Description
Currently, there is no official, supported mechanism to customize the User Interface (UI) design of the HCL Connections Touchpoint application. While the core Connections platform offers extensive theming and modification capabilities via the HCL Connections Customizer, Touchpoint remains a rigid, uncustomizable entity within the suite.
Current Workaround & Risks
To achieve necessary branding alignment, administrators currently use a workaround: manually editing the html, js, and css files within the compiled application files (Touchpoint.ear).
It is important to note that this workaround is completely unsupported:
No Vendor Support: HCL Support does not assist with or sanction direct modifications to .ear files. If issues arise stemming from these changes, the environment is considered unsupported.
High Technical Complexity: Modifying binary enterprise archive files is complex, error-prone, and not feasible for standard administrators.
Zero Persistence: Because this method modifies core application files, all customizations are immediately lost whenever the HCL Connections platform is updated or a Touchpoint fix is applied. This forces customers to re-apply modifications after every maintenance window.
Proposed Solution
We ask HCLSoftware to extend the HCL Connections Customizer to support the Touchpoint application.
Unified Architecture: Touchpoint should accept UI injections (incl. CSS/JS) via the Customizer, consistent with the rest of the Connections platform.
Upgrade Safety: This would allow design changes to exist as separate extensions, ensuring they persist through platform upgrades and patches without manual intervention.
Standardization: This removes the need to "hack" the product to achieve corporate branding requirements.
Additional Context
We can provide screenshots and the specific code modifications to demonstrate the exact customization capabilities we ask to be made standard.