Determining where to save your customizations

When you are customizing IBM® Connections, save your customized files to the appropriate directory to ensure that your customizations override the default settings.

About this task

The base directory where you must store your customizations is defined during installation, when it is saved as an IBM WebSphere® Application Server variable named CONNECTIONS_CUSTOMIZATION_PATH. By default, this variable is set to installDir/data/customization. This customization base directory is referenced as customizationDir throughout the documentation

To determine the location of your customization directory, check the value of the CONNECTIONS_CUSTOMIZATION_PATH variable for your deployment. After you determine the base directory location, you can then identify the subdirectory where you must save your customizations.

Procedure

  1. Log in to the IBM WebSphere Application Server Integrated Solutions Console.
  2. Expand Environment and select WebSphere variables.
  3. Look for CONNECTIONS_CUSTOMIZATION_PATH in the list of variable names and make a note of the value.
    For example:

    /local/IBM/Connections/data/shared/customization

  4. Save your customized files in the appropriate subdirectory of the customization directory:
    • To save customizations that apply to all the applications, copy the file into the common subdirectory:

      customizationDir/common

    • To save customizations that apply to a single application only, copy the file into the subdirectory for that application:
      Table 1. Application-specific customization directories
      Directory path Description
      customizationDir/common Stores files to be applied to all of the applications. You most often copy edited files to this directory.
      customizationDir/activities Stores files to be applied to the Activities user interface only.
      customizationDir/blogs Stores files to be applied to the Blogs user interface only.
      customizationDir/bookmarks Stores files to be applied to the Bookmarks user interface only.
      customizationDir/communities Stores files to be applied to the Communities user interface only.
      customizationDir/files Stores files to be applied to the Files user interface only.
      customizationDir/forums Stores files to be applied to the Forums user interface only.
      customizationDir/homepage Stores files to be applied to the Home page user interface only.
      customizationDir/metrics Stores files to be applied to the Metrics page user interface only.
      customizationDir/moderation Stores files to be applied to the Moderation page user interface only.
      customizationDir/news Stores files to be applied to the News user interface only.
      customizationDir/profiles Stores files to be applied to the Profiles user interface only.
      customizationDir/search Stores files to be applied to the Advanced Search user interface only.
      customizationDir/wikis Stores files to be applied to the Wikis user interface only.
      Note: Footers for Community widgets are controlled within the Communities subdirectory. With the exception of Blogs and Wikis which are controlled from their respective application subdirectories.
      The following table identifies where to store customized versions of files when the customizations apply to all the applications.
      Table 2. Directory location for common customization targets
      Directory path Description
      customizationDir/themes/<theme_name>Theme/custom.css
      Note: Each theme, for example: "red", "green", "onyx", "gen4", "hikari", (the default theme) has a theme customization folder called customizationDir/themes/<theme_name>Theme/. So the customization folder for the hikari theme is customizationDir/themes/hikariTheme/.
      		 Customized styles
      customizationDir/themes/<theme_name>Theme/defaultTheme.css Customized themes
      customizationDir/common/nav/templates/login.jsp Customized login page
      customizationDir/common/nav/templates/footer.jsp Customized footer file
      customizationDir/common/nav/templates/error.jsp Customized error page
      customizationDir/themes/images Customized images
      The following table identifies where to store application-specific versions of customized CSS files:
      Table 3. Application-specific CSS files
      File name and file path Description
      customizationDir/themes/theme/applications/activities.css Customized styles for Activities.
      customizationDir/themes/theme/applications/blogs.css Customized styles for Blogs.
      customizationDir/themes/theme/applications/dogear.css Customized styles for Bookmarks.
      customizationDir/themes/theme/applications/bookmarklet.css Customized styles for the Bookmarklet.
      customizationDir/themes/theme/applications/communities.css Customized styles for Communities.
      customizationDir/themes/theme/applications/files.css Customized styles for Files.
      customizationDir/themes/theme/applications/forums.css Customized styles for Forums.
      customizationDir/themes/theme/applications/homepage.css Customized styles for the Home page.
      customizationDir/themes/theme/applications/metrics.css Customized styles for Metrics.
      customizationDir/themes/theme/applications/moderation.css Customized styles for Moderation.
      customizationDir/themes/theme/applications/news.css Customized styles for News.
      customizationDir/themes/theme/applications/profiles.css Customized styles for Profiles.
      customizationDir/themes/theme/applications/wikis.css Customized styles for Wikis.
    Notes:
    • Where theme is the name of the themes that are available for each application. For example: redTheme, goldTheme, and so on.
    • When you select the Coffee theme in the UI, the goldTheme is invoked. There is no coffeeTheme in the CSS files.
    • Right-to-left themes are specified in the applicationRTL.css files, where application represents one of the IBM Connections applications. For example: activitiesRTL.css.
    • For information about where to save customized application properties files, see the Property file strings topic.
    • For information about where to save customized JavaScript™ files, see the JavaScript resource strings topic.