Web Portal icon Web Portal

Besides creating a physical desktop by replacing the shell, it is also possible to create a virtual web-based desktop. This allows you to integrate the interface with an existing portal environment for remote access purposes, so that users can connect to their desktop from a remote location via a web interface.

To create such a web-based desktop, you need to enable Web Portal rendering at Web Portal in the Setup menu. When Web Portal rendering is enabled, Workspace Control will render a Web Portal in the \Webtop folder located in the user's temp directory. The Web Portal can be started by launching a web browser with startup parameter %temp%\webtop\webtop.html.

You can change the Web Portal's appearance by selecting a Web Portal style. There are three default Web Portal styles to choose from. If you have a basic knowledge of HTML, you can edit the Web Portal style to fit your needs.

To make the Web Portal available to the user, Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 or higher needs to be made available as a managed application. For this purpose, the installation folder of Workspace Control contains the Building Block file web-portal-integration.xml with a preconfigured version of Microsoft Internet Explorer. By importing the Building Block file into the Management Console, the application Web Portal Integration will be added at Composition > Applications > Applications.

It is also possible to offer the Workspace Composer through the application Web Portal Integration only:

  • At Composition > Applications, open the application Web Portal Integration.
  • At Properties > General, copy the number in the ID field (for example 63) and close the application.
  • At Composition > Applications > Settings, select When online, start a specific application () instead of Workspace Control taskbar.
  • Enter the copied number of the application and click OK. This application ID is now shown in parentheses in the text. When the user starts a new session, only the application Web Portal Integration will be started; the desktop will not be shown.
  • You can also make a Web Portal available manually, by adding Microsoft Internet Explorer as a managed application to the Management Console and adding the parameter %temp%\webtop\webtop.html to its properties.
  • If the user session uses the Workspace Control shell, you can hide the Start button on the Web Portal by selecting Hide "Start"-button on Workspace Control Shell taskbar at Composition > Desktop > Lockdown and Behavior.