Web Intelligence Hack: Updating the color palette for a single report

SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0 allows you to define a custom corporate color palette for use with Web Intelligence charts. To begin, modify …\SAP BusinessObjects\SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 4.0\images\VisualizationConfig.template.xml then save it as VisualizationConfig.xml in the images folder and restart the web application server (Apache Tomcat, et. al.) so the changes take effect.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<CONFIG>
 <!-- Rename this file to VisualizationConfig.xml which will activate a 
      custom default palette. -->
 <!-- The following section allows to define a corporate palette which 
      will be used by default in all new visualization. -->
 <!-- TOMCAT must be restarted after each modification of this file -->
 <PALETTES>
 <PALETTE ID="corporate">
 <!-- Add a list of colors so as to define your palette 
     (default palettes contains 32 colors): R for Red, G for Green, 
      B for Blue and A for managing the transparency-->
 <!-- Each attributes must take an integer value from 0 to 255 -->
 <!-- The palette ID should not be changed. -->
 <COLOR R="77" G="145" B="208" A="255" />
 <COLOR R="212" G="85" B="76" A="255" />
 <COLOR R="169" G="201" B="90" A="255" />
 <COLOR R="0" G="0" B="0" A="255" />
 <COLOR R="200" G="200" B="200" A="255" />
 <COLOR R="125" G="125" B="0" A="255" />
 <COLOR R="0" G="125" B="125" A="255" />
 <COLOR R="125" G="0" B="125" A="255" />
 <COLOR R="200" G="0" B="0" A="255" />
 <COLOR R="0" G="200" B="0" A="255" />
 <COLOR R="0" G="0" B="200" A="255" />
 <COLOR R="0" G="0" B="0" A="255" />
 <COLOR R="200" G="200" B="200" A="255" />
 <COLOR R="125" G="125" B="0" A="255" />
 <COLOR R="0" G="125" B="125" A="255" />
 <COLOR R="125" G="0" B="125" A="255" />
 <COLOR R="200" G="0" B="0" A="255" />
 <COLOR R="0" G="200" B="0" A="255" />
 <COLOR R="0" G="0" B="200" A="255" />
 <COLOR R="0" G="0" B="0" A="255" />
 <COLOR R="200" G="200" B="200" A="255" />
 <COLOR R="125" G="125" B="0" A="255" />
 <COLOR R="0" G="125" B="125" A="255" />
 <COLOR R="125" G="0" B="125" A="255" />
 <COLOR R="200" G="0" B="0" A="255" />
 <COLOR R="0" G="200" B="0" A="255" />
 <COLOR R="0" G="0" B="200" A="255" />
 <COLOR R="0" G="0" B="0" A="255" />
 <COLOR R="200" G="200" B="200" A="255" />
 <COLOR R="125" G="125" B="0" A="255" />
 <COLOR R="0" G="125" B="125" A="255" />
 <COLOR R="125" G="0" B="125" A="255" />
 </PALETTE>
 </PALETTES>
</CONFIG>

This creates a new palette option called: Corporate Palette

There are two potential drawbacks with this approach

The same corporate palette is used by everyone on the BI4 server
Typically requires an administrator to make the configuration updates and requires a bounce to make the change take effect.

So now it’s time to hack this to only update a single report.

Instead of updating the VisualizationConfig.xml on the server if you have the Web Intelligence Rich Client installed you modify your local VisualizationConfig.xml in the images folder on your machine.
Open the report in the Web Intelligence Rich Client.
Apply the corporate palette to the graphs in your report
Save the report back to the server

Now when you open the report on the server it will have the palette you created on your machine. If you look at the chart properties it will now say Legacy Palette instead of Corporate Palette.

Warning: if you change the palette you will not be able to change it back unless you open it again with the Web Intelligence Rich Client.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply