Hosting themes outside the dashboard

Owned by Karen Hogan (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Apr 07, 2022
2 min read

This feature is designed to be used by sites that want to take control of theme configuration. A common use case would be having a hosted location for themes, which means that the dashboard will be configured with the predefined theme for all users. To support this, use the dashboard variable PI_STYLES_EXTERNAL_THEME_PATH.

Please consider the following points when hosting a theme outside the dashboard:

  • If an external theme path has not been specified, the default theme for the dashboard will be theme shown in the PI_STYLES field. Please remember that you can also set different themes for individual users in Dashboard Configuration ->Users screen and users will also be able to choose their own themes on the User account page (accessed by clicking their name on the More Options icon at the top right of the Dashboard). Please refer to this section in pi Documentation for further details.

  • If an external theme path has been specified

    • the theme path becomes the specified network path

    • the CSS Styles tab on the Dashboard Configuration-> Themes screen will be removed (network files are read only)

    • users will not be able to choose their own theme and admin will not be able to set different themes for different users

The following points apply when using the system variable PI_STYLES_EXTERNAL_THEME_PATH :

  • When access to the external theme fails, the system will revert to using the default system theme specified in the PI_STYLES field.

  • When access to the external theme is successful, the system will start to use the new theme immediately.

You can set the themes to come from a remote site. This would make them read-only which means you'd have to edit them on a separate dashboard and then upload them to that remote repository.

This is done via editing the ‘PI_STYLES_EXTERNAL_THEME_PATH’ variable setting (as per our variables documentation) in Dashboard Configuration ->Settings:

Enter the name of the theme in the PI_STYLES field and the full details of the external path in PI_STYLES_EXTERNAL_THEME_PATH

When these fields have been populated and the ‘Save’ icon clicked, the ‘Themes’ menu item will disappear from the top of the page.

Please remember that when an external theme path has been specified, all dashboard users will see the same theme. Users will no longer be able to select their own theme.