Another way you can extend the capabilities of Communicator Web Access is by adding a custom menu. By default, the following four menus are available to users each time they run Communicator Web Access:

You cannot customize these menus, nor can you choose not to display them. However, you can add an additional menu of your own that provides links to other Web pages or Web applications. When a user selects an option from your custom menu the corresponding Web page or application will open in new browser window.

Note:
The custom menu appears only in Communicator Web Access. It is not available to users running Office Communicator.

When creating a custom menu, you must use the XML schema shown in the following table.

Element Description Allowed values

menu

Indicates the section of CustomConfig.xml devoted to the custom menu.

active="True"

active="False"

When set to True, the custom menu is displayed in Communicator Web Access.

If set to False, the custom menu is not displayed in Communicator Web Access.

The default menus – Contacts, Options, Meet, and Sign Out– are always displayed, regardless of whether or not the active element has been set to False.

In addition, set the value of the title attribute to the name to be given your custom menu. For example, use this code to set the name of the menu to Links:

Copy Code 
title="Links"

menuitem

XML node that corresponds to a single menu item in the parent menu.

You must specify at least 1 menu item in order for the custom menu to display.

Your custom menu can have as many as 15 menu items.

displayname

The name given to the menu item.

Any alphanumeric string. For example:

Copy Code 
<displayname>Contoso</displayname>

url

The URL that the menu item links to.

Any valid universal naming convention (UNC) path or Uniform Resource Locator (URL). If you enable the custom menu for external users (see later in this table) make sure this path is accessible to those users.

accessibility

Determines whether the menu item will be displayed to internal users, external users, or both.

<accessibility>inside</accessibility>

<accessibility>outside</accessibility>

<accessibility>both</accessibility>

If the accessibility element is set to inside, only internal users (that is, those users connecting to Communicator Web Access from inside the firewall) will see the menu item. For example, if a menu item refers to a UNC path which is not accessible to external users, you can set the accessibility element for that menu item to inside. This will ensure that the menu item is available to internal users only.

If the accessibility element is set to outside, only external users (that is, those users connecting to Communicator Web Access from outside the firewall) will see the menu item.

If the accessibility element is set to both, then all users (that is, internal and external) will see the menu item.

To create a custom menu for Communicator Web Access

  1. On the computer running the Communicator Web Access server, use a text editor to open the file CustomConfig.xml. This file is typically found in the folder C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 R2\Communicator Web Access\Server\CWA\Client.

  2. In the CustomConfig.xml file, locate the <menu>element. By default, the <menu>element looks like the following:

    Copy Code 
    <menu active = ”false” title = "Links">
<menuitem>
	<displayname>Contoso</displayname>
	<url>http://www.contoso.com</url>
	<accessibility>both</accessibility>
</menuitem>
</menu>

  3. Modify the <menu>element by using the XML schema shown in the preceding table.

    Note:
    You must set the active attribute to True if you want to display your custom menu.

  4. When you are finished, save and then close the CustomConfig.xml file.

  5. After modifying CustomConfig.xml, you must restart the IIS service before Communicator Web Access can begin using the custom header and footer. To do this, type the following command at a command prompt and then press ENTER:

    iisreset /restart