Genealogy Apps: Steal this Color Scheme Changing Code

[Uncle Buddy]

This is a working model that will slip right into Treebard's current code while eliminating possibly hundreds of lines of code. Treebard's colorization scheme has worked since the olden times (2018) but it's taken me this long to realize how simple and easy this is. The general ideas shown here have been used for a while but I never realized, while regularly re-writing the color schemes functionality, how much code could be stripped out and how self-contained these custom widget classes could be.

The code shown here uses an imported function `make_formats_dict` to tell the colors what to be, but you can comment out a few lines and rig up a test model using formats1 & formats2 to demonstrate the general idea.

This also changes the ttk.Combobox colors, or some of them. I haven't looked into changing the combobox dropdown colors recently.

import tkinter as tk
from tkinter import ttk
from widgets import make_formats_dict

def make_dropdown_menu():

   menu = Frame(root, bg="teal")
   menu.grid(column=0, row=0, sticky="ew")

   file = Menubutton(
       menu, text="FILE", font=("arial black", 10),
       relief="flat", anchor="w")
   file_drop = Menu(
       file, tearoff=0, bg="teal", fg="bisque", font=("arial black", 10),
       activebackground="black")
   file['menu'] = file_drop
   file_drop.add_command(label="OPEN", command=open_dlg_1)
   file_drop.add_command(label="NEW", command=open_dlg_2)

   edit = Menubutton(
       menu, text="EDIT", font=("arial black", 10),
       relief="flat", anchor="w")
   edit_drop = Menu(
       edit, tearoff=0, font=("arial black", 10), bd=0)
   edit['menu'] = edit_drop

   tools = Menubutton(
       menu, text="TOOLS", font=("arial black", 10),
       relief="flat", anchor="w")

   file.grid(column=0, row=0, sticky="w")
   edit.grid(column=1, row=0, sticky="w")
   tools.grid(column=2, row=0, sticky="w")

# formats1 = {
   # "bg": "teal", "highlight_bg": "gray", "head_bg": "steelblue", "fg": "bisque"}
formats2 = {
   "bg": "black", "highlight_bg": "purple", "head_bg": "brown", "fg": "skyblue"}
formats = make_formats_dict()

class Frame(tk.Frame):
   formats = formats
   def __init__(self, master, *args, **kwargs):
       tk.Frame.__init__(self, master, *args, **kwargs)
       self.colorize(on_load=True)
   def colorize(self, on_load=False):
       if on_load is False:
           Frame.formats = formats2
       self.config(bg=Frame.formats["bg"])

class Toplevel(tk.Toplevel):
   formats = formats
   def __init__(self, master, *args, **kwargs):
       tk.Toplevel.__init__(self, master, *args, **kwargs)
       self.colorize(on_load=True)
   def colorize(self, on_load=False):
       if on_load is False:
           Toplevel.formats = formats2
       self.config(bg=Toplevel.formats["bg"])

class Label(tk.Label):
   formats = formats
   def __init__(self, master, *args, **kwargs):
       tk.Label.__init__(self, master, *args, **kwargs)
       self.bind("<FocusIn>", self.highlight)
       self.bind("<FocusOut>", self.unhighlight)
       self.config(takefocus=1)
       self.colorize(on_load=True)
   def highlight(self, evt):
       self.config(bg=Label.formats["highlight_bg"])
   def unhighlight(self, evt):
       self.config(bg=Label.formats["bg"])
   def colorize(self, on_load=False):
       if on_load is False:
           Label.formats = formats2
       self.config(bg=Label.formats["bg"], fg=Label.formats["fg"])

class Menubutton(tk.Menubutton):
   formats = formats
   def __init__(self, master, *args, **kwargs):
       tk.Menubutton.__init__(self, master, *args, **kwargs)
       self.config(takefocus=1)
       self.colorize(on_load=True)
   def colorize(self, on_load=False):
       if on_load is False:
           Menubutton.formats = formats2
       self.config(
           bg=Menubutton.formats["bg"],
           fg=Menubutton.formats["fg"],
           activebackground=Menubutton.formats["head_bg"])

class Menu(tk.Menu):
   formats = formats
   def __init__(self, master, *args, **kwargs):
       tk.Menu.__init__(self, master, *args, **kwargs)
       self.config(takefocus=1)
       self.colorize(on_load=True)
   def colorize(self, on_load=False):
       if on_load is False:
           Menu.formats = formats2
       self.config(
           bg=Menu.formats["highlight_bg"], fg=Menu.formats["fg"],
           activebackground=Menu.formats["head_bg"])

class Button(tk.Button):
   formats = formats
   def __init__(self, master, *args, **kwargs):
       tk.Button.__init__(self, master, *args, **kwargs)
       self.config(takefocus=1)
       self.colorize(on_load=True)

   def colorize(self, on_load=False):
       if on_load is False:
           Button.formats = formats2
       self.config(
           bg=Button.formats["bg"], fg=Button.formats["fg"],
           activebackground=Button.formats["highlight_bg"])

def config_comboboxes():
   cbo_style.configure(
       "TCombobox",
       fieldbackground=formats["highlight_bg"],
       background=formats["head_bg"],
       foreground=formats["fg"])

def configall(ancestor, formats):
   ancestor_list = []
   all_widgets_in_root = get_all_descends(ancestor, ancestor_list)
   for i in all_widgets_in_root:
       if i.winfo_class() == "TCombobox":
           i.select_clear()
       else:
           i.colorize()
   ancestor.config(bg=formats["bg"])
   config_comboboxes()

def open_dlg_1():
   dlg_1 = Toplevel(root)
   dlg_1.geometry("400x400+400+200")
   cls1 = Button(dlg_1, text="CLOSE", command=lambda dlg=dlg_1: close(dlg))
   cls1.grid()
   menubar = Menu(dlg_1, bg="red", font=("arial black", 17))
   drop = Menu(menubar, tearoff=0, bg="yellow")
   menubar.add_cascade(label="HELP", menu=drop)
   menubar.add_cascade(label="ABOUT", menu=drop)
   drop.add_command(label="VERSION")
   dlg_1.config(menu=menubar)

def open_dlg_2():
   dlg_2 = Toplevel(root)
   dlg_2.geometry("400x400+850+300")
   cls2 = Button(dlg_2, text="CLOSE", command=lambda dlg=dlg_2: close(dlg))
   cls2.grid()

def close(dlg):
   dlg.destroy()

def get_all_descends (ancestor, deep_list):
   '''
       So all widgets can be configured at once, this lists every widget in
       the app by running recursively.
   '''
   lst = ancestor.winfo_children()        
   for item in lst:
       deep_list.append(item)
       get_all_descends(item, deep_list)
   return deep_list

root = tk.Tk()
ttk.Style().theme_use("alt")

make_dropdown_menu()

cbo_style = ttk.Style()
cbo_style.configure(
   "TCombobox", fieldbackground= "red", background= "blue",
   foreground="green")

cbo = ttk.Combobox(
   root,
   style="TCombobox",
   values=[
       ("teal", "steelblue", "bisque"),
       ("magenta", "yellow", "navy"),
       ("black", "gray", "steelblue")])
cbo.grid()

for i in range(10):
   lab = Label(root, text=f"Label Number: {i}")
   lab.grid()

b1 = Button(root, text="OPEN DIALOG 1", command=open_dlg_1)
b1.grid()
b2 = Button(root, text="OPEN DIALOG 2", command=open_dlg_2)
b2.grid()
colorizer = Button(
   root, text="COLORIZE", command=lambda root=root,
   formats=formats: configall(root, formats))
colorizer.grid()

root.mainloop()

[Uncle Buddy]

To the coding teams down at Gramps, Family Historian, etc: what's so hard about providing a real dark mode as well as an easily customized color scheme feature? If I can do it, you can do it better.

[Uncle Buddy]

Big progress is being made on the new color scheme code. I don't know that it's more efficient or faster than its previous incarnation, but that's not very important. Changing a color scheme is done once in a while, so whether it takes one second or a tenth of a second to instantly recolorize every widget in the whole app, it doesn't matter. No other genieware can do it at all, as far as I know, and for those that sort of make a half-hearted stab at doing it, some of those apps have to be restarted to see the results.

What does matter is that the code is readable and easy to understand. In that direction, I've been able to eliminate about 2000 lines of code and it's now working better than ever.

It's taking a long time because while I'm at it, I've restructured the whole app so that you can open more than one family tree at a time. Not something I've ever done so I didn't think of it at first, but I know a lot of users will want to do this. The screenshot shows two trees open at once, each one bearing its own color scheme, and each of these color schemes can be changed independently.



The drive to scour the app for custom widgets that were not essential has been a big success. The ttk.Combobox is doing its job as I've at least temporarily retired my custom combobox (which is better but harder to use in the code) and I've learned how to change the color of the inactive Windows title bar so it's not white. (An inactive title bar on a dark theme must not be white! Wake up, Microsoft!) Anyway it's easy and here are the instructions:

windowsloop.com/change-inactive-title-bar-color/

I am happy to report that lots of annoying custom widget code has been removed from Treebard in order to return to just using the Windows title bar. It was fun for a while but the fun didn't last. There's only one of me. The screenshot shows the operation has been a success: one of the open family trees is showing my chosen accent color (which can be set with Windows controls) and the other is showing my chosen inactive color (see link above).

Many big changes are being taken care of in preparation for the completion of chapter two of Treebard GPS development. When I get back to the places tab and the sources tab, I'm almost there. The GEDCOM `FAM` tag is now represented in Treebard, so one of the many interruptions in the process of finishing chapter two--the creation of a real working model for a GEDCOM import--can be gotten back to soon.

Well there's more where that came so I better get back to it, no one's gonna do this if I sit here yikkity-yakking all day.