Deploying and registering your theme | HCL Digital Experience

After you copy your static and dynamic theme resources and modify your dynamic resource references, you are ready to deploy and register your theme on the server.

Procedure

  1. Navigate to the CustomThemeEAR project that you created when you copied your static theme and skin resources. Right-click on the project and select Export > EAR file.
  2. Click Browse, then select the folder to which you want to export your EAR file.
  3. Click Save, then click Finish.
  4. Log on to the WebSphere® Integrated Solutions Console and click Applications > Application Types > WebSphere Enterprise Applications.
  5. Click Install.
  6. Click Browse. Then, find and select the EAR file that you exported and click Next.
  7. Select Fast Path. Then, expand Choose, select Generate Default Bindings, and click Next.
  8. Select your installation option values and click Next.
  9. For Map Modules to Servers, select the custom theme module. Then, select server=HCL Portal and HCL Web Content Manager and click Apply > Next.
  10. Click Finish.
  11. When the EAR file is installed, click Save directly to the master configuration.
  12. Check your CustomThemeEAR file in the table of enterprise applications and click Start.
  13. In the PortalServer_root\bin directory, create the file input.xml with the following contents: 
    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<request xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation="PortalConfig_8.5.0.xsd"
type="export">
   <portal action="locate">
      <skin action="export" objectid="*" />
      <theme action="export" objectid="*" />
   </portal>
</request>
  14. From the command line, change to the PortalServer_root\bin directory and run the following XMLAccess command to export all skin and theme definitions to the file registerTheme.xml: 
    xmlaccess -user <admin userid> -password <admin password> -url
<hostname>:10039/wps/config -in input.xml -out registerTheme.xml
  15. Find the Portal 8.5 - Hidden skin in the file registerTheme.xml and delete all other skins.
  16. Make the following modifications to the Portal 8.5 - Hidden skin:
    1. Delete the objectid.
    2. Set the correct context-root, resourceroot, uniquename, title, and com.ibm.portal.skin.template.ref parameter for your skin.
    3. Set default to false in the following code block: 
      <skin action="update" active="true" context-root="/customTheme"
default="false" domain="rel" resourceroot="customSkin"
type="default" uniquename="customSkin">
...
<localedata locale="en">
<title>Custom Skin</title>
</localedata>
...
<parameter name="com.ibm.portal.skin.template.ref" type="string"
update="set"><!
[CDATA[war:customThemeStatic/themes/customTheme/skins/customSkin/]
]></parameter>
  17. Find the Portal 8.5 theme in the registerTheme.xml file and delete all other themes.
  18. Make the following modifications to the Portal 8.5 theme:
    1. Delete the objectid.
    2. Set the correct context-root, uniquename, title, com.ibm.portal.theme.template.ref, and com.ibm.portal.layout.template.ref parameters for your theme.
    3. In the following code block, set default to false, and defaultskinref and the first occurrence of allowed-skin to the unique name of your custom skin. Delete all other allowed-skin entries. 
      <theme action="update" active="true" context-root="/customTheme"
default="false" defaultskinref="customSkin" domain="rel"
resourceroot="dynamicSpots" uniquename="customTheme">
...
<localedata locale="en"> <title>Custom
Theme</title> <description>My custom theme copied
from the Portal 8.5 theme.</description>
</localedata>
...
<allowed-skin skin="customSkin" update="set"/>
...
<parameter name="com.ibm.portal.theme.template.ref" type="string"
update="set"><!
[CDATA[war:customThemeStatic/themes/customTheme/]]></parameter>
...
<parameter name="com.ibm.portal.layout.template.href"
type="string" update="set"><!
[CDATA[war:customThemeStatic/themes/customTheme/layouttemplates/
TopColumn2ColumnUnequal/]]></parameter>
  19. Save all of your changes in the registerTheme.xml file. Then, from the command line, run the following XMLAccess command to register your theme and skin in the PortalServer_root\bin directory: 
    xmlaccess -user <admin userid> -password <admin password> -url
<hostname>:10039/wps/config -in registerTheme.xml -out output.xml
  20. From the command line, run the following XMLAccess command to export all of the theme and skin definitions again to the file output2.xml: 
    xmlaccess -user admin userid -password admin password -url
hostname:10039/wps/config -in input.xml -out output2.xml
  21. Edit the output2.xml file to verify that your theme and skin updates are correct. Then, delete the input.xml, output.xml, and output2.xml files.
  22. Save the file registerTheme.xml. You can use this XML file to register your custom theme and skin in the future.

What to do next

Your theme is now available for use on your portal. To verify, create a page, edit the page properties, and assign your theme to the page.
Note: Your custom theme includes ready-to-use modules that are shared across themes and intentionally remain uncopied in the Theme Modules web application. The Theme Modules web application and the web application for your theme must remain started for your theme to operate.