Building Application Navigation Files For Each Role

An application navigation file (e.g., app-nav.xml) defines the navigation for an application. To have different navigation for each role, set up an application navigation file for each role. For information about how to use these application navigation files to define the navigation for views in your application, see Building the Navigation Controls for the Application Views.

Previous Procedure

Preparing Your Views For Adding Navigation Controls

Basic Steps

Use the default application navigation file (app-nav.xml) for one of the roles.

Create additional application navigation files for other roles. An easy way to create a new application navigation file is to make a copy of the default app-nav.xml file and change it as necessary.

For the sample that illustrates this use case, there are two roles. The sample uses the following application navigation files:

 

Role	Application Navigation File	Description
admin	app-nav.xml	The sample uses the default application navigation file (app-nav.xml) for the admin role. It contains all the views for the application because users in the admin role can access all views.
tomcat	app-nav-user.xml	For the tomcat role, you add an additional application navigation file that lists the two views that users in the tomcat role can access.

Detailed Step-By-Step Instructions

1	Open the app-nav.xml file for your application:

a	From the Solutions view, open the User Interfaces > Project > Web Navigation (app-nav.xml).

b	Click the Configuration tab.

2	Set up the default app-nav.xml file for one of the roles in your application.

For the use case that illustrates this sample, use the app-nav.xml file for the admin role. Users in this role can access all views, so add all views to the file. When adding the roles, you can group the views in a logical manner, as described in the steps that follow.

a	On the Application Navigation Configuration window, select the Home node in the tree on the left and click Add.

b	Expand the Home node to reveal the new sub-node that Designer added to the tree.

c	Select the new sub-node.

d	On the right, specify a name in the Title field, for example, Admin Navigation.

Note: The application will use the titles that you specify in the application navigation file as the menu names/selections in the navigation controls that you add you your views. As a result, when specifying titles, be sure to use the keywords that you want the application to display in your views.

e	Save the changes to the app-nav.xml file.

f	Repeat step 2a through step 2e for the tomcat role and set the Title to User Navigation.

g	Add the views for the admin role:

1	Select the Admin Navigation node on the left and click Add.

2	Select the new sub-node.

3	In the Navigation Page Details, specify values for the following fields:

 

Field	Description
Title	Specify the name for this page that you want to use in navigation controls. For the sample, specify Page 1.
ID	Specify the view you are adding or click Browse to choose the view. For the sample the adminNav.view is in the WebContent/admin folder, so specify /admin/adminNav.view.
URL	Specify the URL to the page within the project. For the sample with the project name, wm_rolebased_navigation, specify /wm_rolebased_navigation/admin/adminNav.view.

4	Save the changes to the app-nav.xml file.

5	Add the other administrative view under the Admin Navigation node, using the following Navigation Page Details:

 

Field	Specify
Title	Page 2
ID	/admin/adminNav1.view
URL	/wm_rolebased_navigation/admin/adminNav1.view

h	Add the views that all roles can access; that is, the user views:

1	Add the first user view under the User Navigation node, using the following Navigation Page Details:

 

Field	Specify
Title	User Nav 1
ID	/user/userNav.view
URL	/wm_rolebased_navigation/user/userNav.view

2	Add the other user view under the User Navigation node, using the following Navigation Page Details:

 

Field	Specify
Title	User Nav 2
ID	/user/userNav1.view.
URL	/wm_rolebased_navigation /user/userNav1.view.

3	Create a new application navigation file for another role by copying the app-nav.xml file.

For the sample, create an application navigation file for the tomcat role and name it app-nav-user.xml.

a	From the Project view, right click the Project > WebContent > WEB_INF > app-nav.xml node and select Copy.

b	Right click the Project > WebContent node and select Paste.

c	In the Name Conflict window, type a new name for the file. For the sample, type app-nav-user.xml.

d

Click OK.

4	Update the new application navigation file to include the views for the role.

For the sample, because the new application navigation file is for the tomcat role, it only needs to contain the views that all users can access. Because the new file is a copy of the app-nav.xml file that contains all the views for the tomcat and admin roles, to update this copy so it is specific for the tomcat role only, delete the admin role views.

a	To open the application navigation file, in the Project view, right click the new application navigation file (e.g., Project > WebContent > WEB_INF > app-nav-user.xml) and select Open with > Other.

b	In the Editor Selection window, select app-nav.xml Editor and click OK.

c	Click the Configuration tab.

d	In the Application Navigation Configuration tree, select the Admin Navigation node, which has the two administrative views that you added as sub-nodes.

e	Click Delete to delete the Admin Navigation node and its sub-nodes, the administrative views.

f	Save the changes to the app-nav-user.xml file.

5	Repeat step 3 and step 4 for all additional roles that you want to provide separate navigation for.

Next Procedure

Building the Navigation Controls for the Application Views

Related Topics 

Role-Based Navigation

Prerequisite Setup

Preparing Your Views For Adding Navigation Controls

Building the Navigation Controls for the Application Views

Viewing the Live Sample