Introduction to Themes

This documentation is an older version of JasperReports Server Community Project Administrator Guide. View the latest documentation.

The default appearance of the JasperReports Server user interface (UI) can easily be modified to suit your needs.

The UI's appearance is determined by CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). A theme is a collection of CSS files and associated images that specify the appearance for all or part of the UI. A theme controls only the UI's looks, such as fonts, colors, lines, spacing, and images. It has no effect on content or functionality.

Themes are defined globally at the repository root. Only administrators can set the theme. Administrators can add, upload, edit, copy, and delete the files that make up the theme, just like other resources in the repository. The repository allows special actions on theme folders for downloading and uploading themes as ZIP (compressed archive) files, and for activating the theme. Themes are active immediately without needing to restart the server.

Themes are very flexible, allowing administrators to easily change the global appearance. For example, all of the following scenarios are possible with themes:

Scenario	Description
Use the default theme unchanged.	If the default theme suits your needs, there's no need to customize it or develop new themes.
Quickly modify the default theme.	You can specify overrides of individual CSS rules or replace images in the default theme. After creating and uploading the new files, your theme is active immediately.
Create an entirely new theme.	With CSS experience or Jaspersoft Professional Services, you can change the entire look and feel of the server. You can create a custom theme to match or blend with nearly any other web design.