OBIEE uses “Styles” and “Skins” to generate the graphical representation. These can be found in the ..\OracleBI\web\app\res\ directory. On a default install the content of sk_oracle10 and s_oracle10 is used. A lot of people edit directly in these two directories running a huge risk to loose everthing when an update of OBIEE is installed! It’s much safer to make your own "Skin" and "Style directories.

To make a custom “Skin” and “Style”:

1. Make a copy of the sk_Oracle10 and rename it sk_MyCompagny (Capital sensitive) both in ..\OracleBI\web\app\res\ directory and ..\OracleBI\oc4j_bi\j2ee\home\applications\analytics\analytics\res

2. Make a copy of the s_Oracle10 and rename it s_MyCompagny (Capital senstive) both in ..\OracleBI\web\app\res\ directory and ..\OracleBI\oc4j_bi\j2ee\home\applications\analytics\analytics\res

In the instanceconfig.xml file (…\OracleBIDate\web\config\) add between the <ServerInstance> tags:

1. <DefaultStyle>MyCompagny</DefaultStyle> (Case Sensitive)

2. <DefaultSkin>MyCompagny</DefaultSkin> (Case Sensitive)

Copy any pictures you want to use to the directories in both the Web and OC4J_BI skin and style location.

Restart the presentation server, javahost and OC4J_BI (in that order). Or even better restart the whole server.

Since OBIEE and OCJ4_BI sometimes have dominance over each other (not always in the same order). It is good practice to keep the file in both directories the same.

Files to Edit:

A good tutorial on .CSS can be found here:

http://www.w3schools.com/Css/default.asp

Till Next Time

John Minkjan is a senior BI-consultant and OBIEE Product Expert at Ciber in the Netherlands, the text of this article is also published on his personal blog http://obiee101.blogspot.com/