console.
• Verify that BMC Helix Single Sign-On is integrated with BMC Helix Innovation Studio. If you have a hybrid deployment or multitenant configuration, configure the necessary connection settings.
• Ensure that the necessary permissions are set up for the BMC Helix Innovation Studio pages so that only authorized users can access them.

Step 1: To create a view for an external application in BMC Helix Innovation Studio

1. Log in to the BMC Helix Innovation Studio console.
2. Select the Views tab and click New.
3. Select the required layout from the list.
4. Design the layout based on your customization and click Save.

For more information, see Creating or modifying view definitions.

Step 2: To enable integration with BMC Helix Innovation Studio

By default, the BMC Helix Innovation Studio integration is disabled. You must complete the following steps for end users to see the custom pages:

1. In the BMC Helix Digital Workplace admin console, select Configuration.
2. In the Application Features pane, select the BMC Helix Innovation Studio checkbox. 
   

Step 3: To embed a BMC Helix Innovation Studio page or an external page

1. In the admin console, select Configuration.
2. In the Application Features pane, select BMC Helix Innovation Studio.
3. In the Create custom page section, click +Add page.
   

4. Enter the URL in the URL to BMC Helix Innovation Studio.

   Customizing embedded pages with user-specific data

   You can enhance the functionality of an embedded page by adding query parameters to the BMC Helix Innovation Studio URL. These parameters dynamically pass user-specific data to the page:

   Query parameter	Description
   { loginId}	Passes the user name of the logged-in user.
   {firstName}	Passes the first name of the user.
   {lastName}	Passes the last name, of the user.
   {fullName}	Combines the first name, middle name, and the last name.

   For instance,

   Example URL

   https://<Innovation_Studio_URL>?loginId={loginId}&firstName={firstName}&lastName={lastName}&fullName={fullName}

   • In this example, placeholders such as {loginId} and {firstName} are dynamically replaced with actual user data during runtime.
   • If the logged-in user's details are:
     • User name: djohn
     • First name: David
     • Last name: John
     • Full name: David John

   The URL will resolve to

   https://<Innovation_Studio_URL>?loginId=djohn&firstName=David&lastName=John&fullName=David%20John

   These values are retrieved from the user profile stored in the CTM:People form.

5. Enter a custom title for the page in the Page Name.

   Important

   The title cannot exceed 35 characters.

6. Click Save to apply the changes.

Step 4: To select a custom page

1. In the admin console, select  Configuration.
2. In the Application Features pane, select the Navigation Manager.  
3. Select your custom page to ensure it is displayed to end users. 
   For more information, see Setting-up-navigation-for-your-workplace.
4. Click Save to confirm your changes.
5. (Optional) Select the Use view entitlement rules checkbox to ensure that access permissions are applied to the BMC Helix Innovation Studio page in the end-user console.
   Only end users with the appropriate entitlements can see and access the page when it is added to the navigation menu.

To leverage a single sign-on experience for embedded BMC Helix Innovation Studio pages

You can enable single sign-on (SSO) for embedded pages to avoid prompting users for credentials repeatedly.

1. Ensure that BMC Helix SSO is integrated with BMC Helix Innovation Studio.
   For more information, see Enabling BMC Helix Single Sign-On OAuth 2.0 authentication for your application.

2. In the Admin console, select Configuration .
3. In the Application Features pane, select BMC Helix Innovation Studio.
4. In the Connection settings section:
   1. Enter the BMC Helix SSO URL.
   2. In the BMC Helix SSO pre-authentication certificate field, upload the private key certificate. Only PKCS #1 and PKCS #8 PEM formats are supported for private keys. For details on the required encoding and structure to generate PKCS#1 and PKCS#8 private keys in base64, see PKCS#1 and PKCS#8 key structures.
      

5. (Optional) If your BMC Helix Innovation Studio application uses a multitenant configuration, provide the domain name in the Domain name field.
   Leave this field blank, if the target BMC Helix Innovation Studio is version 21.x or later.

   Important

   • If you embed an older version of BMC Helix Innovation Studio, such as 20.08 or older, you need to specify the Domain name.
   • For newer versions of BMC Helix Innovation Studio, leave this field blank.
6. Click Save connection to apply changes.
7. Configure preauthentication in BMC Helix SSO Admin Console. 
   Learn how to complete this task in Configuring preauthentication. When you configure preauthentication, make sure to copy your public certificate in the Certificate field.

PKCS#1 and PKCS#8 key structures

The following examples illustrate the structure of PKCS#1 and PKCS#8 encoded keys: 

To open a custom page in a new tab

By default, custom pages open within an iframe in the end-user console. Follow these steps to open a custom page in a new browser tab:

1. In the Admin console, select Configuration.
2. In the Application Features pane, select BMC Helix Innovation Studio.
3. In the Create custom page section, click Open in  and select New tab.
   
    

(Optional) To localize the custom page title

By default, the custom page title is in English. However, you can localize the title to other languages as needed.

1. Open the custom page where you want to add a different locale.
2. Click Select Name locale and choose the appropriate locale. 
3. In the Page Name field, enter the new title for the selected locale.

The system displays the page title based on the user's browser locale settings. If end users have configured different page titles for different locales, the system displays the title according to the configured locale.  For more information about the list of supported locales, see Supported-languages-and-locales.