iTop 3 Alert-Banner

[Nico]

Hi,
I started to migrate our custom extensions to iTop 3.
In iTop 2.x I used a lot of message banners (like the success banner when creating an object).
In iTop 3 I now want to use the functions that are already implemented but I only get the banner appended to the site (as seen in the screenshot).
I use this class and function to place the banner:

class NM_adds implements iApplicationUIExtension
{
  public function OnDisplayProperties($oObject, $oPage, $bEditMode = false)
  {
    $oFailAlertBlock = AlertUIBlockFactory::MakeForDanger('Test-Title', "Test-content");
    $oPage->AddUiBlock($oFailAlertBlock);
...
...
...

How can I place to banner to the top or the header of the page?
I already tried to use "iPageUIBlockExtension" but with that I cannot get any dependencies to my own functions I think.
Thanks,
Nico

[Jeffrey Bostoen]

When exactly do you show this banner?

Now, you're appending it to the HTML of the page at a seemingly random point.

[Nico]

Hi Jeffrey,
this code snippet is just for testing. Using it the banner appears on any object that is shown.
Just imagine for an example a banner should appear on every UserRequest or Incident, like this:

    $sClass = get_class($oObject);
    $sClasses = array('Incident', 'UserRequest');
    if (in_array($sClass, $sClasses))
    {
        $oFailAlertBlock = AlertUIBlockFactory::MakeForDanger('Ticket-Type', 'Request or Incident');
        $oPage->AddUiBlock($oFailAlertBlock);
    }

This really makes no sense but I just want to figure out how to place the banner to the top of the page/top of object details.

[Jeffrey Bostoen]

I haven't tested it, but I'd check out how Combodo does it for their "Communications to customers" extension.

See https://github.com/Combodo/itop-communications/blob/master/src/Hook/CommunicationPageUIBlockExtension.php ( the header block )

[Nico]

That's a good hint, I just checked it. They're using the interface "iPageUIBlockExtension".
That is okay for the communications because the queries are made directly in the function "GetHeaderBlock". Defining a static banner like that is working for me too.
But I want to have dependencies with different functions I defined, e.g., in "public function OnDisplayProperties".
I dont know how to combine those classes.
Maybe I should just code the banner directly in HTML or just move it from the bottom to the top using Javascript...

[Nico]

Like this:

  public function OnDisplayProperties($oObject, $oPage, $bEditMode = false)
  {
    $oFailAlertBlock = AlertUIBlockFactory::MakeForDanger('Test-Title', "Test-content", 1313);
    $oPage->AddUiBlock($oFailAlertBlock);
    $oPage->add_ready_script(
<<<JS
      $('#1313').appendTo($('#ibo-page-header'));

JS);
...

[Guillaume Lajarige]

Hello Nico,

Actually I think this is a missing API; we have the same issue internally when we want to display a message on top of an object when it matches some conditions (eg; when a Bug object needs to be retrofitted in a support branch).

I don't think this can be addressed nicely yet 😕

The workaround I can see, is to:
* Use the \AbstractPageUIBlockExtension::GetHeaderBlock() API
* Read the request (URL) params to see if you are displaying an object
* Retrieve the object data if necessary to see if it matches conditions
* Display the AlertBlock if necessary

Example (not tested, code might not be correct):

class Foo extends AbstractPageUIBlockExtension {
    public function GetHeaderBlock()
    {
        $sOperation = utils::ReadParam('operation', '', false, utils::ENUM_SANITIZATION_FILTER_PARAMETER);
        $sObjClass = utils::ReadParam('class', '', false, utils::ENUM_SANITIZATION_FILTER_CLASS);
        $sObjKey = utils::ReadParam('operation', '', false, utils::ENUM_SANITIZATION_FILTER_PARAMETER);

        // Not displaying an object
        if ($sOperation !== 'detail') {
            return null;
        }

        // Missing object params
        if (utils::IsNullOrEmptyString($sObjClass) || utils::IsNullOrEmptyString($sObjKey)) {
            return null;
        }

        // TODO: Check if object class matches what you need

        // Try to retrieve object
        $oObject = MetaModel::GetObject($sObjClass, $sObjKey, false);
        if (is_null($oObject)) {
            return null;
        }

        // TODO: Check if object attributes match what you need

        return AlertUIBlockFactory::MakeForDanger('Test-Title', "Test-content", 1313);
    }
}

I think I'll try this on our iTop to workaround the same issue! 😁

Hope it helps,
Guillaume