Using IBM WebSphere Host Access Transformation Services V5

Chapter 1. New components and widgets 17

– Other: More features

– Source: Extensible Markup Language (XML) source code view of the

application.hap file that contains all settings for a project

See IBM WebSphere Host Access Transformation Services (HATS) V5 User’s

and Administrator’s Guide, SC31-6575, for additional information.

1.5 Generating a template

HATS V4 included support to create custom templates. However, it required at

least general knowledge of Web page creation, formatting, style sheets, and so

on. In HATS V5, you can import a predefined company template using the wizard

provided with HATS.

1.5.1 Creating a corporate template

A template is simply a JavaServer Pages (JSP) file that includes information

about how you want to display Web pages and transformations for this site. Think

of this as a master template where all the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)

pages receive the same background information. HATS V5 includes more

facilities to customize your own template.

You can modify one of the samples provided with HATS V5, or create one using

another template. We discuss both options in the following sections.

Modifying an existing HATS template

In the following example, we modify one of the templates supplied with HATS:

1. As shown in Figure 1-14, open project name

→Web Content →Templates.

Double-click a supplied template. In our example, we click Simple1.jsp.

Recall that Simple1.jsp is the default template we used previously.

2. Modify the links, colors, names, and other items to create a customized

template.

Important: All HATS product installations install the same default

templates. If you modify one of them, change all the graphics, colors, and

fonts to avoid possible duplication with the HATS transformations created

by other HATS product users.

18 Using IBM WebSphere Host Access Transformation Services V5

Figure 1-14 Modifying a template

Importing an existing template

Using a currently existing company Web template may be the best and easiest

way to integrate a HATS e-business solution into a company’s Web presence.

Importing an existing template into a HATS project is easier in Version 5.

Let’s begin customizing our template:

1. Right-click the project name and select New HATS

→Template.

2. In the Create a Template – Select name and destination of template window

(Figure 1-5), type a name for the template (OX in our example) and select the

Templates folder. Click Next.

Chapter 1. New components and widgets 19

Figure 1-15 Creating a template

3. On the next screen, select from the following options:

– Create a new template

– Preload the template with information from an existing HATS template

– Preload the template from an existing Web Page (File or URL)

For our example, select Prefill the template from an existing Web Page

(File or URL). We set the URL as http://www.ibm.com/ (or your company

URL) and click Finish.

4. You can make changes to the template as shown in Figure 1-14.

It is important to first remove any unnecessary information such as links,

images, text, tables, and so on, that will not be required on any of our HATS

transformations. We recommend that you leave only the principal banners

where your company displays basic information along with any company-wide

news or information display.

20 Using IBM WebSphere Host Access Transformation Services V5

5. Assign the customized template to our HATS project as shown in Figure 1-16:

a. From the HATS Project View, select the project name (ox in our example)

and double-click Project Settings.

b. Select the Template tab.

c. In the Template pane, from the Template list, select your own template (in

this case, ox.jsp).

d. Press Ctrl+S to save and close the window.

Figure 1-16 Selecting your customized template