1. Administering Oracle Analytics Publisher in Oracle Analytics Server
  2. Customize the Publisher User Interface
  3. Customize the Style

Customize the Style

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 shipped with Publisher contains an example folder structure to help you get started.

When creating styles and skins for Publisher, you must create CSS and image files, and make them available to Publisher. Only the CSS defined in master.css and images defined in the master folder can be customized for Publisher (bundled in the bicustom.ear file).

Customize the Style for Publisher Standalone

Update selected configuration files to create a custom style for Publisher when Publisher is not integrated with the Oracle Analytics Server.

Note:

When a web page displays an image, the page fetches the the image through HTTP. Therefore an image must be available through an HTTP URL no matter where it's stored in the local directory. If you deploy bicustom.ear but place a custom image in a unrelated local directory, the HTTP URL serves one image while the local directory serves another image. To ensure that the and HTTP URL and the local path point 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.

  1. 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 doesn't overwrite the bicustom.ear file.

  2. Extract the bicustom.war file from the bicustom.ear file to the machine where you have deployed Publisher.
  3. Extract the files from the bicustom.war file.
  4. Edit the master.css and images files in the unzipped directory to create the custom style, and save the changes.
  5. Update the bicustom.war file with the changes.
  6. Update the bicustom.ear file with the new bicustom.war file.
  7. Deploy the new bicustom.ear file to the application server.
  8. Update the xmlp-server-config.xml file and save the changes.

    The following example configurations assume that you have deployed the bicustom.ear file with application name "custom" on the same application server where Publisher runs: 

    <!-- 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"/>
  9. Restart Publisher.

Customize the Style for Publisher Integrated with the Oracle Analytics Server

Update selected configuration files to create a custom style for Publisher integrated with Oracle Analytics Server.

  1. 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 doesn't overwrite the bicustom.ear file.

  2. Extract the bicustom.war file from the bicustom.ear file to the machine where Publisher is deployed.
  3. Extract the files from the bicustom.war file.
  4. Edit the master.css and images files in the unzipped directory to create the custom style, and save the changes.
  5. Update the bicustom.war file with the changes.
  6. Update the bicustom.ear file with the new bicustom.war file.
  7. Deploy the new bicustom.ear file to the application server.
  8. 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"/>
  9. Restart 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.

Fallback Mechanism for Custom Styles

When creating custom styles for Publisher (standalone and integrated with Oracle Analytics Server), 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 Publisher, which is the Skyros theme.

Custom Style Sheets

For custom style sheets (css), if THEME_CUSTOM_MASTER_CSS_URL is provided, Publisher references those styles and ignores any others.

For custom style sheets (css), if THEME_CUSTOM_MASTER_CSS_URL is provided, Publisher references those styles and ignores any others. If THEME_MASTER_CSS_URL is provided, Publisher uses those styles. If neither are provided, Publisher uses the styles defined in the base skin.

Images

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, 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,Publisher uses the value of THEME_MASTER_IMAGE_URL_PREFIX to construct the image URL. If neither are provided, Publisher uses the images defined in the base skin.