Creating custom login pages

You can build customized login and logout pages to challenge users to submit their credentials and to display after users end their sessions.

About this task

When a user application establishes a connection through an HTTP access service, the service checks the client data stream for valid credentials. If the credentials are absent, the service returns a form-based login screen to the user that challenges the user to submit a user ID and password.

HCL SafeLinx provides a default set of HTML authentication forms that you can use as-is, or that you can modify to include content that is specific to your environment. Files are provided in English and in other supported languages. The default files are in SafeLinx_install_directory/http/msg/lang/. For example, on Windows, the English versions of the default files are in C:\Program Files\HCL\SafeLinx Server\http\msg\en

Table 1 lists the different challenge forms that are available.

Table 1. Challenge Forms

Building and showing challenge forms to the user
File name Description
standard_login.html HTML document that contains a forms-based challenge that is formatted for use with desktop browsers. This document includes JavaScript used to validate entries and store user ID information in a cookie for future use.
standard_logout.html HTML document that contains a message that shows when a session is logged out. This document can be used to direct users to close their browser and contains a link for reestablishing a session.
standard_nexttoken.html HTML document that contains a forms-based challenge that is formatted for use with desktop browsers. This document is used by services that are configured to use a RADIUS-based authentication method. The document is sent to the client when the RADIUS server deems the security token to be invalid. Users must wait for the SecurID software or device to update to the next token and then enter the new token code.
mobile_login.html Same as standard_login.html only formatted for mobile device browsers.
mobile_logout.html Same as standard_logout.html but formatted for mobile device browsers.
mobile_nexttoken.html Same as standard_nexttoken.html but formatted for mobile device browsers.

Complete the following procedure to create a custom login page:

Procedure

  1. Use an HTML editor or text editor to open the version of the form that you want to modify.
  2. Add or change text and images to customize the form.

    The default forms include links to images or local resources that are in SafeLinx_install_directory/http/nls/images/. You can add or replace these resources with customized versions, but it is important that you do not alter the document format. Because the HTTP access service is not an HTTP server, URL formats must work predictably. Be sure to prefix relative URLs in the form with /hcl_mc/. Open the file standard_login.html to see an example of how relative URLs are used.

    Note: In environments that include HCL server products, such as HCL Domino or iNotes, SafeLinx automatically detects when users log out of the server application. For these services, you do not have to provide users with a service-specific logout URL.
  3. Save the modified form to SafeLinx_install_directory/http/custom/lang.
    For example, on Windows, save the modified version of an English form to C:\Program Files\HCL\SafeLinx Server\http\custom\en . On Linux, save the modified form to /opt/hcl/SafeLinx Server/http/custom/en

    It's important to save the modified versions of your forms to the custom directory. Forms in the default directory are overwritten if you install an update to the SafeLinx Server.