Themes and extensions are a great way to customize your Cognos instance.  The overall theme of Cognos can drive user adoption by instilling confidence that the tool was tailor-made for a corporations solution.

In previous versions of Cognos, changing the theme of Cognos was a bit trickier. It would require the source CSS files to be modified, and it also required the SDK.  No longer is that the case. Cognos has provided some sample extensions and seems to get you started.

Let’s take a look at implementing a sample into Cognos.  Note that you will need to have access to the Manage portion of the Cognos Analytics environment.

NOTE:  My installation of Cognos Analytics is at C:\program files\IBM\Cognos\analytics.

Open Manage at the bottom of the Application Bar

 

Select Customization from the Manage list

With the Themes tab selected, click the Upload Theme

Navigate to (Cognos Installation) …\samples (This is where Cognos has built sample themes and extensions for you to explore).

 

Open the Themes folder

Select SampleTheme.zip and select Open in the bottom right corner

 

Once the name “Sample_Theme” shows up in the list, select the radio button and select Apply.

Refresh your browser with F5 or the Refresh button.

Notice that the icon in the browser tab bar may have changed, the coloring of the application bar and navigation bar have changed, and the welcome message in the middle of the work area has changed.

 

Let us also apply a new extension.

Open the Manage menu

Select Customization from the list

Select the Extensions tab at the top

Select Upload Extension

Navigate to (Cognos Installation) …\Samples\extensions

Select SampleWelcome.zip and click open

Once “Sample_Welcome” displays in the extensions list, select the View tab

For the property of Homepage, click Home

In the home page list, select Sample Welcome

Click Apply in the bottom right corner

This change will require you to log out and log back into the Cognos instance

Notice now that our background image has changed, our application bar no longer has a title next to the sample out doors company logo, and our welcome message has changed.

 

Themes and extensions are all modified using JSON, CSS, HTML, and/or JAVA Script.  I hope you found this post helpful. Please contact me at the email address below for issues or other CA 11 inquiries.

Trevor Schulte
Sr. Consultant
tschulte@ecapitaladvisors.com