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Configuring the Response Group Tab

Topic Last Modified: 2009-04-28

The Response Group Tab is a custom tab on the Office Communicator 2007 R2 client that formal agents can use to sign in and sign out of groups. Custom tabs enable you to extend the Office Communicator user interface by adding pages of Web-based content that appear in the Office Communicator window of the client. The pages appear in a pane just underneath the Contact list, and the user can switch between pages by clicking tabs at the bottom of the pane.

Setting up the Response Group Tab requires the following:

  • An entry in the custom tab definition file that defines the Response Group Tab.

  • A graphic in Portable Network Graphics (PNG) format for the tab. The graphic must meet one of the following requirements:

    • Up to 16 pixels high by 16 pixels wide, or
    • Exactly 32 pixels high by 32 pixels wide.

    Note

    Office Communications Server includes a graphic (at the following location: %ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2\Web Components\Acd Files\Clients\RgsOcTab.png) that you can use for the Response Group Tab icon.

  • A registry entry in the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Communicator registry hive that gives the location of the tab definition file. The registry entry contains the following:

    • Name is TabUrl.
    • Type is REG_SZ.
    • Data is the location of the tab definition file.

For details about custom tabs, see the Configuring Custom Tabs in Communicator 2007 R2 in the Office Communications Server 2007 R2 Planning and Deployment documentation.

Custom Tab Definition File

The custom tab definition file is an XML file that provides the location of each tab’s main page and controls the information Communicator passes to this page. You must either create a new tab definition file, or modify an existing tab definition file and add the Response Group Tab information.

To create a custom tab definition file

  1. Open a text editor, such as Notepad.

  2. If you have an existing tab definition file, open the file.

  3. Add the Response Group Tab definition to the file.

    The following example shows a tab definition file that defines the Response Group Tab:

    <?xml version="1.0"?>
<tabdata>
  <tab>
    <image>http://contoso/myservice/RgsOcTab.png</image>
    <userid>true</userid>
    <name>Response Group Tab</name>
    <tooltip>Response Group Tab</tooltip>
    <contenturl>https://server-FQDN/rgs/clients/Tab.aspx</contenturl>
    <contactid>false</contactid>
    <siteid>1</siteid>
  </tab>
</tabdata>

    Where

    • <image> specifies the path of the image file that you want to use in the Response Group Tab.
    • <contenturl> specifies the site where the Response Group Tab information resides.
    • <siteid> specifies the unique site ID of the tab. If you have multiple custom tabs, each tab must have a different site ID.

  4. Save the tab definition file to a network location that everyone can access.

Defining the Registry Setting Using Group Policy

One way to provide the appropriate registry settings for each user is to define Group Policy settings using an administrative template (.adm) file. Administrative template files contain specific information about which Group Policy settings the application implements, where policies are stored, and how to configure policies. Communicator has an administrative template file that contains policies specific to its application.

Defining Group Policy settings using the Communicator administrative template file works in the following manner:

  • The Communicator administrative template file, Communicator.adm, contains all the Group Policy settings that are used in Communicator. The TabUrl policy setting holds the location for the tab definition file.
  • You use the Group Policy Object Editor to load the Communicator administrative template file and then modify the TabURL policy setting. This is performed at the domain level.
  • The policy is pushed out to users. When a user logs into the domain, their client registry is updated. Communicator reads the registry when it starts and loads the custom tab.

To define the registry setting

  1. On a computer in the same Active Directory forest as the server where the Response Group Service is installed, log on as a member of the DomainAdmins group.

  2. Copy the communicator.adm file from the distribution disk to the %windir%/inf folder.

  3. Click Start, and then click Run.

  4. Type dsa.msc, and then click OK to open Active Directory Users and Computers.

  5. In the console tree, right-click the domain for which you want to set Group Policy.

  6. Click Properties, and then click the Group Policy tab.

  7. Select the Group Policy object in the list to modify, or click New to create a new Group Policy object, and then click Edit.

  8. In the Group Policy Object Editor, under the Computer Configuration node, right-click Administrative Templates, and then click Add/Remove Templates.

  9. In the Add/Remove Templates window, click Add.

  10. In the Policy Templates window, select Communicator.adm, and then click Open.

  11. In the Administrative Templates pane, double-click Microsoft Office Communicator Policy Settings, and then double-click Microsoft Office Communicator Feature Policies.

  12. In the Microsoft Office Communicator Feature Polices pane, double-click Tab URL.

  13. In the Tab URL properties window, click Enabled.

  14. In the Tab URL box, type the full path of the tab definition file (for example, file:///\\server\data\RGS\tabs.xml), and then click OK.

  15. On the File menu of the Group Policy Object Editor, click Exit.

    The Response Group Tab is loaded when the agent logs into Communicator.

See Also

Other Resources

Deploying Communicator