Citrix NetScaler Gateway 11.1 and StoreFront 3.6 Customization

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:

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?

Netscaler Configuration Page

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)

Portal Theme Wizard

Netscaler Custom Welcome Page

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.

Netscaler Custom 2 factor

Netscaler Custom Unified Gateway

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.

Customize StoreFront 01

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.

Customize StoreFront 02

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.

storfront-custom-folder

Open Style.css in the same folder and add the path to your image at the end.

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.

StoreFront Custom 04

StoreFront Custom 01

StoreFront Custom 02StoreFront Custom 03

And now the logout page is correct for Netscaler Gateway as well.

Netscaler Customize Logout Page

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

Netscaler Custom Featured Apps

Get Inspired

If you want to share your custom Netscaler Gateway, please put it on Twitter and mark @xenappblog.

Custom_Netscaler_Kees

Custom_Netscaler_Geert

Custom_Netscaler_Wilco

Custom_Netscaler_Eduardo

Custom_Netscaler_Root_Marius

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9 thoughts on “Citrix NetScaler Gateway 11.1 and StoreFront 3.6 Customization”

  1. 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.

    Reply
  2. 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!

    Reply

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