Method to link to admin pages update: Need nee method

Maybe I'm missing something from your question but why can't you just link directly to the page URL, for example:

https://SITE.worldsecuresystems.com/Utilities/ShopSettings.aspx

it will redirect to the login page (if not logged in) then after successful login redirect to the page you requested.

Not exactly sure this is what you are talking about, but I just yesterday I could not get this to work.

/Admin/AppLoader.aspx?client_id=app-name-folder&redirect_uri=THE_URL

You can do what I did link directly to a webapp menu item - https://site.worlsecuresystems.com/Admin/CustomContent_ItemList.aspx?CustomContentID=' + ID + '&t=t&CustomContent=Name.

The webapp loads inside the sandboxed iframe under the current Apps Page title. For me it causes a few formatting issues as I am using BC style html, css to style my app and alters made to the css effects the webapp now sitting inside the apps iframe.

Would be nice if the /Admin/AppLoader.aspx?client_id=app-name-folder&redirect_uri=THE_URL worked but it does not seem to for me either at the moment.

You didn't specify this was a BC app, pass the URL target the parent frame, but you'll have to ask the user on first run of the app, what is your url or thereabouts and save that to a config file.

I've not had to do this in apps I did but why wouldn't something like work?

<a target="_parent" href="http://url.org">link</a>

or in javascript:

window.parent.location.href= "the link";

You're not accessing the parent window's content your targeting the browser's URL.

Yeah I did that used referrer for parent stored URL in sessionStorage and it works but not for &redirect_uri. Just did not show it in the post. If I am getting what you mean.

I am using a button in the app iframe itself not in the menu called Advanced Settings. window.location.href = storedURL + '/Admin/CustomContent_ItemList.aspx?CustomContentID=' + _itemID + '&t=t&CustomContent=_itemName; and webapp loads in the sandboxed iframe for me.

That is odd. Looks like two things might need looking at the direct url link to BC Items and &redirect_uri from inside the app which would be handy.

Hello everyone,

At the moment the only way to navigate from an app to an Admin section is to rely on document.referrer and build the url where you want to navigate. This approach was already mentioned in this forum, but we also have a functional example in sample applications from bcapi sdk: Redirect to dashboard page, _redirectToDashboard function (line 102).

redirect_uri query parameter is designed to allow Open Platform applications to have multiple start pages.

In the future we intend to provide a way to communicate with parent frame through messages. For instance, using the sdk you would be able to do something like:

BCAPI.sendAdminMessage("redirect_to", {"url": "/Utilities/ShopSettings.aspx"});

Regards,

Radu

I agree with Liam about the SDK vs the APIs right now. In fact, I've been almost exclusively, with a few exceptions, using the APIs in my development because it's actually easier to simply build a function to handle the scenario.

Regarding the sdk, it would be great if you can post some samples about APIs consumptions. I am really curious why using the sdk is more complicated than a plain ajax request? I am asking this because one of the main reason we invested in sdk was to actually make developer life easier .

I like the SDK but I am new at this. My thing is that the sdk is limited and the API still needs to be used to achieve a lot of thing. Being able to use the sdk for 95% of the tasks would be great. 

Radu

sendAdminMessage sounds good. Another question will future additions allow access to querys from the menu.json "attr":{"href":"/Admin/AppLoader.aspx?client_id=digifuel-app&appID=19439"} to the app iframe not the parent frame. This would allow one html file to be reused for many apps just like webapps in BC without referrer and extra code and issues.

menu.json

Menu item 1 "attr":{"href":"/Admin/AppLoader.aspx?client_id=digifuel-app&appID=11111"}

Menu item 2 "attr":{"href":"/Admin/AppLoader.aspx?client_id=digifuel-app&appID=22222"}

Read the query, then display correct webapp content. Apps using webapp without adding duplicate html files and delete old ones, keeping things concise.

One of the reasons I prefer to use the APIs over the SDK is because I'm so concerned with unnecessary calls. I've essentially been building my own SDK that works with my development patterns. Here's an example:

http://codepen.io/onecreative/pen/nCGaD.js

As you all know document.referrer is extremely unreliable, so going back to my original suggestion, when the user first runs the app, detect that and ask a setup question of "what is your url?" Save it to disk as your own config file, you don't need to rely on anything else assuming they don't change their URL.

Bad user experience is using document.referrer and it not working 50% of the time If there is a better way to do it all good I'm just offering a suggestion that would 100% work everytime, if there is an official / better way go for it... but it is pretty standard to have a first install qquestionnaire or term or conditions for any app you install these days (not just BC) so I don't this it is a bad UX at all, you would only have to ask the question once.

Alright boys, back to your corners.

Cool beans, what is your solution?

Agreed on asking the question, seems strange but if that was the ONLY way because of BC limitations (which it seems not if there you have a solution) to do it then it's a solution dude, don't get all defensive and dismissive about other people offering ideas

Liam: Care to share your solution? I'm interested to see what you did.

I really understand this issue causes painful experience for app developers. In order to fix this what do you think about the possibility to send messages to Admin from your app (one of the messages being redirect message)? Will this fix the problem you currently have?

BCAPI.sendAdminMessage("redirect_to", {"url": "/Utilities/ShopSettings.aspx"});

Hi Radu

I think it is good it would help me.

As I noted above in regard to webapps I want to pass variables id of the webapp from the menu.json to the app

Currently I use this "attr":{"href":"/Admin/AppLoader.aspx?client_id=digifuel-app&itemID=19440" and use referrer which your solution will not work for.

But I have a solution if I am allowed. I have not fully test it on all browser etc. but it seems to work.

"attr":{"href":"/Admin/AppLoader.aspx?client_id=digifuel-app&redirect_uri=edit.html?itemID =17001" if you use &redirect_uri=PAGE.html?YOURQUERY it redirects and has the query included in the app url.

Question? is this legal use of redirect_uri if so I can use your sendAdminMessage() once available and redirect_uri and no referrer.

It is perfectly fine to pass additionaly parameters to redirect uri (make sure you url encode redirect_uri value). Then you have access from your app to the uri and you can obtain all passed query parameters.

What is not currently clear for me right now is how you know item id upfront? Should this be a dynamic value which your app obtain (e.g list the items of a specific web app and choose an item id).

Nevertheless, you can pass query parameters through redirect_uri and your app will have access to them.

I get the itemID by creating webapps from my app then appending the menu.json with a new menu items linking to the same page but with different webapp ID's (itemID). The page then renders the correct webapp content from json files.

As far as encode goes do you mean like this. redirect_uri=index.html%3FitemID%3D12345

Got it. It should work.