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.)
Update selected configuration files to create a custom style for BI Publisher when BI Publisher is not integrated with the Oracle BI Enterprise Edition.
For information on redeploying the bicustom.ear file, see Approach 1: Redeploying the "bicustom.ear" File in System Administrator's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition.
Update selected configuration files to create a custom style for BI Publisher integrated with Oracle BI Enterprise Edition.
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.
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.
BI Publisher constructs image URLs based on certain factors.
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.