Add links to the CCMS Web menu

As an administrator, you can add links to the main menu so that CCMS Web users can quickly access menu options as static links.

About this task

If you have web applications or pages that are related to CCMS Web, you can add links to reference them directly from CCMS Web. For example, you might add a link to your internal style guide, or a company wiki, or to the DITA specification.

To facilitate the integration with those external applications, use the following variables in the links to provide some level of context:

For example, links to reports could use the ${username} variable and the report application would return only the reports relevant for that user.

Procedure

Open the TEXTML Administration perspective.
Locate the web.platform.config.xml file in Repository > system > webplatform > configuration.
Right-click the file to check it out open it for editing.
Within the <properties> element add the link.

Each link is added as a cluster of <entry> elements with the same values for their @key attribute.

The value for the @key attribute must start with static_link., but after this character string you can use any value you want.

For <entry> elements that contain text, the key attribute must end with one of the language codes, such as .en, .fr, .de, or .ja.
For example, this is a static link to the www.madcapsoftware.com website with different text for the link, depending on whether the users are using an English or French version of the user interface:
```
<entry key="static_link.anchor1">https://www.madcapsoftware.com/</entry>
<entry key="static_link.anchor1.en">Go to MadCap</entry>
<entry key="static_link.anchor1.fr">Aller sur MadCap</entry>
```
The unique part of the @key attribute in this example is anchor1. This same value is repeated with the .en language code for English and the .fr language code for French.
You can also add parameters to the URL, such as variables, which CCMS Web replaces with values from the user.
For example, this codeblock uses variables for the user's username and role as part of the URL link:
```
<entry key="static_link.anchor2">https://www.madcapsoftware.com/?hl=fr-ca$amp;user=${username}&roles=${roles}</entry> 
<entry key="static_link.anchor2.en">IXIASOFT</entry>				
```
The parameters available are:
- email
- domain
- groups
- roles
- username
Tip: To get the exact syntax you need for an URL that requires parameters, access the website as you normally would and take note of the URL in the address bar of the browser.

Repeat step 4 to add more <entry> clusters to create additional links.

For example, this second <entry> adds anchor2, a link to Oxygen XML:

<entry key="static_link.anchor1">https://www.madcapsoftware.com/</entry> 
<entry key="static_link.anchor1.en">Go to MadCap</entry> 
<entry key="static_link.anchor1.fr">Aller sur MadCap</entry>

<entry key="static_link.anchor2">https://https://www.oxygenxml.com//</entry> 
<entry key="static_link.anchor2.en">Go to Oxygen XML</entry> 
<entry key="static_link.anchor2.fr">Aller sur Oxygen XML</entry>

Save, close, and check in the file.
Refresh the browser cache to ensure the links appear.
See Refresh the browser cache for details.