MicroStrategy ONE

Cascading Style Sheet (CSS) Files

MicroStrategy Web generates HTML pages which use several cascading style sheet (CSS) files. The CSS files used by styles in MicroStrategy Web are referenced by <link> tags in the HTML source for each MicroStrategy Web page. All but one of these <link> tags are generated by the code in one or more JSP or ASPX page-section files, each of which is referenced in the <page-section> node whose name attribute is set to “links”. Every MicroStrategy Web page has a "links" page section, either inherited from the default page, explicitly defined for a particular page, or both. The final <link> tag is always generated automatically by the application, based on the type of browser being used.

The <link> tags are found in the <head> section of the HTML, with a few exceptions. For example, some of the 7.x transforms, which are still used in the 8.x GUI, generate <link> tags in the HTML <body> section of the HTML.

The “links” page section is the only page section on a MicroStrategy Web page that does not generate data. It is not intended to render visible output to the screen, but rather to provide references to the DHTML files (JavaScript and CSS) that need to be imported into the <head> section of the final HTML document.

This topic discusses only the CSS references and does not address the JavaScript references.

After a MicroStrategy Web page has been generated, the HTML source normally contains the following three sets of <link> tags, in the order shown below.

  • Application-wide CSS files

  • Page-specific CSS files 

  • Browser-specific CSS file

The order is important because if two <link> tags include different values for identical class definitions, the link defined last in the HTML overrides the other links. MicroStrategy Web relies heavily on this rule, enforced by the browser, for making sure that the proper style rules are applied for every page in the MicroStrategy Web application. You should be aware of this rule so that you can import your own custom CSS files effectively, knowing when and where the definitions specified should override more general rules.

The following topics in this section provide details about each type of CSS file used, the locations of these files, and best practices for customizing CSS files.