My last post on the topic Citrix NetScaler Gateway and X1 StoreFront Customization is one of my most popular posts so I decided to do an update.
The plan was to write a post on How To Customize Your Internal Web Resources including Netscaler, StoreFront, Director, Microsoft ADFS, VMware vSphere and more. But during my research there’s still so much stuff to cover for Netscaler 11.1 and StoreFront 3.6 that it needs a post for itself.
The new Netscaler Portal Theme is a really great new feature, but it still lacks some key elements that I’ll summaries at the end so the Citrix Product teams can take action.
Customize Netscaler Admin Page
Wouldn’t it be great if we could change the Netscaler admin page background? Customize your image at 2650x1600px and name it citrix_white_bg.png. Upload the image to /var/citrix_white_bg.png. Create the file /flash/nsconfig/rc.netscaler with the following details:
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cp /var/citrix_white_bg.png /netscaler/ns_gui/admin_ui/rdx/core/css/citrix_white_bg.png |
This will make sure that the background image is retained after reboot. I’ve decide to not change the logo on the login page simply because when all the portals look the same, how do I know where I am?
Customize Netscaler Gateway
This is straight forward with the Portal Theme Wizard. Use the same customized image as above and prepare your logo. The logo has max height of 60px and I would recommend using a transparent image which means no white background (PNG)
As you can see below, Citrix has finally fixed the font problem when using 2 factor authentication, though the button size and logo are off compared to above.
Customize StoreFront
Now after the authentication through Netscaler is completed you’ll be redirect to your internal StoreFront site. Therefore, the rest of the customization has to be done on your StoreFront Server(s). I have two Stores for my environment, one internal (StoreWeb) and one external (UGWeb). To get a consistent user experience I highly recommend you customize them both.
The customization wizard in StoreFront 3.6 has been pretty well hidden. Right click your Store and navigate to Manage Receiver for Web Sites – Configure – Customize Appearance.
Even though the wizard says the max heigh of the logo is 120px I didn’t have any problem using 250px which make it look even better.
Now the problem with the wizard is that it doesn’t allow you to add the background image. Luckily this is easy to fix and the benefits are that the customization’s are retained after upgrade and you’re able to Propagate Changes to other StoreFront Servers.
Use the same customized image and save it in C:\inetpub\wwwroot\Citrix\[StoreName]Web\Custom as JPG.
Open Style.css in the same folder and add the path to your image at the end.
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/* CITRIX DISCLAIMER: END OF MANAGED SECTION. */ /* You may add custom styles below this line. */ .web-screen { background-image: url(Lazy_Admin_StoreFront.jpg) } |
Repeat the process for all your Stores. When your happy with the branding you’ll need to Propagate the settings so they’re replicated to all your StoreFront Servers.
And now the logout page is correct for Netscaler Gateway as well.
Product Feeback
Both the Netscaler Portal Theme and StoreFront Customization Wizards are getting better and better, but there’s still room for improvements. Here’s my thoughts:
// Netscaler Gateway alignment problem with 2 factor authentication
// StoreFront background through wizard and propagate changes
// Make it possible to set other background for the Unified Gateway Portal
// Show Feature Apps when going through Netscaler Gateway
Get Inspired
If you want to share your custom Netscaler Gateway, please put it on Twitter and mark @xenappblog.
Hi Eric,
For StoreFront, instead of replacing the image files, you can take advantage of the “custom” folder to write some CSS that will override the files. For your example of ReceiverFullScreenBackground, you would:
1) Copy your custom image to the “custom” folder of the web site (it can be called anything you like, it doesn’t have to match the existing filename).
2) Open the file “style.css” in the “custom” folder of the web site, and add the following line:
.web-screen { background-image: url(mycustomimage.jpg) }
3) Save the CSS file and refresh the page.
The benefit of doing it this way is that both the image file and the CSS can be propagated to other servers; plus the customization is preserved for you when you upgrade StoreFront to the next version.
Thanks Michael and Manbinder, wasn’t aware of this supported feature, I’ve been asking before. So now you just need to get it into the GUI 🙂 Will update the post.
Hi Eric,
Is this customization possible with Netscaler 11.0?
Thanks
Jon
Yes the same applies, here’s an older post that cover that version: https://xenappblog.com/2015/citrix-netscaler-gateway-and-x1-storefront-customization/
Thanks mate, my client wants this but they do not want to go to 11.1, it’s cool that I can achieve the same with 11.0 which they are cool with 🙂
Hi Eric
Firstly thanks for all your guidance and blog posts. They are really useful, I believe for so many techs around the world!
Do you know which file I need to edit in order to place announcements on the Netscaler page? E.g – system will be under maintenance/downtime etc?
Thanks!
Hi Eric,
NICE SHARE!
Can you give the turorial about how to make categorization of application menu in the receiver?
Like this : https://xenappblog.com/wp-content/uploads/StoreFront-Custom-02.png
https://docs.citrix.com/en-us/storefront/current-release/manage-citrix-receiver-for-web-site/manage-app-groups.html
Hi,
How to you get the form to be completely transparent? I see yours is 50%