Creating themes

You can override the standard IBM® Cognos® Analytics with Watson theme for the Cognos Analytics user interface to reflect your corporate branding.

A theme is a .zip archive that contains a spec.json file and an images folder. The spec.json file contains the branding instructions for each theme. The images folder contains the graphic images that are associated with the theme. You can give the .zip file a name of your choosing, as long as it does not include underscores ( _ ). Image file names cannot contain spaces. The sample customization, SampleTheme_11_2.zip is an example of a theme. You can modify its contents to create your own custom theme.

Attention:

When you are using a sample theme, you cannot reset your password after it expires.

Your specific theme may consist of a folder such as myTheme that contains a .json file and images folder (containing your graphics). When creating the zip file, do not include the folder (e.g., myTheme) in the zip file; Cognos Analytics will not be able to process it. Instead, select the .json file and images folder, then use an archiving program to create the .zip file. Do not use the Windows Explorer send to compressed folder feature to create the .zip file; the result would be an incompatible file.

The spec.json file that is used with SampleTheme_11_2.zip contains the following text:

{
	"name": "Sample_Theme",
	"schemaVersion": "2.0",
	"brandText": "The Sample Outdoors Company",
	"brandTextSmall": "Sample Outdoors Company",
	"images": {
		"brandIcon": "images/logo_large_white.svg",
		"favicon": "images/logo_fav.png"
	},
	"uiShellTheme": "light",
	"colors": {
		"appbarBackground": "#eeeeee",
		"appbarForeground": "#000000",
		"appbarSelectLine": "#033f38",
		"navbarBackground": "#1c96d4",
		"navbarForeground": "white",
		"navbarSelectLine": "#033f38",
		"appbarPushButtonBackground": "#c8d2d1",
		"navbarPushButtonBackground": "#007670",
		"personalMenuBackground": "inherit"
	}
}

The objects in the spec.json file map to the Cognos Analytics user interface elements. If any theme items are omitted from the theme, then the Cognos Analytics default theme item is used.

This table relates the user interface elements to the JSON objects.

Table 1. Theme objects
JSON description	Definition
`brandText`	Brand text. Enter an empty string to leave this entry blank.
`brandTextSmall`	Small brand text. if omitted, `brandText` is used. Enter an empty string to leave this entry blank.
`brandIcon`	Brand icon
`favicon`	Brand icon to display in web browser tab.
`uiShellTheme`	Allows you to switch between carbon 10 (light) and 100 (dark/default) background
`appbarBackground`	Application bar background color
`appbarForeground`	Application bar foreground color
`appbarSelectLine`	Application bar selection line color
`navbarBackground`	Navigation bar background color
`navbarForeground`	Navigation bar foreground color
`navbarSelectLine`	Navigation bar selection line color
`appbarPushButtonBackground`	Application bar push-button background color
`navbarPushButtonBackground`	Navigation bar push-button background color
`personalMenuBackground`	Specifies the background color of the Personal menu icon