Creating and Using Widgets › Embedding Widgets for Requesting Services and Managing Requests › Review the Requirements and Limitations

Review the Requirements and Limitations

Review these requirements and limitations so that you can implement widgets efficiently.

Portal Pages

• Do not use the Request and Edit Request widgets on the same portal page.

  Important! Placing both widgets on the same page can result in the following error: One of the widgets cannot render forms or process JavaScript correctly. Consequently, catalog users cannot complete and submit requests. Moreover request managers cannot approve and reject requests pending actions.

  To address this limitation, embed the widgets as designed in this scenario:

  • On page 1, embed the Browse and Request widgets.
  • On page 2, embed the Status, Request List, and Edit Request widgets.
• All widgets on the same HTML page must connect to the same CA Service Catalog computer. For example, the Browse and Request widgets on the same HTML page must specify the same CA Service Catalog host name.

  Note: Details about specifying the following parameters appear later in this scenario.

  If you use menu options to configure widgets, you specify the host name parameter in the following line:

  Catalog URL=http://host-name:port-number/usm
  

  If you use source code to configure widgets, you specify the host name parameter in the following line:

   <script type="text/javascript" src="http://hostname:portnumber/usm/explorer/scripts/browse.widget.js"> </script> 
  

• For other parameters, as a best practice, specify uniform configuration parameters for all widgets on the same HTML page. In other words, specify the same values for all parameters that apply to two or more widgets on the same page.

  For example, suppose the value of the Business Unit parameter of the Status widget is SauPaulo12. In that case, the value of this parameter for the Request List, and Edit Request widgets is also SauPaulo12

  The reason for this practice is that the parameter values of the first widget loaded on the page are shared with all other widgets on the same page.

Request Management

• To transfer, delegate, take, and return requests pending action, request managers must use the CA Service Catalog UI, not widgets.

Integrations

• (Reservation Manager Only) To use widgets to let users request reservation services, integrate CA Service Catalog with Reservation Manager according to the instructions for integrating CA Service Catalog with an external reservation system. This method uses CA Process Automation-based communication, which widgets require. Do not follow the instructions for integrating CA Service Catalog with Reservation Manager. That method uses point-to-point communication, which widgets cannot use.

  Note: For instructions to integrate CA Service Catalog with Reservation Manager and with an external reservation system, see the Integration Guide.

  If you have already integrated CA Service Catalog with Reservation Manager using point-to-point communication, do not use widgets to let users browse and request reservation services. Instead, let users browse and request reservation services through the product UI only.

Liferay and SharePoint

• The Liferay procedures in this scenario are for Liferay Portal Community Edition 6.1.0 CE. If you are using a different version of Liferay, your steps can be different. For detailed instructions to configure portlets, see your Liferay documentation.

  If you are using other portal software, see its documentation for detailed instructions. However, you can use the Liferay steps in this scenario for reference.

• To embed widgets in portlets on Liferay pages, you can use either source code or menu options. The menu options are provided through CA Service Catalog WAR files.

  At publication time, these menu options do not apply to SharePoint. To embed widgets in portlets on SharePoint pages, you can use source code only.

  Similarly, at publication time, these menu options do not apply to plain HTML pages. To embed widgets on plain HTML pages, you can use source code only.

Accessibility

• Widgets and portlets are accessible to users with visual disabilities using a screen reader such as JAWS.

  This access affects widgets and portlets only. If you intend to utilize this access, verify that the container is also accessible. The container is the web page on which you embed the widget or portlet, such as a Microsoft SharePoint page or a plain HTML page.