Manifest Customization and Control

[Mike Gholson]

Hi all, I am currently trying to edit the manifest file for my IPB instance.  I have a self-hosted solution and will be trying to add support for a 3rd party notification system (iZooto).  The solution seems to work well, but, their system needs me to add a value to the manifest.webmanifest file.  If you are using HTTPS, this file seems to be generated automatically by IPB.  Only problem is that I cannot add the required value to the file.  If you add another manifest file to the website root folder (as required by some of these 3rd party apps), the values are ignored.

After looking at IPB settings, the software seems to generate a dynamic file called /manifest.webmanifest to my site.  See https://www.classiczcars.com/manifest.webmanifest ..   This is great, but, it doesn't look like I can edit the values.  I did a search for the values in my theme template and it shows up at this location:

• core
  • global
    • global
      • includeMeta

 

I am not familiar with how to edit this file to add the value.  So, it would be great if you can add a method to customize these values so they aren't affected by theme updates.

My idea is simple.  Add a method to the theme editor to add values and control the manifest file.  This could be accomplished with another tab in the theme editor.  Any time an update to the theme is applied, the custom manifest files remain unchanged.

Thanks for listening, and hopefully this explanation was enough to start a discussion.  FYI, I also submitted a separate idea to integrate with iZooto directly with a Community Enhancement, but, this manifest customization may be an easier way to solve the issue sooner.

Mike

[bfarber]

There are only a limited and defined number of valid values. What key is this service asking you to add to the manifest file?

At present, you would need to create a plugin to use a hook on the method that generates the manifest file to accomplish what you are after (the manifest is not defined in the theme system), but I'm curious what you are wanting to add exactly so we can better understand what you are after.

[Mike Gholson]

On 3/18/2019 at 11:28 AM, bfarber said:

There are only a limited and defined number of valid values. What key is this service asking you to add to the manifest file?

At present, you would need to create a plugin to use a hook on the method that generates the manifest file to accomplish what you are after (the manifest is not defined in the theme system), but I'm curious what you are wanting to add exactly so we can better understand what you are after.

Hi @bfarber, the key that I want to add is:

Quote

{"gcm_sender_id": "0123456789"}

Mike

[Mike Gholson]

Related to this manifest issue, this is required for me to start using the iZooto service.  It looks like they need me to add the above value to the manifest. 

As far as solutions, here are the options I can see so far:

1. Customize the manifest file (easiest)
2. Convince Invision developers to build this into Community Enhancements (may be a long wait)
3. Pay a developer to put together an application/plugin (I don't know how to do it)

Here's the request I sent to Invision to add the Enhancement:

 

[bfarber]

Yes, as that value is non-standard and there are realistically only a very few standardized options in the manifest (most of which we allow you to directly configure already), this seems like something better suited to a custom plugin to me.