As with many software packages that we deploy, system admins quite often get called upon to customize the application to suit the needs and brand of the enterprise they work for.
When I started deploying the Adobe Contribute client, customization wasn’t really on the radar. But as we got further into our deployment and support phases, it was clear that the default screens just weren’t cutting it when it came to clarity of use.
For instance, most of our users connect to the enterprise Contribute Publishing Server. In order to do this they have to enter a custom connect string after opening the client for the first time after installation. As normal with this sort of deployment, there were some users that didn’t read the instructions provided them, or failed to remember the special connection string used in the training classes.
Well, on the default welcome page in Contribute, there is this handy button labeled Create Connection. While this would be quite fine if we weren’t using the Publishing Server for maintaining user permissions and privileges, it doesn’t cooperate with our normal setup.
By customizing the welcome page I was able to remove the nice large link to creating your own connection.
Here’s what you need to know in order to do this. The welcome page is built on the fly from a Dreamweaver template.
Mac File Location
- /Applications/Adobe Contribute CS3/Configuration/Content/CCWelcome
Windows File Location
- C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Contribute CS3\Configuration\Content\CCWelcome