App URL Structure

Author: Ian Britz

Introduction

In this article, let’s take a look at the structure of a Dashboard App URL, and features we can use to direct users to different Dashboard Apps and submissions. Furthermore, we’ll see the functionality of two reserved System Variables to assist in these redirects.

Structure

http://localhost:8888/?ui=js&page=contributor&appid=1&authid=1&subid=-1&mode=c&contextid=1

• Host name

• Port number

• Path to either the Silverlight or HTML5 version of the app
  • This will be displayed as either:
    • HTML5: ?ui=js&page=contributor
    • Silverlight: #/contributor?

• APP ID
  • A number assigned to each Application database when added to Kepion through the System Module.

• Authorization ID
  • A number assigned to each Dashboard App in an Application when added through the Administrator Module.

• Submission ID
  • A number assigned to each submission for a given Dashboard App. Set this to -1 to always access the first saved submission for a user.

• Access Mode
  • The role the user has been configured for through the Administrator Module.
    • c – Contributor
    • r – Reviewer
    • a – Approver
• Context ID
  • An optional value to specify which Dashboard page and filters to select by default. See this article for more information.

System Variables

In addition, Kepion also has two reserved System Variables to assist in redirecting users to the Silverlight or HTML5 version of Kepion, relative to the one they’re currently using.

These variables are:

• ${contributor-page}
• ${contributor-page-no-splash}

For example, if you replace the path to the Silverlight/HTML5 version with the variable ${contributor-page}, the URL will automatically resolve to whichever version the user is currently in, as seen in the window below.

Likewise, the table below demonstrates what the final URL will look like depending on which environment the APP is currently in.

http://localhost:8888/${contributor-page}&app...

Similarly, the variable ${contributor-page-no-splash} functions in exactly the same way, however it doesn’t load the splash page seen below.

Unless it’s necessary for a link to directly reference a specific version, it’s considered best practice in Kepion to always format URLs with these variables. In addition, it’s often preferred to remove the splash page when switching between APPs in this context.