Adding a link to the portal from the IBM Control Desk user interface

As a convenience for users, administrators can add a link to the Control Desk Service Portal from the Start Center in the IBM Control Desk user interface.

Before you begin

Ensure that you have the following items:

URL for the Control Desk Service Portal instance that you want to launch to
Administrator access rights to IBM Control Desk

About this task

You can find the link to the Service Portal in the Start Center. To create a link from IBM Control Desk to the Service Portal, you must specify the URL for the portal in the portal.URL system property. Then, you must grant access to any security group that you want to be able to view the link. For example, if you have defined a security group for ticketing agents and you want them to see the link, you must grant that security group access to the Show launch to Service Portal icon in header option in the Security Groups application.

Granting access to view the Service Portal gives users in the security group the right to log in to the portal. However, permission to perform actions, such as view tickets or edit user information, is controlled by the user role that administrators assign to Service Portal users.

To configure the system property and give users permission to view the link and log in to Service Portal, complete the following steps.

Procedure

Complete the following steps to set the portal.URL system property:

In a browser, log in to the standard IBM Control Desk user interface.
In IBM Control Desk, go to System Configuration > Platform Configuration > System Properties.
On the Global Properties page, click Filter and search for portal.URL.
In the Global Value field of the portal.URL property, enter the URL for the Control Desk Service Portal instance.
Click Save.
Select the portal.URL system property.
From the Common Actions menu, select Live Refresh.
Click OK and check that the Current Value field is updated with the value that you specified in the Global Value field.

Complete the following steps to grant access to Service Portal users:

Go to Security > Security Groups.
On the Groups page, click Filter and search for the security group that you want to grant access to.
In the Applications section on the Applications tab, click Filter and search for Start Center.
In the Options for Start Center section, select Grant Access for Show launch to Service Portal icon in header.
Save the record.
Sign out of IBM Control Desk.
Sign back in to IBM Control Desk and check that the Service Portal icon is displayed in the header bar, as shown in the following image.
Click the icon to verify that the Service Portal opens as expected.

Results

The users who belong to the security groups that you selected can now click the Control Desk Service Portal icon to log in to IBM Control Desk. The actions that a user can perform after logging in are determined by the application privileges that are granted for their user role.

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