Univention Corporate Server has featured a ‘portal page’ since UCS 4.2. It is like a sort of homepage for the workstation that you can customize for each of your users – from both a technical and visual perspective. Today, I would like to tell you more about exactly how it works.
The UCS Portal – An Overview
Portal pages can be used for simple provision of different IT services. This makes it possible not only to make services available which are installed in a UCS domain, but also to make external links available just as conveniently. As such, a configured portal serves the users of a UCS domain as a central point of access for all web services, irrespective of whether they are on the Internet or an intranet.
UCS 4.3 also included further developments for the portal, with the requirements and wishes of our customers above all being addressed. Accordingly, the portal among other aspects received very positive reviews in the media response to the release of UCS 4.3, as can be read in Heise, Linux Magazine, and Pro-Linux.
Visual Customization
The core element of the portal updates in UCS 4.3 is the Visual Composer, which allows direct, simple customization of portal pages. This makes it possible to create appealing portal pages in next to no time that also reflect your corporate identity.
Portal Access and Functions
Portal pages make great browser welcome pages and central service platforms, for example. This provides users with quick access to the services which are important to them. The portal page displays different content based on which user is logged in. This assignment can be reproduced simply using corresponding group memberships.
Speaking of logged-in users: Another new element in UCS 4.3 is the combination of the Windows (Kerberos) login and our single sign-on solution (SAML). This means that users now only need to enter their login data once when logging on to Windows and can then use a customized portal and the associated services provided via the portal, such as Microsoft Office 365, without the need to enter their login data repeatedly.