Manual Chapter : Hosting Files with Portal Access on Access Policy Manager

Applies To:

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BIG-IP APM

  • 13.1.0
Manual Chapter

About using hosted files with a Portal Access resource

You can use hosted content that you have uploaded to the BIG-IP® Access Policy Manager® to provide the resource and resource items for a Portal Access resource.

When you use hosted content for a Portal Access resource, the link on the webtop for the portal access resource opens a file hosted on the system, instead of a URI. You configure the main Portal Access resource as this linked file. You then configure this file, and all related and required files, as resource items of this file.

In this example, a simple web page consisting of an HTML file, a CSS file, a JavaScript file, and an image are uploaded to a directory in the hosted content repository. The files are then specified as a Portal Access resource and resource items.

File Location Description
index.html /index.html The main web page that displays when the link is clicked. This is the Portal Access Resource.
styles.css /styles.css The CSS file for the page index.html.
test_image.jpg /test_image.jpg An image that is referenced on the page index.html.
script.js /js/script.js A JavaScript file that is referenced from the page index.html.

In this example, hosted content is uploaded as a single ZIP file, test.zip, then extracted to the location /test on the server.

Task summary

To add hosted content to a Portal Access link on Access Policy Manager® (APM®), complete these tasks.

Task list

Uploading files to Access Policy Manager for Portal Access

You upload files to Access Policy Manager® to provide content for a Portal Access webtop link.
Tip: Before you upload multiple files to Access Policy Manager, you can combine the files in a ZIP archive format. Then, you can upload and extract the files in one step. In this example, four files are uploaded as a single ZIP archive, called test.zip.
  1. On the Main tab, click Access > Webtops > Hosted Content > Manage Files .
    The Manage Files screen opens.
  2. Click the Upload button.
    The Create New File popup screen opens.
  3. Under Select File, click the Browse button. Browse and select test.zip.
    The Select File and File Name fields are populated with the file name.
  4. In the File Destination Folder field, specify the folder path /test in which to place the file.
  5. From the File Action list, select Upload and Extract.
  6. Click the OK button.
    The files appears in the hosted content list, in the folder specified. Any files in subfolders in the archive file also appear in subfolders in the hosted content list.
You must associate any access profiles that will access hosted content with the hosted content repository.

Associating hosted content with access profiles

A user can access hosted content that is associated with that user's access profile. Each access profile that requires hosted content access must be associated with the entire hosted content repository.
  1. On the Main tab, click Access > Webtops > Hosted Content > Manage Files .
    The Manage Files screen opens.
  2. On the Upload button, click the right-side arrow to select Manage Access from the list.
    The Access Settings popup screen opens.
  3. Select the access profiles to associate with hosted content, then click OK.
    A user must belong to an associated access profile to access hosted content.
View the hosted content list, and verify that the access policy association was successful.

Creating a portal access configuration with hosted content

  1. On the Main tab, click Access > Connectivity / VPN > Portal Access > Portal Access Lists .
    The Portal Access List screen opens.
  2. Click the Create button.
    The New Resource screen opens.
  3. Type the name and an optional description.
  4. From the ACL Order list, specify the placement for the resource.
    Option Description
    Last Select this option to place the new portal access resource last in the ACL list.
    After Select this option to select, from the list of configured ACLs, the ACL that this portal access resource should follow in sequence.
    Specify Select this option to specify an order number, for example, 0 or 631for the ACL.
  5. From Configuration, select Basic or Advanced.
    The Advanced option provides additional settings so you can configure a proxy host and port.
  6. For the Match Case for Paths setting, select Yes to specify that portal access matches alphabetic case when matching paths in the portal access resource.
  7. From the Patching Type list, select the patching type for the web application.
    For both full and minimal patching types, you can select or clear patching methods specific to your selection.
  8. If you selected Minimal Patching and the Host Patching option, type a host search string, or multiple host search strings separated with spaces, and the host replace string, which must be the Access Policy Manager® virtual server IP address or fully qualified domain name.
  9. Select the Publish on Webtop check box.
  10. From the Link Type list, select Hosted Content.
  11. From the Hosted File list, select public/share/test/index.html.
    This is the filename for this example scenario only. Please select the correct file for your own configuration.
  12. In the Customization Settings for English area, in the Caption field, type a caption.
    The caption appears on the full webtop, and is required. This field is required even if you do not select the Publish on webtop option.
  13. Optionally, in the Detailed Description field type a description for the web application.
  14. In the Image field, specify an icon for the web application link. Click the View/Hide link to show the current icon.
  15. If your application is behind a proxy server, to specify a proxy host and port, you must select Advanced for the configuration to display additional fields, and type the proxy host and proxy port.
  16. Click the Create button.
    The Portal Access resource is saved, and the Portal Access Resource screen now shows a Resource Items area.
This completes the portal access resource configuration.
Specify all hosted content files used by this example (all files in the /test folder) as resource items.

Creating a portal access resource item for hosted content

You create a portal access resource item in order for hosted content to add a file that is part of a portal access hosted content resource. For example, you might add image files, CSS files, or scripts that are required by the web page or application. You typically use resource items to refine the behavior for web application directories; for example, you might specify No Compression and a Cache All caching policy for the images for a portal access resource.
Note: You must add (separately) each hosted file used by the portal access resource, and the resource file itself, as resource items.
  1. On the Main tab, click Access > Connectivity / VPN > Portal Access > Portal Access Lists .
    The Portal Access List screen opens.
  2. Click the name of a portal access resource.
    The Portal Access Properties screen for that resource opens.
  3. In the Resource Items area, click the Add button.
    A New Resource Item screen for that resource opens.
  4. Select that the resource item type is Hosted Content.
  5. From the Hosted File list, select the file to specify as a resource item.
    For purposes of this example, specify public/share/test/index.html, public/share/test/test_image.jpg, public/share/test/style.css, and public/share/test/js/script.js.
  6. Configure the properties for the resource item.
    • To add headers, select Advanced next to New Resource Item.
    • To configure Session Update, Session Timeout, and Home Tab, select Advanced next to Resource Item Properties.
  7. Click Finished.
    This creates the portal access resource item.

Implementation result

You have now added a portal access resource and portal access resource items that are based on uploaded hosted content.