Look and Feel of the User Interface
An easy way to customize your geoportal is to change its text, graphics, and color scheme. Instructions are in the sections below
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Customize the geoportal interface text
Most of the text for the geoportal interface is managed in the gpt.properties file in the \\geoportal\WEB-INF\classes\gpt\resources folder. The text seen on the interface is associated with a unique identifying 'bean', which maps it to a resource key in gpt.properties. It is important to review the text in gpt.properties and update it according to your organization's geoportal implementation. To find out what text in the interface is mapped to what resource key in gpt.properties, do the following:
- Open the body.jsp file associated with the web page that you want to change. These files are stored in \\geoportal\catalog\content. In this example, we will open the aboutBody.jsp file and alter text on the About page.
- Notice where the bean text is located. It is often indicated by a preceding 'value="#{gptMsg' string. In aboutBody.jsp, there are two beans referenced. In this example, the second one will be updated. This resource key (catalog.content.about.statement), contains text that will display on the About page describing your organization's geoportal implementation.
- Navigate to \\geoportal\WEB-INF\classes\gpt\resources and open gpt.properties.
- Search for the resource key catalog.content.about.statement. You should see an entry like the following:
catalog.content.about.statement = \
\<p>
\customize this text to describe your organization's geoportal implementation
\</p>- Change the text after the = sign to include appropriate text for your organization's geoportal.
- Save gpt.properties.
- Refresh the web page, click on the About link at the top, and see that the page has been updated. If other jsp pages referenced the resource key catalog.content.about.statement, those pages would be updated with your new text in the geoportal interface as well. The bean references are useful for quickly updating text used throughout the geoportal user interface.
- Verify that you have updated text associated with the Privacy, and Disclaimer pages. These pages are easy to overlook.
Change the default color theme to another pre-defined one
The \\geoportal\catalog\skins\themes directory contains 2 sub-folders: blue and red. Note, you can also access additional themes from other users in the Theme Library. The active color theme is referenced in \\geoportal\catalog\skins\lookAndFeel.jsp. By default, the active theme is the red theme. The simplest customization is to change from one pre-defined color theme to another - for example, from the red theme to the blue one.
- Navigate to \\geoportal\catalog\skins.
- Open lookAndFeel.jsp.
- Notice there are three <link rel="stylesheet" ...> tags.
- The first (...\tundra.css) defines the stylesheet reference for the Browse tab and some other functionalities within the geoportal web application. There is no need to alter this \tundra.css location
- The second <link rel="stylesheet" ...> tag sets the location of the main.css, which defines the color scheme for the geoportal interface.
- The third <link rel="stylesheet" ...> tag sets the location of the preview.css, defining the color scheme for the Preview functionality.
- By default, the main and preview stylesheets are set to reference stylesheets in the red theme folder. When you change these to reference the blue folder, the geoportal interface and Preview function will be displayed according to styles in the blue theme folder. Change these references to point to the blue folder, as shown below:
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"
href="<%=request.getContextPath()%>/catalog/skins/themes/blue/main.css"/>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"
href="<%=request.getContextPath()%>/catalog/skins/themes/blue/preview.css"/>- Save the lookAndFeel.jsp file.
- Restart the geoportal web application for your changes to take effect.
Create a custom theme
The simplest way to create your own color theme is to use one of the pre-defined themes as a base and edit it. Make a copy of one of the pre-defined themes that are available out-of-the-box and modify its images and class definitions, as described in the steps below.
- Navigate to the \\geoportal\catalog\skins\themes folder.
- Copy the red folder into the same directory, giving it a new name (e.g., "green")
- In your newly named folder, open main.css and modify it to define new styling
- Open the preview.css and modify it as well to define styling. This preview.css file defines styles for the geoportal live services previewing page.
- Open the images directory in your new folder, and replace any of the images with your own.
To change the banner, you can do either of the following:
- Name your banner image 'banner.jpg', and copy it into this image folder, thus overwriting the default banner.jpg file.
- If your banner image has a different name, you can find the reference to the banner.jpg file in the main.css file, and change it to match the name of your banner image.
- Follow the steps in the Change the default color theme to another pre-defined one topic above to reference your new theme in lookAndFeel.jsp.
- (Optional) Contribute your customized theme to the Theme Library if you'd like other users to be able to build from your work.
Switch the default favicon
A favicon allows users to quickly distinguish the geoportal web page from other webpages in a list of favorites or tabs they may have open in a browser. Most web browsers will use a favicon, and where it is displayed may vary depending on the browser.
By default, the geoportal uses a favicon that looks like the ESRI globe logo. Likely, your organization will want to implement its own favicon. The steps to switch the favicon to one that better suits your organization are described below.
- Navigate to \\geoportal\catalog\skins and open lookAndFeel.jsp.
- There are two parameters that define the favicon in this file, both shown below. You do not need to alter these lines, but do note that the geoportal is looking for a favicon called favicon.ico. If your new favicon image has a different name, you can either change the name of your image to favicon.ico, or alter lookAndFeel.jsp with the name of your image.
<link rel="icon" type="image/x-icon"
href="<%=request.getContextPath()%>/catalog/images/favicon.ico" />
<link rel="shortcut icon" type="image/x-icon"
href="<%=request.getContextPath()%>/catalog/images/favicon.ico" />- Navigate to \\geoportal\catalog\images.
- Replace the favicon.ico file in this folder with your image.
- Restart your geoportal web application.
- Most browsers keep favicons in a cache. Users will have to clear their browser cache to see the new favicon.
Add a clickable icon to the banner
Perhaps you'd like users to be able to click on your geoportal's banner and be directed to another page - for example, the homepage for your sponsoring organization. Follow instructions below:
- Open the \\geoportal\catalog\skins\tiles\banner.jsp file
- Find the div tag with the id="gptTitle"
- Add an href and an img just after this div as shown below, but updating the href,id, and src values to the URL of interest, a unique id of your choosing, and an image URL that is accessible to your geoportal web application:
<a href="http://www.esri.com"><img id="bannerclick" src="http://web-accessible-location/imagename.png" /></a>
- Note that you may have to adjust or delete the tag that calls the text that displays over the geoportal banner.
- Save the banner.jsp file.
- Restart your geoportal web application. Now, you should see your image overlaid on the banner, and it should be clickable for your URL.
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