Adding a warning banner
A Windows administrator can configure the post log in behavior to display a message to users before they access the system. This would typically be used to provide users with conditions-of-use type information. The user can optionally be forced to press a button to exit the banner. The content of the banner comes from a user provided web page. One or two buttons can be configured to give users an option to accept or decline to continue with the session.
Enabling the warning banner
The banner is typical web content such as HTML and CSS. It can be hosted on the same web server used for FileHold or elsewhere. It is configured in managed options using the following keys:
- WarningBanner.Enabled - Set true to enable the warning banner operation. This will also enable the warning banner audit column in the user activity report.
- WarningBanner.Mandatory - Set true to force the user to complete the banner prior to moving the functions of the application. If this is false, the user may be able to bypass the banner after they have authenticated. The false case is most useful when content of the banner is informational, such as a warning that the system will be down at a certain time for maintenance.
- WarningBanner.UrlToShow - This is a pointer to the content that will display in the banner. For example, https://myserver/fh/custom/warning-banner.html
If you plan on using the custom folder for the web client to store your content, make sure your myserver name matches what you normally use to authenticate.
- WarningBanner.AcceptButtonText - There are one or two buttons the user can press when they see the warning banner. This one is mandatory and will typically contain values like "Ok", "Yes" and "Accept".
- WarningBanner.DeclineButtonText - If you would like to give user the option to terminate their session without accessing the product functions, this button must be configured with a value such as "No" or "Decline".
- WarningBanner.FrameHeight - Fix the height of the window that will be used to display the warning. A value of 0 will provide a fit appropriate for the device.
- WarningBanner.FrameWidth - Fix the width of the window that will be used to display the warning. A value of 0 will provide a fit appropriate for the device.
An example warning banner
If you plan to manage the warning banner content locally on the FileHold server you should start by setting up a virtual folder. A suggested URL is //<myserver>/FH/Custom with a physical location of C:\Program Files\FileHold Systems\Custom\Static. You can set it to authenticate with the FileHold service user. However, the banner is not limited to the FileHold server, this is just a place to store the content. It will render on all clients and consideration should be made to ensure it will be usable in every location it might appear. For example, a phone.
A simple web.config file is all that should be necessary for a static page.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<configuration>
<system.webServer>
<handlers accessPolicy="Read">
<remove name="StaticFile" />
<add name="StaticFile" path="*.html" verb="GET" modules="StaticFileModule" resourceType="File" requireAccess="Read" />
</handlers>
</system.webServer>
</configuration>
The following HTML and CSS code was used to prepare the FileHold 17.0 release notes screen shot for the warning banner and can be easily modified for specific organizations and their warning requirements.
<html>
<style>
body {
background-color: gold;
font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;
}
section {
color: #404040;
border-radius: 1em;
padding: 2em;
position: absolute;
top: 50%;
left: 50%;
margin-right: -50%;
transform: translate(-50%, -50%) }
</style>
<body>
<section>
<h1 style="text-align: center;font-size: 60px;text-shadow: 2px 2px 5px #707070;foreground-color: #808080">WARNING</h1>
<p style="text-align: center;font-size: 30px;font-weight: bold;">This computer network belongs to the Generic Company Inc. and may be used only by its employees and only for work-related purposes.</p>
<p style="font-size: 20px;">The Generic Company Inc. reserves the right to monitor use of this network to ensure network security and to respond to specific allegations of employee misuse. Use of this network shall constitute consent to monitoring for such purposes. In addition, the Generic Company Inc. reserves the right to consent to a valid law enforcement request to search the network for evidence of a crime stored within the network.</p>
<h1 style="text-align: center;font-size: 60px;text-shadow: 2px 2px 5px #707070;foreground-color: #808080">WARNING</h1>
</section>
</body></html>