You can control the representation of your Performance Dashboard by using particular style templates and user-defined graphics.
The representation of the items displayed in your dashboard (process groups, processes and queries) is defined in two XML files. The item-specific data, e.g., position data, is edited using Dashboard Builder and managed in the file _properties.xml. Generally applicable data, e.g., colors, margins and character sets, is defined in style templates in the file styles.xml and is assigned to particular items using Dashboard Builder.
Warning
The configuration file *_properties.xml of a dashboard is managed in Dashboard Builder and may not be edited manually.
The effective _styles file for your Performance Dashboard (see Specific style definition chapter) determines the number of style templates available for designing your dashboard.
A style template is defined in the styletemplate XML element for a particular interface type (process group, process and query) with a freely selectable name and comprises several style definitions. The name specified for a style template using the name XML attribute is displayed in Dashboard Builder in the list of available style templates for the item you are currently editing.
A style definition has a particular name (name XML attribute) and various attributes that determine the format.
The _style XML file has the following structure:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<styletemplates>
<styletemplate type="processgroup" name="...">
<styledeclaration name="..."
backgroundColor="0xffffff"
...
/>
...
</styletemplate>
...
<styletemplate type="process" name="...">
<styledeclaration name="..."
horizontalAlign="center"
...
/>
...
</styletemplate>
...
<styletemplate type="query" name="...">
<styledeclaration name="..."
fontFamily="universCondensed"
...
/>
...
</styletemplate>
...
</styletemplates>
To add new style templates, it is advisable to copy the XML definition for an existing style template of the required type in the file and then adapt it. To duplicate a style template, you must at least specify a unique value for the name XML attribute.
The first style template specified for a particular interface type in the style file is used as the default if no style template has been specified for the corresponding interface item. This is the case by default when you are using a dashboard configuration created with ARIS Design Platform for the first time or if you have added new items to your process environment.
Example
You want to change the background color and font for the Management processes main process group in the demo database. The new background color is to be red and the title displayed in bold with a font size of 18.
Procedure:
- Value of the backgroundColor="0xFFA0A8" attribute
- Value of the fontSize="18" attribute
Adapt global filter elements
If you want to adapt particular global elements of your dashboard, you can copy their style definitions from the global style definition file _common_dashboard_styles.xml to the specific style definition file of your dashboard (<dashboard name>_styles.xml) and customize them. When copying, please make sure that the copied style definitions (styledeclaration XML elements) are placed directly under the styletemplates root element.
Specific style definitions of global elements of a dashboard overwrite the global style definitions when loading the corresponding dashboard. To restore the appearance of the global style definition it is not enough to load a dashboard without specific style definitions of global elements or re-query the dashboard list. You can only restore the appearance of global elements as defined in the _common_dashboard_styles.xml style definition file by logging in again. If you want to use specific style definitions of global elements we recommend that you copy the preferred style templates of global elements to all dashboard-specific style definition files and make adaptations only in the style definition files of those dashboards whose appearance you want to change.