The user interface in BI Publisher is generated by using scripts and is therefore highly customizable. The look-and-feel is controlled by skins and styles. BI Publisher is shipped with the Skyros (default style), and blafplus (browser look-and-feel plus), styles.
The following sections provide information about how to customize the BI Publisher user interface:
Section 16.3, "Modifying the User Interface Styles for BI Publisher"
Section 16.4, "Customizing the Style"
Note:
Customizing the BI Publisher user interface applies to Oracle BI Publisher 11.1.1.7.10 and later versions, and might not be available in earlier versions. For more information about Oracle BI Publisher 11.1.1.7.10, see "New Features for 11.1.1.7.10."
Styles and skins are organized into folders that contain Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and images. Skins and styles are typically used to customize the look and feel of the BI Publisher user interface by providing logos, color schemes, fonts, table borders, and other elements. Skins and styles can also be used to control the position and justification of various elements by including specialized style tags in the relevant style sheet file. For more information, see Section 16.2, "About Style Customizations."
To customize the look-and-feel of BI Publisher, Oracle strongly recommends that you use the custom style provided in the bicustom-template.ear file as your starting point. This custom style is a copy of the Skyros style.
For more information, see Section 16.3, "Modifying the User Interface Styles for BI Publisher."
Most of the common Skyros styles and image files, including the style sheet (master.css), are contained in the master directory. For more information about the master directory and its structure, see "Customizing Your Style" in Oracle Fusion Middleware System Administrator's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition.
Within the master.css style sheet, each element (or class) that is available for update is documented in the comments.
Other style sheets are also contained within the Skyros style and skin folders. You are not likely to need to update these files unless you are creating an advanced custom skin that provides styles for each detail of the user interface.
Note:
The Skyros style does not apply to Administration pages in BI Publisher.
To change the skin for BI Publisher, modify the xmlp-server-config.xml configuration file located at CATALOG_DIRECTORY/Admin/Configuration/xmlp-server-config.xml as follows:
To change the skin to blafplus, set the THEME property as follows:
<property name="THEME" value="blafplus"/>
To change the skin back to the default skin, Skyros, set the THEME property as follows:
<property name="THEME" value="skyros"/>
Note:
The THEME property must be either "blafplus" or "skyros".
Enterprise Archive (EAR) files are archive (ZIP) files composed of a specific folder and file structure. You can create an EAR file using any ZIP tool (for example, 7-zip) and then rename the ZIP extension to EAR. Oracle provides the bicustom-template.ear file as a starting point.
The bicustom-template.ear file contains a bicustom.war file. Web Archive (WAR) files are also ZIP files composed of a specific folder and file structure. You must update the bicustom.war file within the bicustom-template.ear file to include your custom skin files. The bicustom.war file that is shipped with BI Publisher contains an example folder structure to help you get started.
When creating styles and skins for BI Publisher, you must create CSS and image files, and make them available to BI Publisher. Only the CSS defined in master.css and images defined in the master folder can be customized for BI Publisher (bundled in the bicustom.ear file.)
To create a custom style for BI Publisher when BI Publisher is not integrated with the Oracle BI Enterprise Edition:
Copy ORACLE_HOME\bifoundation\jee\bicustom-template.ear to ORACLE_HOME\bifoundation\jee\bicustom.ear.
Note:
The patch or upgrade process may overwrite the bicustom-template.ear file, but it does not overwrite the bicustom.ear file.
Extract the bicustom.war file from the bicustom.ear file to the machine where BI Publisher is deployed.
Extract the files from the bicustom.war file.
Edit the master.css and images files in the unzipped directory to create the custom style, and save the changes.
Update the bicustom.war file with the changes.
Update the bicustom.ear file with the new bicustom.war file.
Deploy the new bicustom.ear file to the application server.
Update the xmlp-server-config.xml file and save the changes.
The following example configurations assume that bicustom.ear file is deployed with application name "custom" on the same application server where BI Publisher is running:
<!-- required: this is the base skin to use for styles not defined inside custom css --> <property name="THEME" value="skyros"/> <!-- required: this is the custom css http url --> <property name="THEME_CUSTOM_MASTER_CSS_URL" value="/custom/res/s_Custom/master/master.css"/> <!-- required: this is the custom image http url prefix --> <property name="THEME_CUSTOM_MASTER_IMAGE_URL_PREFIX" value="/custom/res/s_Custom/master"/> <!-- required: this is the file system path where custom images are located --> <property name="THEME_CUSTOM_MASTER_IMAGE_PATH" value="/scratch/aime1/custom/res/s_Custom/master"/>
Note that when a web page displays an image, the image is fetched through HTTP. Therefore an image must be available through an HTTP URL no matter where it is stored in the local directory. If you deploy bicustom.ear but place a custom image in a unrelated local directory, the result is that the HTTP URL is serving one image while the local directory is serving another image. To ensure that the and HTTP URL and the local path are pointing to the same image file, unpack bicustom.ear into the local directory (for example, path_A), make changes to the css/images, and then install a "custom" application from the unpacked local directory path_A.
Restart BI Publisher.
For information on redeploying the bicustom.ear file, see "Approach 1: Redeploying the "bicustom.ear" File" in Oracle Fusion Middleware System Administrator's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition.
To create a custom style for BI Publisher integrated with Oracle BI Enterprise Edition:
Copy ORACLE_HOME\bifoundation\jee\bicustom-template.ear to ORACLE_HOME\bifoundation\jee\bicustom.ear.
Note:
The patch or upgrade process may overwrite the bicustom-template.ear file, but it does not overwrite the bicustom.ear file.
Extract the bicustom.war file from the bicustom.ear file to the machine where BI Publisher is deployed.
Extract the files from the bicustom.war file.
Edit the master.css and images files in the unzipped directory to create the custom style, and save the changes.
Update the bicustom.war file with the changes.
Update the bicustom.ear file with the new bicustom.war file.
Deploy the new bicustom.ear file to the application server.
Update the xmlp-server-config.xml file and save the changes.
<!-- required: http url of OBIEE master css --> <property name="THEME_MASTER_CSS_URL" value="/custom/s_skyros/master/master.css"/> <!-- required: this is the master css http url --> <property name="THEME_IMAGE_URL_PREFIX" value="/custom/s_skyros/master"/> <!-- required: this is the file system path where master images are located --> <property name="THEME_MASTER_IMAGE_PATH" value="/scratch/aime1/bip/res/s_Custom/master"/>
Restart BI Publisher.
Note:
The custom configuration properties override the master configuration properties; therefore the value of THEME_CUSTOM_MASTER_CSS_URL takes precedence over the value of THEME_MASTER_CSS_URL. The same rule applies for images.
When creating custom styles for BI Publisher (standalone and integrated Oracle BI Enterprise), Oracle recommends that you copy only what you want to change in the customization. Anything not copied "falls back" to the style specified in the base skin for BI Publisher, which is the Skyros theme.
For custom style sheets (css), if THEME_CUSTOM_MASTER_CSS_URL is provided, BI Publisher references those styles and ignores any others. If THEME_MASTER_CSS_URL is provided, BI Publisher uses those styles. If neither are provided, BI Publisher uses the styles defined in the base skin.
For images, if THEME_CUSTOM_MASTER_IMAGE_PATH is provided, and the requested image exists in the directory, BI Publisher uses the value of THEME_CUSTOM_MASTER_IMAGE_URL_PREFIX to construct the image URL.
If THEME_MASTER_IMAGE_PATH is provided and the requested image exists in the directory, BI Publisher uses the value of THEME_MASTER_IMAGE_URL_PREFIX to construct the image URL. If neither are provided, BI Publisher uses the images defined in the base skin.