Applies to: PROJECT in a box 2.8
The PIAB client can be customised by modifying the templates you use to create projects. Options include:
These templates are stored on the server in the 'template2.0' folder. Please see the 'Method Manager' program for full details.
The server contains a pack of Client Support Files in the 'piabws\customcontent\clientsupportfiles' folder. These are distributed to each PIAB client on login, and are unpacked to the user's Windows profile. They include:
If these files are changed on the server, then they will normally be distributed automatically to the PIAB client, as well as some being used the hub. In addition, with Admin permissions, clients can make local changes and upload them to the server e.g. to change reporting templates for everyone.
Alternatively, changes to this pack can be simply placed in directly in the server folder.
PIAB uses XSL and CSS template to convert project and portfolio XML data into HTML and MHTML reports for display. For the ordinary PIAB user, reporting configuration options are limited to including or excluding blocks of information. For the administrator, there is great flexibility to customise the reporting XSL/CSS to change not only the look and feel, but also the report structures or to post-process results.
Simple customisations e.g. changing colour schemes and logos can be done with minimal knowledge of CSS. More complex customisations e.g. changing report structures requires a knowledge of the XSL language that is beyond the scope of this document. Please contact us if you require help on this topic.
Common Customisations
Item | Description |
---|---|
clientsupportfiles\xsl\support\logo.jpg | The logo used report headers (350×48). |
clientsupportfiles\xsl\support\dashboard.jpg | The logo used in the Dashboard Report header (350×48). |
clientsupportfiles\xsl\support\report.css | The main CSS stylesheet for reporting. |
clientsupportfiles\xsl\support\msp.css | A CSS stylesheet used to display planning information. |
clientsupportfiles\xsl\support\<name>-<value>.png | RAG images for e.g. project status icons (see below for details of the naming convention). |
In PIAB client, there is a 'Method Picker' button that opens a spreadsheet showing guidance on which method template to use when creating a new project. This spreadsheet is stored on the server in the 'piabws\etc' folder.
By default the spreadsheet is called 'method-picker.xls'. You can edit this file, or provide your own. If you want to change the name, then you can set the name in the server config file 'piabws.cfg' using the following:
<clientoptions> <p2abcmethodpicker>etc/method-picker.xls</p2abcmethodpicker> </clientoptions>
You can customise the look and feel of the Enterprise Hub to fit with your organisation's schemes: colours, fonts, logos etc. The key elements for content customisation are in the 'piabws\customcontent' folder:
Item | Description |
---|---|
Styles.css | The default CSS stylesheet. |
Styles.nnn.css | Alternative stylesheets for specific browsers (see below). |
include-default.welcome.inc | HTML Content for the welcome message on the Home page. |
include-default.client-download.inc | HTML Content for the client download panel on the Home page. |
include-header.inc | HTML Content for the header banner. |
include-resources.left.inc | HTML Content for the left hand panel of the Resources page. |
include-resources.right.inc | HTML Content for the right hand panel of the Resources page. |
include-mainmenu.config | An XML file allowing you to modify the hub main menu. |
images | A folder containing hub specific customisable images. |
rag-images | A folder containing e.g. status flag images. |
clientsupportfiles | A pack of customisable images, report styles etc. for distribution to each PIAB client. |
The CSS style sheet for the application is 'piabws\customcontent\Styles.css'. Some alternative stylesheets are included with the distribution or you may copy/modify the default one. The web application examines the type and version of browser being used to view, and can switch the stylesheet used based on this. The rules are:
The browser-specific stylesheets are named according to the convention:
Styles.<browser type>_<version>.css
or
Styles.<browser_type>.css
Note that the <version> part is optional. Some browsers report their version as part of browser type, in which case the version part is redundant. An example for IE6 is:
Styles.ie6_6.0.css
or
Styles.ie6.css
You can see the reported browser type and version, and the current stylesheet in use in the Hub's 'About' page.
Various customisable images for different colour schemes are in the 'piabws\customcontent\images' folder. In particular, the home page background and hub logo can be changed.
Image | Description |
---|---|
home-page-background.jpg | Background Image for the home page (800×600 pixels) |
hub-logo.jpg | Logo for the hub header (350×40 pixels) |
button-background.png | Background image for buttons (8×32 pixels) (repeated) |
panel1-background.png | Background image for the header of panels (8×32 pixels) (repeated) |
Status flags and other icons are stored in the 'customcontent\rag-images' folder. Note that the 'clientsupportfiles' contains a similar folder for use in the client. These are normally synchronised with images used by the client, so that the hub and client show the same images. These are named according to the convention:
<name>-<value>.png
Where <name> is the name of a portfolio or project attribute e.g.'status' and <value> is one of the applicable values e.g. 'exception'. For example, the following image would be shown against a project that has its 'status' attribute set to 'exception':
status-exception.png
This XML file allows you to modify and extend the main menu shown in the Enterprise Hub. The options are:
Example:
<mainmenu> <extraitems> <item url="http://myintranet/" name="Intranet Home" target=""/> </extraitems> <aliases> <alias from="Home" to="PIAB Home"/> </aliases> </mainmenu>