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troy_cronin2
Active Contributor

So as we discussed in the first theme based troubleshooting blog posting http://scn.sap.com/people/troy.cronin2/blog/2016/02/06/ep-themes-issues--breaking-the-issue-down-hig... there are several ways to help simplify a theme based issue.

In this blog posting we'll move forward a little in analysis terms and outline some common issue scenarios and resolution approaches that can be applied.

3 Principles To Follow - If you encounter an issue


  1. Determine firstly if the issue happens in all web browser platforms (Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Mozilla).
  2. Determine if the issue occurs in both SAP Standard Themes & Custom Themes.
  3. Determine if the issue can be reproduced in all Portal Framework & Theme Combinations

If you've followed the three principles above you already have a better understanding of your issue and can delve quickly into further analysis to get a solution.

Common Issues

  • Custom Theme not applied
  • Application iViews & Pages appear blank i.e. they do not inherit the designated Portal Theme
  • Yellow boxes in Header Area
  • Theme Transport & Import's not functioning accordingly
  • Issues with Theme Export
  • Unable to change Font colors and display
  • Mix-up of themes and issues applying/assigning themes.

So as you can see there's several common issues in association to Portal Themes. What in truth seems like a simple topic offers its own distinctive avenue of complexity.

Patch Level Releases & SP's


If you encounter any issues similar to those posted above the first recommendation would be to review the SAP Service Marketplace to determine whether your issue is "known".


If the issue has been previously reported its quite likely a implementable fix is currently available via a Patch or Support Package.


  • https://support.sap.com/swdc
  • Important: make use of the dependency tool provided to ensure there are no system discrepancies if you implement a Patch/SP.

Browser Compatibility

If you source the theme issue to one particular web browser platform you need to make sure its utilization is supported via the PAM.

  • On the PAM navigate to "Technical Release Information" & "Web Browser Platforms" (Is that browser supported?)
  • https://support.sap.com/pam

Font Issues

Ok from a general perspective there are a few important points to highlight regarding any font changes with the Enterprise Portal. The font does not have to be installed to the portal, but to the users' desktops. Entering the value in the  tool e.g. Theme Editor will simply cause the font to be referenced in the portal stylesheets; the browser is the component which actually locates the font and  the page accordingly.

In the Theme Editor, you can go to Global Style Components > Text and choose to either 'Select a Value' or 'Enter a Value of your Choice'. Entering a valid font name in the second option updates the available entries in the dropdown, and adjusts the theme preview accordingly.

Note that there is no question here of installing a font to the portal; updating the theme editor merely updates the stylesheet references, so the font in question would need to be available on each client PC.

The Infamous Yellow Box

Are you seeing a yellow box appearing in the Masthead or DTN area or somewhere else on the Portal UI?

  • There is a known issue pertaining to JPG type images being ignored and thus they create empty yellow spaces (check the Patch fixes for this firstly).

Secondly there is the purely customization based root source of such an issue. I would suspect that you are using your branding image in the designbar instead of the masthead  or branding image containers.


You are then resizing the design bar much larger than in the standard themes supplied by SAP. The design bar is meant to be a narrow border on the extreme left hand side of the masthead.

However to resolve this issue is quite straight forward (and you can leave your settings as they are).

If you call:

You will see two drop * For the 1st one Browser, leave this as 'default'. Then the second one, locate parPrtlMastHeadNotchBgColor

For your theme, then set the desired colour.

This will set the background colour for where the yellow bars are showing and the idea is to change the background colour to white.

After updating the value, be sure to, click first 'Set Value' and then 'Save and Generate' to actually generate the new css files.

You can follow the link below for a reference on to the colours to set. http://www.w3schools.com/html/html_colors.asp

Assigning Themes, Theme Transports & Exports & Subsequent Imports - You have an issue


You have a custom theme created in one EP Version e.g. 7.4 SP02 and imported to SAP Portal 7.4 SP09. Now after the upgrade the theme was customized successfully e.g. using the UI Theme Designer and transported via the Transport package but the Export option in "Transport Themes" is

missing.

Custom themes should be saved automatically and visible within WRR and changes made within the WRR are persistent.

If your custom theme is based upon Corbu/GoldenReflection/BlueCrystal here you are dealing with a support issue (these are product version dependent).

The reason a visual display wouldrevert back to a SAP Default/Standard theme is the omission of the parameter "Handover Portal Stylesheet".

The stylesheet iview parameter this is not used to specify what "sap-cssurl" to hand over to the backend, but rather to specify the type of stylesheet to use (e.g. 'ur').

Its not possible to disable handover of the portal stylesheet and at the same time specify a stylesheet URL in the portal.

You can force use of a specific stylesheet on the webdynpro side, using sap.useWebDynproStyleSheet=true and setting the sap.theme.default property to the desired theme.

With the Portal stylesheet the display type is obtained from the backend. In terms of the content area and navigation areas two seperate themes cannot be utilized at the same time.

Stylesheets

With portal integration the system first checks that the portal has transferred a specification for the style sheet. If the WDFORCEEXTERNALSTYLESHEET application parameter is * the specified portal style sheet is used. If, on the other hand, the WDFORCEEXTERNALSTYLESHEET application parameter is not * the versions of the style sheets are compared.

If the version of the portal style sheet is newer or the same as the style sheet in the SAP system, the portal style sheet is used. All four digits of the version number of each style sheet are compared.

For example, the version is 7.0.0.0 or 7.1.3.0. If the version of the portal style sheet does not match the style sheet in the SAP system, that is, the portal style sheet is older, then the style sheet specified in the WDTHEMEROOT application parameter is used. If no style sheet is specified here, the default style sheet is used.

- Setting Style Sheets: http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw73ehp1/helpdata/en/03/1ed736f5ca44aa8dbbcbcf1406342c/content.htm

If you have an issue not covered in the bullet points above feel free to DM me directly or Post below and I will help out wherever possible.

Happy Theming :smile: