Dashboard Navigation Tips

Some common designs for Dashboard navigation include:

1. Spreading content across Dashboard pages and letting the user navigate to each page
2. Linking Dashboards to specific reports
3. Linking Dashboard pages to other Dashboard pages (sometimes to hidden pages in the same Dashboard)

These are just some of the options, but when deciding which is best, there are a few things to consider. First off, I prefer option 2 (linking Dashboards to Reports) as opposed to Option 3 (linking Dashboards to Dashboards), simply because OBIEE will automatically create a "Return" link on the target Report, whereas no such link will appear on a target Dashboard. This link allows the user to navigate back to the original Dashboard with all of the prompts set (i.e. the original source page contains the user's settings, not the defaults). I am not aware of any easy way to achieve this same return navigation for a target Dashboard. Of course the user could press the browser's back button to return to the original Dashboard, but this method seems to have unpredictable and sometimes incomplete results (for example, in some IE browsers users have experienced issues when using the back button whereby charts do not display or other data "freezes", so the back button is definitely not the preferred method).

Either way, when implementing option 2 or 3, I often use Navigation Targets (these are set under Column Heading Interaction or Value Interaction in the Column Properties). Navigation Targets are useful because they allow you to link from a source Dashboard/Report to another target Dashboard/Report and this type of navigation also passes prompt values from the source to the target. Passing prompt values is the default behavior and I am not aware of any way to turn this off; however, there is a nice trick to avoid this behavior if you do not want the source prompt values to override filters in the target - the trick is, for any prompted column that the source and target have in common and that should not have prompt values passed, simply create a duplicate presentation column with the same name (and logical mapping) and place it under a different presentation folder. For example, if my source Dashboard contains a prompted column called Year, and so does my target report, but I want my target report to always contain a hardcoded filter of Year = 2008, then simply create a duplicate Year column in the presentation layer and place it under a different presentation folder (sometimes I create a folder called "FOR DEVELOPER USE ONLY" and set its permissions to hide it from front end users). Set the source report to use the original Year column and the target report to use the duplicate Year column. Even though the column names are the same in the source and target, OBIEE will recognize these columns as distinct since they are in different folders, and therefore, the source prompt value will not override the target filter (and this is seemless to the end user).

One last tip - be careful with Navigation Targets because 1) I find that their behavior is not always intuitive to the end user, especially when linked from charts and 2) be aware that if you use Value Interaction with Navigation Targets, then the actual value that a user clicks on will be passed to the target as part of the filter criteria. If you simply want to provide a text link from a source to a target without passing prompt values, then you can use basic HTML and a hardcoded URL for the target report/Dashboard. However, if you want to provide a text link (as opposed to a Navigation Target embedded in a table/chart), and you DO want to pass prompt values, then you could actually accomplish this with another trick - you can still use Navigation Targets but just create a dummy report, with one real colum and one dummy column. Hide the real column and design the report so that it only returns one row. Also hide the column headings. Then create a Navigation Target under the Value Interaction for the dummy column. Set the dummy column to a constant, such as a description of the target. The final result which displays on the dashboard just resembles a regular text link but it contains the OBIEE built-in Navigation Target functionality which will link to the target and pass the prompt values, so you get the best of both worlds!

Branding - Dashboard Page Tabs

One of the most dramatic changes you can make to the dashboard design is the Page Tab color. In my opinion, this is where you really start geting the impression you’re working with a truly customized version of the software. I say this assuming there has already been a significant amount of customization done on the dashboard header. There has to be some level of congruence maintained. Modifying the page tabs, without a previously customizing the header to match would make it seem awkward and out of place.


Unfortunately, it’s not a simple process. There are multiple image files that need to be changed, consistencies that need to be maintained between these image files, and a handful of HTML modifications to go with it.
Fortunately, I know exactly what needs to be done… and plan to share it with you now.

Before you begin, you’ll need to choose a color for your “selected” an “not-selected” tabs. I suggest sticking with the “out of the box” theme of having your selected tab the same tone, but a slightly darker shade than the unselected tabs. Each tab (selected and not-selected) is made up of 2 images each, making a total of 4 image modification necessary to complete this task. Be sure to make copies of the original image files so you can revert back in the event of a mistake.

1. Open the file “bg_tab.gif” using an image editing software like Photoshop, or Fireworks.

2. Adjust the Hue, Contrast, and Lightness settings until you achieve your desired “Selected” tab color (be sure to document the exact setting adjustments as you’ll need them in the next step. Save the file.

3. Open the file “subtabr.gif” and apply the EXACT same setting adjustments made in step 2. Save the file.

4. Repeat steps 1-3 with the files “bg_dim_tab.gif” and “subdimtabr.gif” using the “Not-Selected” tab color you’ve already chosen.

5. To change the text color within the Selected tab, you’ll need to adjust the HEX color code (“color: #XXXXXX;”) within the file “PortalContent.css”, for the label - TabHiFont

6. To change the text color within the Not-Selected tabs, you’ll need to adjust the HEX color code (color: #XXXXXX;) within the file “PortalContent.css”, for the following labels:

TabDimFont:link

TabDimFont:visited

TabDimFont:hover

I suggest choosing a text color slightly less bold than the “Selected” tab text color. I also recommend choosing a different color to utilize the hover functionality. Choose either Black (#000000) or white (#ffffff) for the label “TabDimFont:hover”

The final task is to set the color of the Tab Line to match the darkest color of the “Selected” tab. The goal here is to make the bottom color of the “Selected” tab seamlessly blend into the tab line.

7. Open the file “bg_tab.gif” you modified in step 2. Identify the HEX color code of tab at its bottom most point. Remember this code.

8. Open the file “PortalContent.css”, and find the entry “TabLineCell”. Edit the entry to look just like the example shown here, with “XXXXXX” being the HEX color code you identified in step 5.

.TabLineCell {background-color: #XXXXXX;}

9. Refresh your browser to see the changes… make adjustments if needed.

You may need to repeat steps 1 – 6 a few times until you achieve the exact feel you’re looking for. Just for fun, play around with making the “Selected” tabs a completely different color than your “Not-selected” tabs, or vice versa. You’ll be amazed at the difference it’ll make.


If you really feel ambitious… you can do the same to the 'Answers' and 'Delivers' Page Tabs and style settings. Realistically, it isn’t feasible for a do-it-yourself-er to spend the time to identify each individual setting and redesign every detail. It would probably take months… or even years just to find everything.

Some consulting firms who implement OBIEE will do a certain level of branding, if requested. BI Consulting Group advertises a service specific to branding called IDENTITY. They have even developed a tool that pinpoints and links to each of the 20+ CSS files where the bulk of these changes are made.

Check back for future updates where I’ll cover steps on customizing other areas of OBIEE.