in the c8_location/webcontent/skins directory.
The style can be either a modified version of an existing predefined
style or
your own custom style .You can make the following global changes to the appearance of all Cognos 8 components:
You can change the appearance of all the product component
interfaces by using a different style in the c8_location/webcontent/skins directory.
The style can be either a modified version of an existing predefined
style or
your own custom style .
The Cognos 8 predefined styles include:
business
classic
contemporary
corporate (product default)
modern
presentation
windows
Note: The windows style is used only with Report Studio. It adopts the display scheme specified by the Windows settings. This style must not be modified and none of the customization techniques described in this document apply to it.
Each style has separate directories for the following components:
Cognos Connection (job scheduling and query setting defaults)
Report Studio (toolbox and preview window)
Query Studio (filter dialogs and prompt pages)
Cognos Viewer (reports and prompt pages)
Analysis Studio
Event Studio
You can modify an existing style, including the predefined styles, so that it matches your organization Web interface.
You can
change colors, fonts, images, and some layout properties.
Modify the associated style sheets in the c8_location/webcontent/skins/style directory.
Rename the styles using Cognos Administration so
that the names are more appropriate for your environment .
Rename the style directories in the c8_location/webcontent/skins directory.
Do not rename the corporate directory .
You can create a custom style and make it available in Cognos 8.
We recommend that you use the existing style resources as a starting point. Change the style sheets, graphics, and fonts as required, but ensure that the structure of the custom style directory matches the structure of the predefined styles directories.
In the c8_location/webcontent/skins directory, make a copy of an existing style directory.
Rename the copied directory.
In the new directory, modify the style sheets, graphics, or fonts as required.
In Cognos Administration, add a new
style object and associate it with the style directory created in step
2.
Corporate is the default style in Cognos 8. It is used when no other suitable style can be found, for example, at logon time when the user identity is unknown. A reference to the corporate directory is hard-coded in the product and this directory must always exist in the c8_location/webcontent/skins directory.
When you customize the styles, do not rename the corporate directory.
However, you can modify the style sheets it contains to apply your
company look and feel to the style this directory is associated
with. You can also rename the corporate style object so that the
name corporate does not appear in the user interface .
You can rebrand the product by globally replacing all instances of the Cognos name and logo with new text and appropriate brand images. Cognos resellers and partners may use a brand-neutral version of the Cognos 8 splash screen image.
Graphics for Cognos 8 are created using a Web-safe color palette. They are saved as non-interlaced GIF files. All interface icons are created with a transparent background, shown as the color Magenta.
The brand-related graphics are grouped together in a directory
named c8_location/webcontent/skins/style/branding
where style represents each style directory . Depending on the style
you use, you change the graphics in the associated style directories.
You can replace individual Cognos 8 images, which are generally GIF files, with alternatives of a more suitable size or design. However, be careful when replacing similar-looking logos and icons. For example, the nested-square logo used to brand the Web portal (banner_cogsquare.gif) is not the same as the nested-square logo used in the About box (about.gif).
To help you locate the correct graphics, note that those used with the product components typically have file names beginning with the prefix tools_. This differentiates them from object or action-related graphics, which typically have file names beginning with the prefix icon_.
Tip: To change the text in a graphic, such as the acronym BI, open the relevant file in a graphics editor, replace the text, and resave the graphic in .GIF format.
You can change the names of Cognos 8 components and modify the accompanying text messages by opening the relevant message file in a text editor and performing a search-and-replace on the text strings and calls you want to change. The message files are located in the c8_location/msgsdk directory. For changes to take effect, you must restart the Cognos 8 service.
You can add your own custom messages, such as reseller copyright information, to the existing text in the About box. However, note that you are legally required to maintain the existing Cognos copyright notice.
When you are finished making global text changes, we recommend that you check them in all the interfaces exposed to your users. Pay particular attention to browser page captions and generic dialog boxes, which are easy to miss.
Cognos 8 style sheets specify text fonts that are suitable for UTF-8-encoded text. Relative font sizes are specified for interface text elements. Point sizes are specified for report text elements and form controls (input fields).
All text strings except the banner, company, and portal strings are language-sensitive. However, no banner string is used in Cognos Connection.
You can change the fonts used in Cognos 8 by modifying
the font-family list in the file c8_location/webcontent/skins/style/fonts.css
where style represents the style directory . Modify the fonts.css
file associated with the style you want.
For example, you can change the default font used on all HTML interfaces, except Report Studio, to one more suited to rendering special Asian characters. Open the file fonts.css in a text editor, comment out the section that shows Tahoma as the first item in the font-family list, and then remove the comment from an entry that better meets your Unicode requirements.
Note: Font changes do not apply to Report Studio, which
has a separate font-setting style sheet .
To globally change the default styles used for Cognos 8 reports, you can modify styles in the GlobalReportStyles.css file located in two directories, c8_location/bin and c8_location/webcontent/schemas. The file in the bin directory is used for PDF and Excel outputs, and the file in the webcontent directory is used for HTML output. The files in both directories must be modified to ensure that reports are rendered properly on both the server and the client systems. In a multiple server configuration, the style sheets on all systems must be modified. On the Cognos 8 server system, this is the file in the c8_location/bin directory. On the Web server systems, this is the file in the c8_location/webcontent/schemas directory. For example, if you have 2 Cognos 8 servers and 3 Web servers, you must update 5 copies of the GlobalReportStyles.css file.
You can also add styles to this style sheet; however, a simpler alternative is to add a style to a template in Report Studio.
Any changes you make to this style sheet are lost if you reinstall or upgrade Cognos 8. If this happens, you must reapply your changes. For more information, see Migrating Changes to Future Releases
Both Report Studio and Query Studio use the GlobalReportStyles.css file to assign classes to report objects. Query Studio does not expose these classes. However, you can use Report Studio or the SDK to modify the class property of any report object. For example, if you create a default report and then click the title, the class property appears as Report Title Text. You can change this property as required.
If you decide to modify the GlobalReportStyles.css file, you must be aware that the class names that appear in Report Studio are multilingual and defined in the Report Studio resource files. Instead of modifying this style sheet, it may be simpler to add a new style into your report.
For more information about creating or modifying class styles, see the Report Studio User Guide.
When you work directly with an XML report specification, you can manually set the style of the object. For example, you can edit the report title, which may appear as follows:
<textItem class="reportTitleText"> <text> My report title </text> </textItem>
For more information about modifying styles in a report specification, see the Developer Guide.
Cognos 8 does not automatically preserve changes made to style sheets and other customization-related files. We recommend that you keep a careful record of your changes. Otherwise, you may inadvertently lose them during migration to a newer version of the product.
