Hi All,
Part 1 of our console customizations explained how to add xml-file based actions to the Configmgr admin console, more specifically we looked at the "Executable" class. I promised to continue my console - deep dive posts with the group and report actions, so let's just dive into it.
Let's start by looking at a sample report action class xml file. The report class opens a report in the details pane of the SCCM console, if you want to open a report in a new browser window, then use the Executable class and use the url of the report as the executable.
<ActionDescription Class="Report" DisplayName="Test Action (report)" MnemonicDisplayName="Mnemonic" Description="Description">
<ReportDescription Id="05874720-1D08-4CF7-B182-5F9D065BEAE5"></ReportDescription>
</ActionDescription>
The xml file starts with the actiondescription element just like the executable sample we saw in part 1. But this time the class attribute contains a value of "Report" instead of "executable". The displayname and mnemonicdisplayname attributes are again identical to their counterparts we talked about in the Executable class sample in part 1, and the description attribute is pretty self-explanatory.
On the next line of the xml we find the reportdescription element which only has a single attribute, "Id". The Id is the Reportguid you can find in the sms_report class. Unfortunately the reportguid isn't exposed in the Configmgr admin console out-of-the-box, but you can add that yourself. Just open your Configmgr admin console, navigate to the Reporting \ Reports section and click the View menu. In the view menu of the SCCM console you'll see add/remove columns in which you can add the report guid column.
That's about it for the Report class xml's and as with the executable sample, the only thing that is left to do is to copy it to the Program Files\Microsoft Configuration Manager\AdminUI\XmlStorage\Extensions\Actions\guid subfolder. Where guid is the guid of the node in the console where you want the report option action to appear.
Now let's look at a group sample xml, which does nothing more than grouping multiple actions in a sub-menu in the action pane, or the right-click contect-menu of the SCCM console.
<ActionDescription Class="Group" DisplayName="New Group Name" MnemonicDisplayName="MnemonicNewGroupName" Description="NewGroupNameDescription">
<ActionGroups>
<ActionDescription Class="Executable" DisplayName="Test Action (execute)" MnemonicDisplayName="A test item" Description="A test item Description">
<Executable>
<FilePath>http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=67307</FilePath>
</Executable>
</ActionDescription>
<ActionDescription Class="Report" DisplayName="Test Action (report)" MnemonicDisplayName="Mnemonic" Description="Description">
<ReportDescription Id="05874720-1D08-4CF7-B182-5F9D065BEAE5">
</ReportDescription>
</ActionDescription>
</ActionGroups>
</ActionDescription>
Our Class attribute this time is "Group" the displayname is the name you'll see in the Action pane root, or context-menu. Then we start the Actiongroups element which starts and ends the list of actions. As you can see, there is nothing much to the Group class.
So, that's it for the second part of this deep dive theme.
--
Enjoy.
"Everyone is an expert at something"
Kim Oppalfens - Sms Expert for lack of any other expertise
Windows Server System MVP - SMS
http://www.scug.be/blogs/sccm/default.aspx
http://www.linkedin.com/in/kimoppalfens