HTTP block page tab
This window presents by default the HTTP block page that is displayed during an attempt to access a site that has been blocked by URL filter rules. In a filter rule, there are 4 versions of block pages to choose from.
By default, a block page consists of an icon and a message clearly explaining why the page has been blocked, and showing for example, to which URL category the unauthorized website belongs.
EXAMPLE
The company’s policy does not allow access to this page. It falls under the category: “Games”.
The block page can be fully customized. You can choose to display just a logo, a sentence, or a combination of both. Each field on the page can be modified: the logo, font, font size or even the font color.
Each of these 4 customizable HTML pages has multilingual support, meaning that the message that appears can be displayed in several languages. The version of the text displayed when a page is blocked is selected according to the browser’s default language.
An e-mail notification to the administrator can also be associated with the page to request the unblocking of access to a website.
Block page tabs
Each of these 4 block pages can be configured in the drop-down menu Modify. The entries are:
| Modify | Allows customizing the HTTP block page by modifying the HTML code. Clicking on this button opens up two dedicated tabs below the block window. These tabs allow the use of a simplified editor or an HTML editor, covered in detail in the following section. |
| Rename | Allows customizing the name of the current block page. |
| Reset | Allows resetting to the default data of the block page. |
| Copy to | Allows copying the settings of the current block page and applying this model to one of the other block pages. |
Editing block pages
You can customize the page by replacing the image displayed on the page. The HTML page also offers multilingual support.
Depending on the chosen language, it is possible to customize the message displayed when the website is blocked, as well as a notification e-mail to the administrator to request a categorization or unblocking of access to the blocked website.
The page exists in several languages by default and offers the possibility of adding new languages.
There are variables that allow making the information dynamic, such as the categories to which the blocked sites belong.
These variables are:
| $host | Queried domain name (e.g.: www.google.com) |
| $url | Page of the queried domain |
| $protected_url | Page of the queried domain – encoded in a format that can be processed by the browser or mail client |
| $user | Name of the authenticated user (if known) |
| $src | Name of the source or its IP address |
| $url_group | Name of the category group |
| $protected_url_group | Name of the category group - encoded in a format that can be processed by the browser or mail client |
| $cat_group | Name of the URL category |
| $protected_cat_group | Name of the category - encoded in a format that can be processed by the browser or mail client |
| $url_rule | Number of the block rule in the URL filter policy |
| $url_policy | Number of the URL filter policy |
To display the full URL, both variables need to be concatenated as follows: $host$url
Simplified editor
Simplified editing uses a WYSIWYG interface and allows importing an image.
Actions on the table
| Add | Creates a new version of the HTML page. By clicking on this button, a new line appears, allowing you to indicate the language and the other information to display. |
| Delete | Deletes an existing version. Select the line to be deleted and click on this button. |
| Modify image | This button allows customizing the block page by importing an image. Only JPG, GIF and PNG formats are accepted. |
| Default language | This field selects the version of the page to display, in the event the browser does not have a specified default language or if the language specified in the browser is not one of the languages of the page. |
The table
Each line corresponds to a language of the HTML page message and a version of the e-mail notification to the administrator (request to unblock access).
| Language ID | Language of the message to be displayed by the HTML page. This field has to be a two-character identifier of a valid country (ISO 3166-1 alpha-2) so that the browser can detect it. |
| Page title | Title displayed in the browser’s window or tab |
| Block message | Clicking on the cell opens an editing window: a text box allows entering the version of the block page’s message. This field allows entering HTML tags to format the text. |
|
Contact e-mail |
Clicking on the cell opens an editing window: the name of an e-mail link can be entered at the end of the message. If this field is empty, no e-mails will appear on the page. The preview field allows you to see the e-mail that will be sent if a mail client has been installed on the host. The information to enter is the e-mail address of one or two recipients, the subject of the e-mail and the message. A box will show the variables that can be used. |
HTML editor
The text box allows copying all the HTML code of the block page in order to modify it. Code from a customized HTML page can also be pasted.
Images embedded in the HTML page have to be encoded in base64 and contained in the image tag.
This code embeds various versions of the page’s message and information about the e-mail notification.