Portal & branding

Automatic launch and single-application portals

Automatic launch opens a resource for people as soon as they arrive at the portal, so a till, a ward terminal or a single-purpose kiosk goes straight into its application. This page explains how rules work, how to choose where they run, full-screen behaviour, and how to build a portal that is one application and nothing else.

How automatic launch works

You create rules on Catalog → Auto Launch. Each rule says what to open and for whom. You then choose where each rule runs, in an ordered list on each address on Tenancy & Branding.

When somebody arrives at the portal on an address, DartRelay walks that address's list from the top. The first rule that applies to the person opens its resource. If no rule applies, the portal simply shows the home page.

Three things are worth knowing from the start:

A rule cannot give anybody access. It can only open something the person could already have clicked on. A rule naming a resource the person is not entitled to is skipped silently and the next rule is tried; nothing on screen mentions it.
It fires once per sign-in. When the person closes the session, they land on the normal portal and it does not reopen by itself, so they are never trapped. It fires again the next time they sign in. (Rules set to end the visit, described below, are the exception.)
Remote applications, desktops and web applications all work. A web application opens in a new browser tab.

What a rule contains

Setting	What it does	Default
Name	How the rule is listed in the console.	—
What to open	One of three kinds: The only resource – opens it only when the person has exactly one resource in total. The first resource – opens whatever is first on their portal, however many they have. A specific resource – opens the resource you choose from the catalogue.	—
Who it applies to	Everyone, or only members of the groups you list. You can list portal user groups (ticked from a list) and Active Directory or local Windows groups (searched for). Membership of any one listed group is enough.	Everyone
Active	Switches the rule on or off. A new rule starts active.	On
Full screen	Puts the portal into full screen once the rule has opened something. See Full screen on arrival.	Off
End the visit when the application closes	When the application this rule opened is closed, every session on the page is closed and the person sees a "has been closed" page with a Start again button. Not used for web applications. See Single-application portals.	Off

A rule set to particular groups that no longer names any group (for example because the group was deleted) matches nobody; the list says so. It never quietly becomes a rule for everyone.

The rule editor shows which addresses have chosen the rule, or that it runs on addresses with no binding. The rule list shows, for each rule, where it runs and who it applies to, and a "Full screen" note on rules that use it.

Create a rule and put it to work

Open the rules. Go to Catalog → Auto Launch.
Add a rule. Click the button to add a rule and give it a name, such as "Till app for shop staff".
Choose what to open. Pick one of the three kinds. For a specific resource, choose it from the list.
Choose who. Leave it on Everyone, or choose groups. Both the portal user groups and the directory groups lists are always shown, with a line saying when each counts.
Choose the options. Tick Full screen and End the visit when the application closes if you want them. Leave Active ticked.
Save. The rule is created, but it does not run anywhere tied to a binding until you choose it there.
Choose where it runs. Go to Appearance → Tenancy & Branding, open the address, and in the Automatic launch on this address card choose the rule from the add-a-rule list. Order the list with the arrows.
Test. Sign in on that address as somebody the rule applies to. The resource should open by itself.

Where a rule runs

The person arrives on…	Rules that are considered
An address with an active binding	Only the rules chosen on that binding, in the binding's order. A binding with No rule opens nothing by itself.
An address with no binding, or a disabled binding	Active rules that are chosen on no binding at all, in the order of the rule list.

Every new binding starts on No rule. A rule chosen for one tenant never runs on other addresses.

Note

Older versions scoped rules by typing hostnames on the rule. On upgrade, a rule whose hostname matched a binding was moved onto that binding; a rule whose hostnames matched no binding was switched off, so it would not suddenly run everywhere. The Auto Launch page shows a summary of what moved, with a Got it button. Check it after upgrading.

Full screen on arrival

With Full screen ticked, once the rule has opened its resource the portal shows a panel across the screen:

What people see

Click anywhere to open Calculator in full screen
Continue without full screen

One click on the panel puts the portal into full screen. One click on the link dismisses the panel and leaves the window as it is. Either way the panel goes after the first click.

Why is it not automatic? Browsers only let a page go full screen in response to something the person did on that page. Signing in loads a new page, so the click that signed them in cannot be used. This is a browser rule, the same in every browser, and no web application can get round it.

Full screen applies to the whole portal page, not just the session, so the tab strip and the way out stay available. Press Esc to leave full screen. Web applications open in their own tab and do not use this option.

Removing the click on managed computers

On computers you manage, Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge can be allowed to open your portal in full screen with no click, through the AutomaticFullscreenAllowedForUrls browser policy. Where the policy is in force, the portal is already full screen when it loads and the panel never appears. This is ideal for kiosks, tills and shop-floor terminals.

In Group Policy, using the Chrome or Edge administrative templates:

Computer Configuration
  Administrative Templates
    Google Chrome  (or Microsoft Edge)
      Content settings
        Allow automatic fullscreen on specific sites
          Enabled, with one entry per portal address:
            https://portal.example.com

Or as a registry value:

HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Google\Chrome\AutomaticFullscreenAllowedForUrls\1 = "https://portal.example.com"

Edge uses HKLM\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Edge\ with the same value name.

List the exact address including https://. If you serve several addresses, add one entry for each.
Firefox and Safari have no equivalent; people on those browsers get the one-click panel.
This policy comes from the browser vendors; refer to their policy documentation for details.

The panel's wording can be changed or translated on Languages (search for launch.fullscreen).

Single-application portals

Some portals should be one application and nothing else: a public booking system, a specialist tool for a partner, a kiosk. You can build this from features that already exist:

Optional: let people in without a password. On the address's binding, set Who this address admits to "Anybody, without signing in". See Guest access without a sign-in. Skip this if people should still sign in.
Create the rule. On Catalog → Auto Launch, create a rule for the application with Full screen and End the visit when the application closes ticked.
Choose it on the binding. Add the rule to the address's Automatic launch on this address list.
Strip the theme. Make a theme for the address with the Hero panel's Home tab and Favourites tab switched off, so there is nothing to wander off to. Bind it to the address.
Tidy up the host. On the host, consider a separate Windows session for each device and signing Windows out when the last tab closes. See Host session options.

With End the visit when the application closes on, closing the application (from inside it, or with the tab's ×) closes every session on the page and shows a page saying that the application has been closed, with a Start again button. Start again, or refreshing the page, opens the application again; this is the one case where a rule fires more than once per sign-in, because the person never lands on the portal. Applications people open by hand still close normally.

Example: a shop-floor terminal

A warehouse wants three shared terminals that open the stock application and nothing else, while office staff use the full portal.

Address. Create floor.example.com and bind it to a stripped-down theme (Home and Favourites tabs off).
Rule. Create "Stock app" – a specific resource, for the "Warehouse" group, with Full screen and End the visit when the application closes.
Binding. Add "Stock app" to floor.example.com's automatic launch list.
Browsers. Apply the AutomaticFullscreenAllowedForUrls policy for https://floor.example.com on the three terminals.
Result. Warehouse staff sign in and land directly in the stock application, full screen. Closing it ends the visit, ready for the next person. Office staff on the main address see their normal portal, because the rule is not chosen there.

If something goes wrong

Nothing opens

Check the rule is chosen on the binding for the address you are using. A binding with No rule opens nothing.
Check the rule is Active and that you are in one of its groups.
For "the only resource", check the person really has exactly one resource.
For a specific resource, check the person is entitled to it. Rules never say when they skip.
It fires once per sign-in: sign out and in again to see it a second time.

A web application did not open

The browser blocked the new tab as a pop-up. The portal shows a banner saying the browser stopped it, with a button to open it. Allow pop-ups for the portal's address.

The full-screen panel appears every time

That is expected without the browser policy. Apply AutomaticFullscreenAllowedForUrls on managed computers, or untick Full screen.

It launched twice

Opening the portal in two browser tabs at the same moment can make both fire. Open one tab.

A rule that used to run stopped after an upgrade

See the note under Where a rule runs: rules now run only where they are chosen on a binding, and rules that matched no binding were switched off.