Re: The proper way to integrate self-made widgets with themes

[centipede takhis net]

> Hello all.
>
> In the process of making a bunch of widgets I have stumbled upon this
> issue: I need to paint various parts of my widget, but I would like to
> make the color of the parts controlled by the theme. I.e. the properties I
> want to deal with are extra, self-invented properties besides the usual
> style properties.
>
> (Note: I am using PyGTK 2.12, GTK 2.10 on Arch Linux)
>
> I have figured out how to manually load a theme-file accompanying my
> application (by setting the environment variable GTK2_RC_FILES to ./gtkrc
> before initializing gtk)
> However I cannot insert my own property-names in such a file. The
> following gives rise to a syntax error:
>
>     # My Properties
>     scalartrack_segment_handle_size = 5
>
> Besides I wouldn't know how to get those properties out again so I can use
> them in an expose event
>
> So...
> I am asking for the canonical way to implement new widgets and push the
> choice of color, size and pixmap-overlays to the theme-designer. The
> alternative is drawing with libcairo and using hardwired style properties.
>
> Regards, Rene Jensen

Possible solution: Use the pixmap engine. It seems to support the "detail"
parameter, so I can specify many additional sections, one for each detail.
Example:
style "track"
{
  engine "pixmap"
  {
    image
    {
      function          = BOX
      recolorable       = TRUE
      detail            = "segment"
      file              = "Extra/track-segment-type1.png"
      border            = { 5, 5, 5, 5 }
      stretch           = TRUE
      orientation       = HORIZONTAL
    }
  }
}

.. This style will draw the image "Extra/track-segment-type1.png" when
invoked with this command (in PyGTK):

    self.styleTrack.paint_box (self.window, gtk.STATE_NORMAL,
gtk.SHADOW_IN, None, None, "segment", X,Y,W,H)



But since the pixmap-engine really did turn out to be rather heavy, I will
have to settle for less:

HOW CAN I DRAW a theme'd box (using gtk_paint_box) in colors different
from what the theme has chosen for my GtkDrawingArea?
Do I have to modify_bg before each call to paint_box, and then reset it
again afterwards?


Regards,
Rene Jensen, Denmark