I was recently asked a question about Unified Service Desk! This time it was how to use customization files. In this post I will answer that question.
Customization files can be used to push custom hosted controls (etc) out to the desktop without needing to “manually” copy files to the programs directory.
The process is quite simple.
First let’s consider what happens when we create a customization file. Normally you copy any custom dll or executable files to the programs directory of Unified Service Desk. This can be quite a pain! As you may need to request system admins to copy the files for you. Plus your users may need local admin permissions to complete the copy. And ensuring the correct versions of custom files are installed in the programs directory creates a new “unnecessary” admin task.
A much cleaner solution is to use customization files. Basically your changes are included in your USD configuration, by way of a zip file. These are cached down and extracted as the USD client loads. The files are placed in AppData.
Typically your directory will be something like “c:\Users\<>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\UnifiedServiceDesk\<>\<<GUID!>>\files”. An example of one of mine is shown below.
The steps in creating a customizations file are …
- Zip the files.
- Load them into you USD configuration.
Step One – Zip the files
Copy any custom files to a suitable location. And also create an xml file called [Content_Types].xml. An example of this file is shown below. (You can create this using notepad or something!)
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> -<Types xmlns="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/package/2006/content-types"> <Default ContentType="application/zip" Extension="xml"/> <Default ContentType="application/zip" Extension="zip"/> <Default ContentType="application/zip" Extension="css"/> <Default ContentType="application/zip" Extension="htm"/> <Default ContentType="application/zip" Extension="gif"/> <Default ContentType="application/zip" Extension="dll"/> </Types>
This file will define the types of files that are going to be included in the customization.zip file.
Now select the content_types file and your custom controls and create a zip file.
Step Two – Upload the Customization file into your config
Now in USD select the customization files option.
I have shown one example for a customization file in USD below. Your screen will probably look slightly different to mine! As I have customized by form!
Basically you give your file a name, version and optionally enter a description. You can then attach the zip file.
I have shown my version of the customization file form for a reason, as this will help to highlight a couple of things. IF you are using USD configurations don’t forget to add the customization file into the required configurations. (I say this as this is a step I always seem to forget!)
Secondly I wanted to point out that attaching the file is simply creating a note with an attachment. You shouldn’t directly amend this note record! But it is worth being aware of that a note is used. As the notes entity is not included in the uii schema we use with the configuration migration tool to move USD configurations from one organisation to another. Meaning you’ll probably need to upload the customizations file in each of your organisations!
After creating the customizations file your custom controls will be downloaded and extracted automatically when USD loads.
Hopefully this short post has answered the question I received on how to use customization files. Enjoy.
NEIL PARKHURST 
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