Summary of Customization

In order to customize the core content of the HTML5Vi page source, these high level steps need to be taken:

1. Create a new plugin using the web customization editor.
2. Copy the original HTML5VI_Content_Core.jsp/ascx file, from the jsp/asp folder in the Strategy Web Installation directory, into the jsp/asp folder within plugins/pluginFromStep1/.
3. Create a pageConfig.xml within the plugin/pluginFromStep1/WEB-INF/ folder, using it to point StrategyWeb to the custom content core file.

Detailed Steps

Preparing a plugin

• ​Create a new plugin using the Web Customization Editor, take note of the plugin name. From here the plugin will be referred to as "myPlugin", and the Strategy Web Installation directory will be referred to as MSTRWeb/.
• From MSTRWeb/jsp copy the HTML5VI_Content_Core.jsp file to MSTRWeb/plugins/myPlugin/jsp.
  
• If using the ASP version of Strategy Web, copy from MSTRWeb/asp to MSTRWeb/plugins/myPlugin/asp both the:
  
• ascx version of this file
• ascx.vb version of this file
• Create an xml file within MSTRWeb/plugins/myPlugin/WEB-INF/xml with the exact name pageConfig.xml.
  
• Note: The file and folder names mentioned in this article may be case sensitive.
• The result of these steps should be a file & folder structure similar to the following, within the myPlugin folder:

Instructing Strategy Web to use the custom HTML5VI_Content_Core

Now that the plugin has been created with all the necessary files, a change needs to be made in the pageConfig.xml to instruct Strategy Web to use the custom HTML5VI_Content_Core instead of the original, on the HTML5Vi page used by Visual Insight Dashboards.

• Navigate to the MSTRWeb/plugins/myPlugin/WEB-INF/xml folder.
• Edit the pageConfig.xml file in a plain text editor.
• Paste the following XML into the file:

<framework>
  <pages>
    <page name="Html5Vi">
      <templates>
		<template>
			<page-sections use-default="false">
				<page-section file-name="@myPlugin:/jsp/HTML5VI_Content_Core.jsp" name="content_core" />
			</page-sections>
		</template>
      </templates>
    </page>
  </pages>
</framework> 

• Edit "myPlugin" to point to the actual plugin name. In the example above, the plugin is called "myPlugin", so "@myPlugin" was used.
• Save the modified pageConfig.xml file and restart Strategy Web to apply the changes.

Confirming that Strategy Web is using the customized HTML5VI_Content_Core

The following steps are optional, but may be useful in confirming that the above changes successfully pointed Strategy Web to the custom HTML5VI_Content_Core for the content section of the Visual Insight HTML5Vi page.

• Navigate to the MSTRWeb/plugins/myPlugin/WEB-INF/jsp or asp folder.
• Open the HTML5VI_Content_Core in a text editor.
• At the end of the original source, paste the following HTML comment:

<!-- custom HTML5VI_Content_Core loaded successfully! -->

• Save the modified HTML5VI_Content_Core file and restart Strategy Web to apply the changes.
• Navigate to the Visual Insight page in Strategy Web, for example by creating a new dashboard.
• Once the Visual Insight page has loaded, navigate to the View Source option of the Web Browser. The following example shows how to access this in Chrome:

• Navigate to the end of the page source, the custom HTML added in the earlier step should be visible within the page source:

• This indicates that the customization was a success. The HTML5VI_Content_Core has been successfully customized, using the plugin architecture, without modifying the original file used by Strategy Web. Further customization can now be completed by modifying the HTML5VI_Content_Core file within the plugin.

Footnotes

Upgrades

The jsp/asp resources used by Strategy Web are subject to change in newer versions, as the platform is further enhanced and defects are addressed. It is recommended to review the upgrading guidelines  in the Web SDK Developer Zone before proceeding with an upgrade. In addition, it is also recommended to keep thorough documentation on any customizations made to jsp/asp resources, should they need to be repeated after a future upgrade.
If a plugin contains jsp/asp files and instructs Strategy Web to use the plugin version over the original, due to the pageConfig.xml within the plugin, upgraded environments may face unexpected behaviour until the modified jsp/asp files are updated to match those in the updated MSTRWeb/jsp or MSTRWeb/asp folders.
Any customizations to jsp/asp files in Strategy Web may need to be repeated after an upgrade, ensuring the latest version of the original jsp/asp file is copied from the updated MSTRWeb/jsp or MSTRWeb/asp folders. 

Other

Few scenarios require the modification of the jsp/asp page components used by Strategy Web as the only option. It is recommended to review alternative solutions to a customization scenario, if possible, as alternative methods (including CSS, javascript, and transform changes) may require less maintenance across future upgrades of Strategy Web.
 
The example provided in this document is provided “as-is” and user has read the following customization warning:
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
The Strategy SDK allows you to customize several Strategy products and extend and integrate the Strategy business intelligence functionality into other applications. However, before changing the way Strategy products look or behave, it is helpful to understand how the application is built. For more information regarding the Strategy products or the process of customizing Strategy products, please refer to MicroStrategy Developer Hub.
To access the Strategy Developer Hub, you must have access to the Strategy Knowledge Base, you must have purchased the Strategy SDK, and you must be current on your Strategy maintenance agreement. If you are a US-based business and believe that you satisfy all three of these conditions but you do not have access to the Strategy Developer Hub, please contact Strategy Technical Support at support@microstrategy.com or at (703) 848-8700. If you are an international business, please contact Strategy Technical Support at the appropriate email address or phone number found at https://www.microstrategy.com/us/services/support/contact.
CUSTOMIZATION WARNING:
This customization is provided as a convenience to Strategy users and is only directly applicable to the version stated. While this code may apply to other releases directly, Strategy Technical Support makes no guarantees that the code provided will apply to any future or previous builds. In the event of a code change in future builds, Strategy Technical Support makes no guarantee that an updated version of this particular customization will be provided. In the event of a code change in future builds, Strategy may not be able to provide additional code on this matter even though this customization is provided at this time for this specific build. For enhancements to this customization or to incorporate similar functionality into other versions, contact your Account Executive to inquire about Strategy Consulting assistance.