Applying a theme – PB Docs 2019

To select a theme in the painter:

1. In the Application painter, select the General tab
   page.

2. On the General tab page, click the Additional Properties
   button to display the Application properties dialog box.

3. In the Application properties dialog box, select the
   Themes tab, and then specify the path for the theme files and
   select a theme from the list.

   • Theme Path — The
     default value for Theme Path is
     %AppeonInstallPath%PowerBuilder [version]IDE heme and
     this is where the system themes are stored.

     Theme Path can be either set to an absolute path or a
     relative path. For example, it can be an absolute path:
     D:App1SourceCodeThemes, or a relative path that starts
     with “.”, “…”, or a folder name: “.Themes”,
     “…Themes” or “themes”. The relative path is relative to
     the location of the PBT file.

     Note

     In Windows system, the maximum length for a path is
     defined as 260 characters. Therefore, it is recommended
     the theme path (including theme name) should be less than
     260 characters and the path alone (excluding theme name)
     should be less than 200 characters.

     When the application is run from the IDE, it reads the
     theme files from the path specified by Theme Path in the
     painter; but when the application’s executable file is run,
     the Theme Path setting in the painter will be ignored;
     instead it reads the theme files from the “theme” folder
     under the root of the application installation directory
     (for example, if the application is installed to
     C:App1Executable, then the theme path is
     C:App1Executable heme). To summarize:

     • At the development environment (when the app is
       run from the IDE): use the path set in the Theme Path
       field.

     • At the production environment (when the app’s
       executable file is run): use the “theme” folder under
       the same location of the application’s executable
       file.

     However, this will be a different case if the
     ApplyTheme function is used, as the theme path and name set
     by the ApplyTheme function takes precedence over those
     selected in the painter.

   • Theme — Four system
     themes are provided under the default path; each one is
     stored in a sub-folder named after the theme: Flat Design
     Blue, Flat Design Dark, Flat Design Grey, and Flat Design
     Silver. These four sub-folders will be overwritten when you
     re-install or upgrade PowerBuilder IDE. Therefore, if you
     want to customize the system theme, make sure to make a copy
     of the theme and then make changes there, the custom theme
     will not be overwritten when PowerBuilder is re-installed or
     upgraded.

   • Restore button — The
     Restore button is effective only when Theme Path is the
     default path and the theme name is the system theme.

     If restoring theme failed, make sure to close any
     theme files that are currently opened and then click the
     Restore button to try again.

4. In the Preview section, take a quick look at how UI will
   look like after a theme is applied.

5. Click OK.

To select a theme in the script:

Instead of specifying the theme to use in the Additional
Properties of the application object, you can set a theme
dynamically in the script using the ApplyTheme method. The theme
path and name set by the ApplyTheme function takes precedence over
those selected in the painter.

• Call the ApplyTheme function in the application script to
  select a theme.

  Best practice: 1) It is
  recommended to call the ApplyTheme function in the Application
  Open event and before any child window is opened. 2) You can add
  an dialog box to the application, where you provide end users
  the theme options to select by themselves.

  You can specify no path, a relative path, or an absolute
  path (not recommended) in the function.

  When specifying no
  path:

  PowerBuilder

  ApplyTheme ("Flat Design Blue")

  1	ApplyTheme ("Flat Design Blue")

  This script applies the “Flat Design Blue” theme (the
  theme name selected in the painter will be ignored) and reads
  the theme files from the following path:

  • At the development environment: the script reads the
    theme files from the Theme Path set in the painter.

  • At the production environment: the script reads the
    theme files from the “theme” folder under the same location
    of the application’s executable file.

  When specifying a relative
  path:

  PowerBuilder

  ApplyTheme (". hemesFlat Design Blue")

  1	ApplyTheme (". hemesFlat Design Blue")

  This script applies the “Flat Design Blue” theme (both the
  theme path and the theme name selected in the painter will be
  ignored) and reads the theme files from the path relative to the
  location of the PBT file (or the application’s executable
  file).

  When specifying an absolute path
  (not recommended):

  PowerBuilder

  ApplyTheme ("D:App1SourceCode hemesFlat Design Blue")

  1	ApplyTheme ("D:App1SourceCode hemesFlat Design Blue")

  This script applies the “Flat Design Blue” theme (both the
  theme path and the theme name selected in the painter will be
  ignored) and reads the theme files from
  “D:App1SourceCode hemes” at both the development environment
  and the production environment.

  Note: absolute path is
  not recommended, because when it goes to the production
  environment, it would be difficult to ensure the absolute path
  exists at every client machine.

  You can get the theme that is currently applied to the
  application using the GetTheme function. For more, see the section called “GetTheme” in PowerScript Reference
  and the section called “ApplyTheme” in PowerScript Reference.