Sunday, July 1, 2012

OBIEE 11g: Customizing Skins and Styles in 5 easy steps

I am aware that this topic has been covered in many blogs, Oracle’s customization whitepaper, and even OBE; just wanted to document it in a simpler format. I know.. I know.. I have listed 7 points below but point 4 comprises of all the modifications you may want to do in your skins and styles and point 7 is a restart of BI Services. 

1. Copy styles and Skins from C:\Middleware_Home\Oracle_BI1\bifoundation\web\app\res (sk_blafp and s_blafp) to C:\OBIEE_SS
2. Rename these folders to sk_deepak and s_deepak respectively.
3. Copy WEB_INF from C:\Middleware_Home\instances\instance1\bifoundation\OracleBIPresentationServicesComponent\coreapplication_obips1\analyticsRes to C:\OBIEE_SS
4. Make modifications in Skins and Styles. As an example I am replacing oracle_logo.png file with my logo in C:\OBIEE_SS\sk_deepak\b_mozilla_4 and C:\OBIEE_SS\sk_deepak\login folders.
5. Modify instanceconfig.xml (location) file: Insert the following inside ServerInstance tags.
<URL>
<CustomerResourcePhysicalPath>D:\OBIEE11g</CustomerResourcePhysicalPath> <CustomerResourceVirtualPath>/OBIEE11g</CustomerResourceVirtualPath>
</URL>
<UI>
<DefaultStyle>deepak</DefaultStyle>
<DefaultSkin>deepak</DefaultSkin>
</UI>

More information here.

6. Deploy OBIEE_SS as an application directory from Weblogic Admin Console.
  a. Click on Lock and Edit (From Change Center)
  b. From Domain Structure select deployments under bifoundation_domain
  c. Click Install
  d. Select OBIEE_SS folder from path C:\OBIEE_SS and click Next
  e. Select Install this deployment as an application and click Next
  f. Give your deployment a name or keep everything default at this page. Make sure to select I will make the   deployment accessible through the following location and click Finish
  g. Select Take me to deployment configuration page and click Finish
  h. Make sure under target tab you have the Admin Server or BI Server selected and click Save
  i. Click Activate Chnages (From Change Center)
7. Restart BI Services.

Once BI Services are restarted you will see the modifications in Styles and Skins immediately.











Also, you will see the new styles deployed under dashboard properties.











Cheers!
Deepak

12 comments:

  1. Hi Deepak,
    I have a peculiar problem. When I make modification in instanceconfig.xml to include the URL and UI tags, the services doesn't restart. If I remove the modification then it starts. Please let me know what might be the problem.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's probably just in the wrong place. You can add the URL and UI tags successfully at the end, between the close tag for Authentication and the close tag for ServerInstance.

      Delete
  2. can u provide screeen shots please

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Bhargavi,
    Sorry, I don't have screenshots readily available. You should be able to customize your OBI environment by closely following this blog and references I have provided.
    Thanks for the feedback, I will try to include more screenshots in future.
    Cheers!
    Deepak

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Deepak,

    In the begining, you set C:\OBIEE_SS is a path of your folder you want to edit Skins and Styles but in step 5 you choose D:\OBIEE11g. Can you explain why it's not the same path? What is /OBIEE11g ?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Tan Luu,

      Thanks for providing the feedback, it's a typo, step 5 should also be C:\OBIEE_SS. Physical path C:\OBIEE_SS indicates actual location of the Style Sheets. Virtual Path /OBIEE_SS provides the URL which will be added to a file e.g. the image in Step 4 can be located by http://mymachine:9704/OBIEE_SS/sk_deepak/b_mozilla_4/oracle_logo.png

      Hope it helped!

      Cheers!
      Deepak

      Delete
  5. Hi Deepak,

    I can see the custom image on the login page but not on the home page once i login.

    please let me know if I am missing something.

    Thanks,
    Kumar

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi Deepak,

    I can see the custom image on the login page but not on the home page once i login.

    please let me know if I am missing something.

    Thanks,
    Kumar

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Kumar,

      You may need to clear browser cache, try hitting Ctr+F5.

      Cheers!
      Deepak

      Delete
  7. Hi Deepak,

    I tried this and its work fine, but only with Chrome.
    For Firefox and IE this customization is not working, can you suggest.

    Thanks,

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Srinath,

      This is not a browser specific customization and should work with all browsers. Clear all history and cache of Firefox and IE and try again.

      Cheers!
      Deepak

      Delete
  8. Hi,
    I followed the steps but Instead of Admin server I selected only the BIserver1.. services started well but None of the images are getting displayed.. what could be the issue?

    ReplyDelete