Introduction to user interface integration

There are various scenarios where you would like to see some more context on a particular OT device, network, or system while using another software product or platform. For such contextualization, it is often not necessary to import asset data into such third party software. All you want to do is see additional information on a particular item, without having to open OTbase Inventory and type in a search term in the quick search field.

A prime example is the OTbase Asset Link Chrome extension that allows you to directly search for any item on any web page in OTbase Inventory, sometimes with just a single mouse click for CVE identifiers and product order numbers. This is made possible by calling device profiles, network profiles etc. directly using their dedicated URLs.

You can do the same kind of integration in any other software product that allows you to generate or store URLs that can be associated with particular asset items on display. Hence, if your enterprise asset management system, dashboard, SIEM, or any other application supports the integration of external links, opening a device profile directly from that application is simple.

It certainly also works in custom software applications that you may have created in order to facilitate specific needs and use cases. You can even display OTbase device profiles in an iFrame if you want to.

The benefit of user interface integration is that it is extremely easy to use, meaning that you can get it done in probably less than an hour. Data integration, on the other hand, requires much more coding and configuration effort, and is much more error prone.

There are two different ways how to link to display pages from OTbase Inventory:

• Direct links to device profiles and network profiles
• Links to the quick search function.

Authentication and authorization

You don't have to have an active connection to OTbase Inventory open in order to use pages linked by UI integration. However you do have to authenticate before being able to see any results. For users who don't have an active connection to OTbase Inventory (in the same browser), the browser window that's going to pop up and will ultimately be used to display results will first ask you to authenticate, using the normal logon screen from OTbase Inventory. However, after being authenticated, you will not be taken to OTbase Inventory but will see the requested profile or quick search result list.

The results that you will be able to see depend on the access rights as defined for your user group(s) in the OTbase Inventory user management.

Session management for user interface integration is active, which means that the inactivity timeout that is defined in OTbase Inventory will force you to re-authenticate after expiration.