Board Web Settings Overview

Board Support
Board Support Employee
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edited January 2 in Support Articles

Note:

  1. The information provided here is for BOARD 10 and BORAD 12.
  2. BOARD Cloud: Changes to configuration files need to be requested via Cloud Support.

Functionality

Since BOARD 10 the Web Server is published via HTML5 and version by version it is enhanced with additional functionalities. This document provides developers with an overview of the available settings:

  • Generic Application
  • Broadcasting
  • Chat & User Metadata
  • Single Sign-On Authentication
  • Reporting
  • Logging

Generic Application

These settings are managed within the file appSettings.config located in C:\Program Files (x86)\Board\Board WebApi Server\App_Data\config. This file is the reference for the configuration of the following points:

  • Web Server connection
  • Authentication methods permitted
  • Anonymous authentication activation
  • Web menu display
  • Chat activation

Details about these settings are provided in the article BOARD Web - Application Settings.

Broadcasting

This feature has been added to the Board Web Client since BOARD 10.5. It relies on the Mailer Service, that can be setup with the following files:

  • Broadcasting.config (in C:\Program Files (x86)\Board\Board WebApi Server\App_Data\config): this file contains the references of the SMTP Server responsible of sending the emails
  • Mailer.config (in C:\Program Files (x86)\Board\Board WebApi Server\App_Data\config): this file manages the creation of the email attachment.
  • Details about these settings are provided in the article Board Mailer Service.

Chat & User Metadata

Since BOARD 10.3 users can chat through the BOARD Web Client, and add some additional information (metadata) about themselves. This data is stored by default in a SQLite database created by BOARD at the time of the first installation of the Web Server. However, the developer can attach his own SQL or SQLite database to BOARD to publish the users metadata. This option is provided by the file connectionStrings.config in C:\Program Files (x86)\Board\Board WebApi Server\App_Data\config.

Details about this database and the connection to it are provided below:

FUNCTIONALITY

Since BOARD 10.3 users can chat through the BOARD Web Client, and add some additional information (metadata) about themselves on BOARD.

These data are stored in a SQLite database, unless through a customization the reference is moved to another database.

The content and the customization required to point to a local database are explained in this article.

DATABASE CONTENT

The database contains information regarding the following points:

  • Chat
  • Users Metadata
  • Broadcasting & Send To

Chat

The Chat has been introduced to let users communicate between each other and share presentations through BOARD. Reference about this functionality can be found on the BOARD Manual: Chat.

The tables containing all Chat information are the following:

  • ChatDefinitions: it contains the ID of the chat or group and last update time
  • MessageDefinitions: it contains the content of a chat including message and sender, with the ID of a presentation if shared
  • UserParticipateOnChats: It contains the information of the last UTC date and chat ID in which a user took part

Users Metadata

Users Metadata have been introduced to enrich a user profile with additional information. It comes with a default set of parameters that a user can enter, but it is open to customization as explained on the BOARD Manual: Users Metadata.

The tables containing Users Metadata are the following:

  • UserDefinitions: it contains the username and the values filled by the user for the default metadata information
  • UserMetadataDefinitions: it contains the definition of any new metadata introduced with a customization
  • UserMetadataTranslationDefinitions: it contains the translation of the metadata if any have been introduced

 

Broadcasting & Send To

With BOARD 10.5 the Broadcasting functionality has been introduced on the Web to let users send emails through BOARD with presentations as attachments. Details about it can be found on the BOARD Manual: Board 10.5 Broadcasting.

The information about the Broadcasting are saved within the following tables:

  • ScheduledReportingActions: details of any Broadcasting / Send To configuration with Task ID, Task Name, Message Body, Presentation ID, Last Execution Date, etc.
  • BoardRecipients: list of every Board recipient of a Task ID

NOTE: all dates are saved in UTC format to be consistent. They can be converted to a common date format here: https://www.timestampconvert.com/

LOCAL DATABASE

If you wish to attach a local database to the BOARD Chat & Users Metadata database, you would need to follow these steps:

1) Stop the Board Web Api Engine or the IIS site (according to the solution you are using to publish on the Web)

2) Edit the file connectionStrings.config in C:\Program Files (x86)\Board\Board WebApi Server\App_Data\config  to make it pointing to your local SQL Server or SQLite Server. The file must be filled like in the below example:

<connectionStrings>
<add name="BOARDWebDBConnectionString" connectionString="Data Source=myServer;Initial Catalog=myDatabase;Integrated Security=False;User ID=mySQLuser;Password=mySQLPassword" providerName="System.Data.SqlClient" />
</connectionStrings>

where:

Parameter

Accepted Values

Data Source

Address of the server with the database

User ID

SQL user with administration rights to create databases

Password

Password of the SQL user

providerName

  • System.Data.SqlClient for connections to SQL Server
  • System.Data.SQLite for connections to SQLite

Initial Catalog

Name of database: do not create it yourself. Let BOARD create it for you.

3) Start the Board Web Api Engine

4) At first login, the database will be created in your local instance: from this point on you can populate tables, especially Users Metadata, with data coming from other sources and make use of it from BOARD

Single Sign-On Authentication

BOARD supports multiple Single Sign-On Authentication methods. In terms of configuration two main differences can be identified:

  • Windows Authentication: this method is supported straightaway if the architecture meets the necessary conditions, no additional customization is necessary
  • Other Authentications: these methods can be configured using either the file openId.config or Saml2.config in C:\Program Files (x86)\Board\Board WebApi Server\App_Data\config

Details about this configuration can be found in the following articles: SSO with OpenID Connect (MS Azure AD sample) and Single Sign-On with SAML on BOARD.

Reporting

Since Board 10.3 Web screens can be exported to files through the Create Report feature that relies on the Snapshotter component. This functionality allows the users to export a screen to PDF, Word, Power Point and PNG format.

Details about the configuration of the Create Report feature is available in the article Create Report - Snapshotter.

Logging

The BOARD Web Server comes with a set of logs to monitor the users actions and troubleshoot problems. The list of logs related to the Web Server is the following:

  • BoardWeblog (Path set in log.config and contains the information about users actions on the browser including the broadcasting)
  • Snapshotter log (Path set in snapshotter.config : this folder contains the logs related to the export of screens to file (i.e. YYYY_MM.log and cef.log))
  • BoardMailer log (Path set in mailer.config and contains information related to the sending of mails)

Details about these logs and others are available in the article BOARD LOGs in detail.

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