Citrix NetScaler Gateway and X1 StoreFront Customization

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Updated Post: Citrix NetScaler Gateway 11.1 and StoreFront 3.6 Customization

In my last post Securing Citrix X1 StoreFront with Powershell I showed you how to use Powershell to import and bind your certificate to all your Citrix Delivery Controllers and StoreFront Servers. This is a requirement to enable SSL in all moving parts of your Citrix environment.

As explained in my post Citrix NetScaler Gateway and StoreFront Customization, it’s very hard to find information online that cover both parts of the customization. So let me show you how to customize the new X1 look on NetScaler and StoreFront.

The main files you want to start working with are located in C:\inetpub\wwwroot\Citrix\StoreWeb\receiver\images\1x and 2x.

  • ReceiverFullScreenBackground_46E559C0E6B5A27B.jpg = Background Image
  • CitrixReceiver_WebScreen_CBE548FB8FEE049E.png = Login Page Logo

I don’t understand why Citrix name these files in this incredible strange way, but that’s probably another story. I could of course use CSS to change those, but I’m awaiting more information from Citrix instead of wasting my time digging into CSS classes.

The site Pexels provides a lot of great looking images that you can use without any complicated licenses.

In this example, I’m going to use the image below. The file has been downloaded, re-sized to 2560 x 1600 px and the size optimized.

X1 StoreFront Background

Before you start, make sure to make a copy of C:\inetpub\wwwroot\Citrix.

Let’s see how the new X1 StoreFront design look like out of the box.

Citrix X1 StoreFront Login Page

Now let’s rename the above background image to ReceiverFullScreenBackground_46E559C0E6B5A27B.jpg and copy/paste it into C:\inetpub\wwwroot\Citrix\StoreWeb\receiver\images\2x.

X1 Storefront with new background

That looks nice. Let’s change the Citrix Receiver logo to something else.

The login page logo is a 130 x 52 px transparent image. Rename your logo image to CitrixReceiver_WebScreen_CBE548FB8FEE049E.png and copy/paste it into C:\inetpub\wwwroot\Citrix\StoreWeb\receiver\images\1x.

X1 StoreFront new Login Logo

X1 StoreFront new Logout Logo

The new X1 StoreFront let’s you customize some parts inside the console – Receiver for Web – Customize Website Appearance and Manage Featured App Groups.

Let’s change the logo and the background color.

X1 StoreFront Customize Website Appearance

The new Feature Apps Groups are pretty cool. I’m going to create 3 of those using the Application Category.

X1 StoreFront Featured app groups

X1 StoreFront Featured app groups overview

Now for the apps to show up I need to open Citrix Studio and edit the application properties.

Citrix Studio Application Category

Let’s take a look.

X1 StoreFront Custom Apps and Desktops

Since I used Application Category they also shows up as Folders.

X1 StoreFront App Folders

Now that the internal StoreFront is customized, it’s time to to change the look of our NetScaler Gateway.

To complete the next step I need Putty and WinSCP so let us let Chocolatey install those automatically. Read more about in the post How To Use Chocolatey with MDT 2013.

Install Chocolatey

Connect to the Netscaler GUI and navigate to NetScaler Gateway – Global Settings – Change Global Settings – Client Experience and set UI Theme to Green Bubble.

Netscaler UI Theme Green Bubble

Now connect to your NetScaler with WinSCP. Copy the files bg_bubbles.jpg and logo_notagline.png to \var\netscaler\gui\vpn\media and ctxs.authentication.css to \var\netscaler\gui\vpn\css.

  • bg_bubbles.jpg = Background Image
  • logo_notagline.png = Login Page Logo

WinSCP

The new X1 Custom Login page will look like this. It’s not identical but close enough!

If you pay very good attention you’ll see that the green bar all the way at the left has been removed by my custom ctxs.authentication.css.

Custom Netscaler X1 Theme Sidebar Gone

When you’re happy with your design connect to your NetScaler with Putty.

Run the following commands:

Netscaler Gateway and StoreFront Customization 04

This creates the file customtheme.tar.gz which are used by NetScaler Gateway and also makes sure the NetScaler Gateway Customization is retained after reboot. The final step is to change UI Theme from Green Bubble to Custom in NetScaler Gateway – Change Global settings – Client Experience.

Netscaler Upgrade:

When you do a NetScaler firmware upgrade you need to switch back to Default or Green Bubble, upgrade the firmware and then redo your customzations as shown above. The reason is that sometimes the AdminUI and EPA files changes together with the firmware upgrade.

Download:

Click here to download my sample files for Citrix NetScaler Gateway and X1 StoreFront Customization.

Resources:

For more X1 StoreFront Customization check out Richard Hayton on the Citrix blogs.

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18 thoughts on “Citrix NetScaler Gateway and X1 StoreFront Customization”

  1. Great post thanks for that, While the inclusions of the title graphics etc are great in X1, Citrix do need to do is make this a whole lot easier as its still a big problem as far as I’m concerned.

    I know EUC bods wear many hats and thats all part of the fun but customising the background images etc especially when this is as common a request as your ever going to get from a customer is still too time consuming. Especially when upgrading the NetScaler firmware or StoreFront/Web Interface software risks trashing it all and with Storefront often the small shading gif/JPG’s etc just look odd without a lot of work when customisations are applied. What I’ve always thought was needed small WYSIWYG editor thats released and updated with each new version of storefront or receiver and it just ties into the customisable bit of the GUI.

    This might just say more about my ability with HTML/CSS than anything else but it just seems a basic request that is asked to be customised by 99% of customers and it still requires digging about in HTML/CSS files and obscure graphics file names in 2015!

    Reply
  2. Hi,

    A friendly suggestion, set margin-left: to 0px on the #logonbox-innerbox { in ctxs.authentication.css to get rid of the greenbar hidden space that it looks on your screenshot that you got.

    This will remove the size scroll on Chrome and IE as well.

    Cheers

    Reply
  3. Hello Eric,
    Thanks for the post really helpful. Can you please let me know how can I create a custom logo like yours pointing to my domain?
    Hope to hear from you soon.
    Thanks,
    Pavan

    Reply
  4. In regards to the green bar, you can also rename the file “VerticalGreenBarOnly.png” in the media folder. This will remove the green stuff, and just show a bar in the background color you selected.

    However, that still leaves the scroll bar, so css adujstement is still needed

    Reply
  5. These instructions do not seem to reflect the NetScaler 11 Structure.

    ctxs.authentication.css to \var\netscaler\gui\vpn\css <– Does not exist on the new release of NetScaler 11

    var\netscaler\gui\vpn only has Images,JS or Media

    please update a solution for NS 11

    Reply
  6. How would you get this to work on the new NS version 11. it doesn’t have a \var\netscaler\gui\vpn\css folder only media, JS or images

    Reply
  7. After every netscaler upgrade I have experience problems with the NS Gateway layout.
    I have removed the customization before I upgrade.
    How will this be with the new customization feuture?

    Is it possible to use some sort of iframe to put the logon box on a corporate web site? That way we vill not need to cusomize.

    Reply
  8. Trond,

    Perhaps you’ve come across this. NetScaler 11 and StoreFront 3.0 are released now, and they help you customize logo’s and custom themes.

    I’ve got a great theme going on the NetScaler and SF, custom colors and logos, BUT, when I click logout when accessing via the NS Gateway URL, it sends me to the X1 default logout page which i can’t find. This happens no matter what theme you choose on the NetScaler.

    When accessing StoreFront directly, logout redirects you to the logout page on the StoreFront. I was able to find the background image and change it to my theme. It doesn’t make any sense.

    Reply

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