Setting Foreground Colour as per Style Class

[manticore-projects]

Greetings!

First of all, thank you for this amazing software. We do love it.

Although I have a question. We want to used JLabels and assign style classes H00, H0, H1 as Captions and want to show them in a different color. This colour should be customisable (in order to reflect our customer's corporate design).

In short: Some JLables with style classses H00, H0, H1 should be Blue, all other labels Black.

How can I achieve that with a Property File? I would like to avoid setting the Blue Colour in the Java Code itself if possible.

My property file so far looks like this:

@background = #E6E6E6FF
@foreground = lighten(#000,32%)
@accentColor = #FF420EFF

@baseTheme = light

defaultFont = 11  Roboto, Arial

[style].h00 = font: 36 Roboto bold
[style].h0 = font: 28 Roboto semibold
[style].h1 = font: 28 Roboto
@background = #E6E6E6FF
@foreground = lighten(#000,32%)
@accentColor = #FF420EFF

@baseTheme = light

defaultFont = 11  Roboto, Arial

[style].h00 = font: 36 Roboto bold
[style].h0 = font: 28 Roboto semibold
[style].h1 = font: 28 Roboto

Label.foreground= #030146FF

Table.background = #ffffff
Table.alternateRowColor = darken($Table.background, 16%)
Table.selectionBackground = lighten(@accentColor,16%)
Table.selectionForeground = #ffffff
Table.lightSelectionBackground = @accentColor
Table.lightSelectionForeground = #ffffff
Table.focusCellBackground = @accentColor
Table.focusCellForeground = #ffffff
Table.dropLineColor= #f57900
Table.dropLineShortColor= #f57900

fillsViewportHeight=true

Label.foreground= #030146FF

Table.background = #ffffff
Table.alternateRowColor = darken($Table.background, 16%)
Table.selectionBackground = lighten(@accentColor,16%)
Table.selectionForeground = #ffffff
Table.lightSelectionBackground = @accentColor
Table.lightSelectionForeground = #ffffff
Table.focusCellBackground = @accentColor
Table.focusCellForeground = #ffffff
Table.dropLineColor= #f57900
Table.dropLineShortColor= #f57900

fillsViewportHeight=true

[DevCharly]

Some JLables with style classses H00, H0, H1 should be Blue, all other labels Black.

Then you should not change the style classses h00, h0, h1.

Instead create a new style class for the color and also assign it to the labels.

[style].myColoredTitle = foreground: #00f

myLabel.putClientProperty( "FlatLaf.styleClass", "h1 myColoredTitle" );

[manticore-projects]

Thank you so much! It makes a lot of sense, when I see this now. I did not catch that possibility from the Documentation or Samples.

[manticore-projects]

Works like a charm, but leads to more questions:

1) as far as I can see it, the Properties file would be read only from the Classpath. Is there a way, to read it from a plain File also?

Explanation: We would like to deploy a distinct Java SwingUI JAR, but customize as per customer as per configuration file only. Of course I understand, that I could deploy a customConfig.jar and put it into the classpath -- but that's rather cumbersome.

2) working around this challenge, I have defined Command Line Options ACCENT_COLOR and CAPTION_COLOR and then I try to overwrite the FlatLaf properties. This works well for CAPTION_COLOR, but it does not work for ACCENT_COLOR and derived colors of the components. Am I doing something wrong?

@background = lighten(#E6E6E6FF,16%)
@foreground = lighten(#000,32%)
@accentColor = #FF420EFF

if ( Settings.hasKey("ACCENT_COLOR") ) {
          FlatLaf.setGlobalExtraDefaults( Collections.singletonMap( "@accentColor", Settings.getString("ACCENT_COLOR") ) );
        }
        if ( Settings.hasKey("CAPTION_COLOR") ) {
          FlatLaf.setGlobalExtraDefaults( Collections.singletonMap( "[style].caption", "foreground: " + Settings.getString("CAPTION_COLOR") ) );
        }

        FlatLightLaf.registerCustomDefaultsSource( "com/manticore/themes" );
        FlatLightLaf.setup(  );

Accent color stays Orange #FF420EFF even when Settings.getString("ACCENT_COLOR") returns #fbb018. Although Labels of [style].caption show the correct light blue according to Settings.getString("CAPTION_COLOR") = #007cb7

[manticore-projects]

Please how can I access the @accentColor from Java?

laf.getExtraDefaults().get("@accentColor");

returns null (even when the accentColor is set and effective in the properties file. Same for

UIManager.getLookAndFeelDefaults().getColor("@accentColor");
UIManager.getLookAndFeelDefaults().getColor("accentColor");

In the meantime I work around by getting UI properties set to the accentColor, e. g.

UIManager.getLookAndFeelDefaults().getColor("List.selectionBackground");

[DevCharly]

1. as far as I can see it, the Properties file would be read only from the Classpath. Is there a way, to read it from a plain File also?

Use FlatLaf.registerCustomDefaultsSource( File folder ), which registers a folder where FlatLaf searches for properties files with custom UI defaults. https://www.formdev.com/flatlaf/how-to-customize/#application_properties

2. ...

   if ( Settings.hasKey("ACCENT_COLOR") ) {
         FlatLaf.setGlobalExtraDefaults( Collections.singletonMap( "@accentColor", Settings.getString("ACCENT_COLOR") ) );
       }
       if ( Settings.hasKey("CAPTION_COLOR") ) {
         FlatLaf.setGlobalExtraDefaults( Collections.singletonMap( "[style].caption", "foreground: " + Settings.getString("CAPTION_COLOR") ) );
       }
   
       FlatLightLaf.registerCustomDefaultsSource( "com/manticore/themes" );
       FlatLightLaf.setup(  );

The problem with this code is that you invoke FlatLaf.setGlobalExtraDefaults() twice and the second one replaces the first one. Invoke FlatLaf.setGlobalExtraDefaults() only once and put all values into one map.

[manticore-projects]

Thank you very much. This makes it clear and I appreciate.

[DevCharly]

Please how can I access the @accentColor from Java?

Keys starting with @ are variables with are only used while processing properties files, but are now available in UI defaults. See https://www.formdev.com/flatlaf/properties-files/#variables

There are two workarounds:

1. add something like accentColor = @accentColor to your FlatLaf.properties. Then you can use UIManager.getColor( "accentColor" ).
2. use FlatLaf.parseDefaultsValue( "accentColor", "@accentColor", null )