Replacing the Default Theme
In general, we recommend creating new themes with CSS and image files that override those of the provided default theme. However, there may be cases where the default theme must be replaced.
|
|
The <js-webapp>/themes folder contains a copy of the default theme and other sample themes. These files are provided as examples for copying and creating new themes. Even though these theme files appear in the source code and in the deployed web application, they are never used to render the UI. Although it's possible to configure the server to load the theme from files, this disables the dynamic theme mechanism and has other effects. We do not recommend such a configuration. |
Like all themes, the default theme is stored in the repository, in the server’s private database. The theme’s propagation and inheritance will work only if the theme files exist in the repository before the server is started. You can achieve this two ways:
| • | Use the import utility to import your theme as the default root theme while the server is stopped (the repository database must be running). In commercial editions that have the organizations architecture, when the server restarts, it propagates your new default theme to all other theme folders. |
| • | Insert your default theme during installation. During installation, there are scripts or manual commands that create the repository database and populate it with the initial contents by performing an import before the server starts. Those initial contents include the default root theme. If you're proficient with buildomatic commands and database initialization, you can locate the files used to populate the repository and insert your own default theme. |
In both cases, you must create a valid repository catalog containing your custom theme in the /Themes/default folder of the catalog. Your catalog must contain the valid XML description for each of the files, for example by exporting a copy of your theme and renaming contents of the exported catalog. The details of changing the default theme through either of these methods is beyond the scope of this guide.
|
|
Creating a default theme is difficult and prone to error:
|
