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  • 1.  Customizing Developer Portal locally

    Posted Wed December 18, 2024 05:08 AM
    Edited by ahmad taha Wed December 18, 2024 05:08 AM

    I'm seeking guidance on running the IBM API Connect Developer Portal locally using Docker for the purpose of customizing the API Connect theme. This will allow me to test the customized theme within my own local testing environment.

    Following the instructions from the provided documentation:
    [Testing an API with the Local Test Environment - IBM Documentation]
    Tutorial: Creating a private Developer Portal site - IBM Documentation

    Here are the steps I've taken:

    1. Cloned the IBM API Connect Developer Portal Git repository from GitHub: [GitHub - ibm-apiconnect/devportal: IBM API Connect Developer Portal built on the Drupal CMS]
    2. Attempted to start the Docker Compose configuration to run the database and Drupal instance using docker-compose up , and to create default portal profile using  apim_profile folder using (docker build .)

    However, I'm encountering an error during the build process (docker build .):

    pull access denied for portal-site-template, repository does not exist or may require 'docker login': denied: requested access to the resource is denied
    

    <response-element class="" ng-version="0.0.0-PLACEHOLDER"></response-element>

    Question:

    • Given that I have an IBM pull secret, what is the correct cp.icr.io repository link to pull the required image?

    By specifying the correct repository link, I can successfully build the image and proceed with my local testing.

    Thank you for your assistance.



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    Ahmad Taha
    Enterprise Architect | IBM | Coach | TOGAF
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  • 2.  RE: Customizing Developer Portal locally

    Posted Thu December 19, 2024 02:39 AM

    I'm afraid this is not supported and won't work.

    The portal only works with our pods in an apic deployment, there is no "run it locally" option, even for our team.

    It's intrinsically linked to an api manager which you need in order to get content and login.

    Just deploy an apic stack and use the portal within that.



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    Chris Dudley
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  • 3.  RE: Customizing Developer Portal locally

    Posted Thu December 26, 2024 07:15 AM
    Edited by ahmad taha Thu December 26, 2024 07:17 AM

    If difficulties are encountered in starting the API Connect Developer Portal on a standalone Drupal server, are there alternative methods for customizing the API Connect Developer Portal theme? Or are theme customizations restricted to the options provided by IBM?
    https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/api-connect/10.0.x?topic=tutorials-tutorial-creating-private-developer-portal-site



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    Ahmad Taha
    Enterprise Architect | IBM | Coach | TOGAF
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  • 4.  RE: Customizing Developer Portal locally

    Posted Thu December 26, 2024 12:51 PM

    That tutorial is specific to creating a completely private, locked down portal site, that's not a hugely common use case.

    What are you trying to achieve?

    There are tutorials on a variety of use cases in the docs - so make sure you're using the right version of the docs for the version of apic you're using.

    Theme customizations aren't limited - but we don't help with them via IBM support cases. Customizations aren't limited the customer's responsibility, services can be enlisted (from ibm or others) should assistance be needed.

    What is it you actually want to do?



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    Chris Dudley
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  • 5.  RE: Customizing Developer Portal locally

    Posted Sun December 29, 2024 02:50 AM

    The client has requested the following enhancements for the Developer Portal:

    1. Theme Customization: The ability to customize the portal's theme to align with their existing brand guidelines, including the incorporation of their logo.

    2. Enhanced UI/UX: A re-development of the portal to improve the user interface and user experience, making it more user-friendly and intuitive for developers.

    3. Alternative Customization Approach: Given the limitations in accessing the Portal Admin User, I am exploring alternative approaches to customize the developer portal. This could involve customizing the portal on a developer's machine and then exporting the customized configuration for deployment by the client's administrators.

    Regards



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    Ahmad Taha
    Enterprise Architect | IBM | Coach | TOGAF
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  • 6.  RE: Customizing Developer Portal locally
    Best Answer

    Posted Sun December 29, 2024 03:30 AM

    Please do consult the documentation.

    Creating a custom theme for the portal: https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/api-connect/10.0.8?topic=tutorials-tutorial-creating-custom-theme-developer-portal

    You can create a subtheme based of ours using the theme generator built into the portal UI, you can then extend that theme using any of the standard drupal mechanisms to customise functionality further.

    As I am sure you can appreciate, the nature of customisations like this is that no two requests are the same, so expecting step by step instructions is obviously unrealistic. It is possible to customise pretty much anything - however the amount of work involved in doing so can vary, and realistically sometimes it simply isn't worth the effort. e.g. adding additional fields to the create application form is easy. Customising the sign up process is definitely not.

    I am afraid "enhanced ui/ux" means very little, so its pretty hard to comment on that - it would be entirely subjective. What they might regard as an improvement might be seen as counter-intuitive by someone else.

    You cannot run the portal locally - you can only run it in APIC. You can export the customisations from one site to another, thats possible using the portaladmin CLI/API - but you should create those customisations in an APIC deployment.



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    Chris Dudley
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  • 7.  RE: Customizing Developer Portal locally

    Posted Mon December 30, 2024 06:59 AM

    Chris is right. Portal customizations is a very wide topic. Something I have found useful in the past for theme customizations is working with Chrome's Dev Tools Sources & Overrides. It will allow you to test some basic CSS customizations very quickly but it will still require to then modify the theme manually and upload it to fully test it.



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    Maria Cecilia Bel
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