Embed external content in a content area

Content of external URLs can be displayed as content item on a content page of a content area. External URLs are added ReadOnly to the user interface in an iframe using sandboxing security rules.

The Alfabet Web Application must bevcconfigured to allow access to the external content . In the alfasettings.json configuration file of the Alfabet web application, access to the URL must be defined in the fields of the AlfabetWebConfig JSON object.
The external URL must be embeddable.
The external URL is accessible without login.

External content can be added to a content item in three ways:

Specify the URL directly in the content item definition.
Create an external link object specifying the external URL on the Alfabet user interface and add it to the content item afterwards. With this method, you can change the link on the user interface if the target changes without the need to re-do the configuration in Alfabet Expand.
Definition of external link objects is not part of any of the preconfigured Alfabet solutions. You need to create a data workbench for the ALFA_EXTERNAL_LINK object class and link it to the menu of an administrative user profile to set the links.
In class-based content areas, you can alternatively display the target of a link defined in an object class property of the type Url. The content area will display the URL specified for the current object embedded in the content item.
A typical use case are links defined for interfaces with third-party components. The Alfabet object stores the URL of the data of the synchronized object in the third-party component in a custom object class property. You can specify the custom object class property as external link in a content item. The view in the third-party component is shown view-only in the content area. Scrolling and logging in to the external application are not provided.
Custom properties with links that are set to any URL by users are not applicable. For example, if you store the homepage of vendors in a custom property of the type URL, you cannot use this custom property as source for embedding a URL. The top-level URLs of all links need to be specified in the security settings of the Alfabet Web Application. If the choice of vendors is not restricted to a defined vendor list, URLs to vendor homepages will in most cases not match the security settings of the Alfabet Web Application.

You can specify only one of the above listed methods in a single content item. If you use more than one of the above listed specifications in the same content item, only one of the specifications is valid. Specification of an object class property supersedes all other specifications. A direct specification of a URL in the content item supersedes the external link object specification.

Right-click the content page node in the explorer and select Add External View.
Click the new content item node and define the attributes:
- Set one of the attributes in the External View Configuration section to define the embedded URL:
  - External Link: Select an external link object that specifies the URL.
  - Url: Enter a URL in the field.
  - Url Property: Select an URL property of the object class the content area is defined for.
- Caption: Optionally define a caption for the content item in the content area item. By default, no caption is displayed.
- Width and Height: You can change the default width and height to enlarge the content item. A better method for re-sizing is available directly via the web-based content area designer.
- Default Visibility: Set the attribute to Hidden if the content item shall not be visible directly in the content page but only available via the content repository.
  For customers migrating from Alfabet 11.8 to Alfabet 11.10 the attribute will be set to Hidden for content pages which were in Alfabet 11.8 available in the configuration in Alfabet Expand but hidden in the default configuration.
- Visibility Conditions: If you want the content item to be only visible under specific circumstances, you can define a condition element testing whether the specific circumstances apply. You can then select the condition element in this attribute. The content item will be visible if the condition applies. For example, a condition specifies that the content item shall only be visible for users in user group B. The condition checks the user group configuration for the current user at runtime and hides the content item if the user is not a member of user group B.
- Load on Update: Do not re-set this attribute. If data is changed in the content page containing the external view, a re-load of the external view is not required because it shows no object data.