Microsoft has release Windows Server 2008 in February of 2008 and Citrix will follow with their release of Presentation Server 5.0 (Delaware) that is targeted for the new Windows server generation. With each new full release of Presentation Server, the product components are also updated to support the new version.
After Web Interface 4.0, 4.1, 4.2, 4.5, 4.6 and 4.7 Citrix will release version 5.0 together with the Delaware release of Presentation Server. The new Web Interface version has to run on Server 2008, which means Internet Information Server 7.0, but what else is new with WI 5.0? This article describes the details of the next release.
WARNING: This review is based on a tech preview and means that functions, features etc. named in the article can change before the RTM release of Web Interface 5.0
Read More - http://www.thomaskoetzing.de/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=249&Itemid=277
The evolution of Web Interface
Looking back all the way down to NFuse 1.0 a lot of features and functions were added by the Citrix development team. Web Interface has become more and more important for Citrix customers and for Citrix itself. To quote the Product Architect: "Web Interface is the face of Citrix, and increasingly responsible for providing that crucial first impression which can either make users love us or hate us!". Citrix was taking this for granted and therefore the new version of Web Interface comes with a dramatic change to the look and feel.
The new look and feel
Between the year 2000 and 2007 the default layout of Web Interface has not changed very much. This time everything is new. Changing the design the way Citrix did took a lot of effort. The drawback of that decision is less time for new features. Screen shots of all parts of Web Interface are way too much for the article, but the following will show the important pieces.
The welcome page
First take a look at the new full welcome page.
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| The new Web Interface (full) Welcome page |
Keep an eye on the new elements on the site. The message tab, the switch to low graphics, the inline (error) message, the system message at the bottom and what you can't see is the fly-out menus.
Pre-Logon page
The Pre-Logon page is used to inform user about an upcoming maintenance, to accept a legal notice or what so ever. Point here is the user must click a button to pass the site. This ensures that users read the important message. To show some basic messages Administrators can use the new system messages (see logon page). Pre-Logon and system message are easy configured through the console.
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| Pre-Logon page for maintenance messages, legal notice etc. |
The application set
Again, take a close look and find the new application search box. Your company has hundreds of published applications? Now the user can easily search for their applications even using wildcard characters like "*"
Applications are still launched through scripting (no launch.ica file, for troubleshooting visit CTX111820 and CTX115304) and can also still be bookmarked. The bookmarks are also displayed in the new user "Hint" area that can be customized through the languages files.
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| Application set with search, hints, grouping, logon name etc. |
The application set is shown in the "icon" mode but can be switched (similar to Windows Explorer) to details, list, tree and group view. The display of the logged on User Name, not from the directory is enabled by default.
New is the grouping feature. When enabled, Web Interface will show in different tabs, Applications (xenApp), Desktops (xenDesktop) and published Content.
The messages tab
The "Message Center" has become the messages tab and displays user specific Web Interface messages. The messages list is sorted from the most important message to message with low priority.
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The low graphics design
The low graphics site is obviously for mobile devices. More and more devices are available on the market and Citrix can't keep up to automatically detect the screen size of those devices. This is the reason why a new Web Interface entry point was created to support the mobile devices. Pointing the browser to http://
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Technologies built on
Windows Server 2008 comes with IIS 7.0 and .NET Framework 3.0 and therefore Web Interface has to support both components. WI will auto detect the Framework 2.0 and 3.0 and set the right version. IIS 7.0 has dramatically changed and many companies are unable to use IIS 7.0 in native mode (including Microsoft with TS Web Access 2008). That's the reason why Citrix requires IIS 6.0 compatibility mode (sub role of IIS 7.0) to work correctly. True 64bit support is the target for the RTM release and will still build on Web Interface Next Generation (WING). The continued building on top of WING will keep most available modification easy adaptable with Web Interface 5.0
PNA site configuration
Not much to say here but finally the "Secure client access" configuration is back! That means using PNA from the outside through Citrix Gateway is fully supported now and no "hacks" are needed anymore.
What else is new?
First of all the conference attendee site was removed from Web Interface. Personally I have never seen conference manager in production. Access Gateway standard is now directly supported and needs just to be selected as the authentication point during the initial site wizard execution.
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When used with Delaware, Web Interface supports the "Special Folder Redirection" that seamlessly maps special folders (for example the "My Documents" folder of the local client would become My Documents within the Citrix session). WI 5.0 has many options to enable or disable, but with this version finally the Administrator can decide what option is available and if the user can change the option.
Web Interface 4.0 for Unix supported RSA or SafeWord through generic RADIUS. The generic RADIUS support is now available with the Windows version as well. Other features (some of them were already mentioned), are:
- Application search, message tab
- User Hints, low graphics, user name display
- Explorer application view style (icon, details, list, tree)
- Web Server authentication using Kerberos (see Jay Tomlin’s blog about it)
http://www.jaytomlin.com/blog/2006/11/federation_reflection_a_better.html - GUI customization of the logon and application set welcome message
- GUI customization of the messages tab
- Grouping of application types (Desktops, Applications, Content)
Still open to enhance Web Interface
The Citrix development team have a lot of things on their list, but many enhancements will be missing in the final release. I will just summarize some of them here.
- An application launch history or favorite applications
- Autolaunch becomes very important with xenDesktop and should be a "must have"!
- Multi domain support for enterprise environments (WIE)
- Stateless session, as well for enterprise environments (availability)
- Application launch tracking for external access (security)
- Support for Citrix SmartAccess as with the Advanced Edition of Access Gateway
- Flexible Client naming option without breaking Workspace Control (more flexible)
- Easy customization through CSS or other technologies
- Web Interface templates for easy community exchange
- Export and Import of the whole site, including customizations
- Domain Group and User access control through enhancing the NFuse protocol
- Small ICA Web Client less than 2 MB
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