Defining skins

Administrators can define skins by using the AR System Skins form (the following figure), which is installed with AR System server. Entries in this form specify the properties and the permissions for each skin that you want to define. Each skin you define is an entry in the form.

AR System Skins form

Permissions for each skin determine which groups of users can see a form or view with a particular skin. For example, a skin with administrator permissions might have some trim text or panel headers set to one color, while the Public group might see these same components set to another color.

For localized applications, you can have a form view across multiple locales sharing the same skin. For example, you can specify a skin based on the view label such as Request Console.

To define a skin

1. Open the AR System Skins form:
   http://serverName/arsys/forms/serverName/AR+System+Skins
2. Enter the following information:
   • Description—Enter a brief description of the skin.

   • State—Select Enabled to make the skin available, or Disabled to disable it temporarily. Select Sample to create a sample skin.

     Warning

     Note

     Only the skins in the Enabled state are applied at run-time. 

   • Type—Select View Name, View Label, Form, Tag, Application, or Server.

   • Type identifier—Enter additional information about the skin type being defined.

     Type	Type Identifier	When to use
     View Name	Name of the view	You can use this type when defining a skin for a specific view.
     View Label	Label of the view	You can use this type when defining a skin for multiple views with the same label.
     Form	Form name	You can use this type when defining a skin for a specific form.
     Tag	Name of the tag	You can use this type when defining a skin for multiple forms. Note: To use this option, you must provide the tag name while designing the form.
     Application	Application name	You can use this type when defining a skin for all forms in an application.
     Server	Server name	You can use this type when defining a skin for all forms on a server.

   • Groups—Select the groups and roles to have access permissions for this skin.
3. Click the plus sign to the right of the Skin Properties banner to open the AR System Skins Properties dialog box.
4. Enter the following additional property information:
   • Type—Select Field ID, Field Skin Selector, Field Type, System, DVM, AR Template, or Web Header.

   • Type identifier—Enter a value that identifies the property type.

     Type	Type Identifier	When to use
     Field ID	Field ID	You can use this type when defining a skin for a specific field.
     Field Skin Selector	Name of the Skin Selector (needs to be pre-set for each field through Developer Studio)	You can use this type when defining a skin for multiple fields.
     Field Type	Choose the field type from the menu.	You can use this type when defining a skin for all fields of the same type.
     System	For this option, the Type Identifier field is disabled.	You can use this type when defining a skin for any system level components (like pop-ups) or tables.
     DVM	The module name, as defined in the Data Visualization Module form For more information, see Skin support for DVM.	You can use this type when defining skin for any DVM.
     AR Template	Name of the AR Template where you want to apply the skin For more information, see Skin support for AR Templates.	You can use this type when defining skin for any template.
     Web Header	For this option, the Type Identifier field is set to All by default. For more information, see Skin support for Web Header.	You can use this type when defining skin for any web header.

   • Property—Select a property that corresponds to the field type being skinned. For DVM, AR Template, or Web Header, property is a string value that can be used as per user requirements.

     The fields in the AR System Skins Properties dialog box are not validated, so if you enter Field Type in the Type field, select a property from the same type that you entered in the Type Identifier field. Otherwise, the skin property might not be applied. (Consequently, fields of different types can sometimes share the same property ID, in which case that skin property might be applied).

   • Property Value—Enter the value for the specified property. For example, if the property is a background color of blue, the value must be the hexadecimal value for the shade of blue being applied. If the property is an image, the value must be the name of the server image object.
      To specify colors, you can either enter a hexadecimal value for the color, or click the down arrow to select a color from the color picker.
5. Click OK to close the AR System Skins Properties dialog box.
    The information you entered appears in the Skins Properties list in the AR System Skins form.

After a skin is defined, it can be applied to these scenarios:

• All forms and views on a server
• All forms and views in an application
• All views in a form
• A specific view of a form

To enable application-level skins, access the form through the application by using the following URL: http://<serverName>:<portNumber>/arsys/apps/<serverName>/<applicationName>/<formName>/