Folks, TGIF Our Blazor app has a simple classic shape with a local wwwroot/app.css file containing all the styles for the app. I had to allow people to customise the appearance, and my way of doing that works, but not as smoothly as I hoped and I think someone might be able to suggest a better more elegant technique. If someone starts the app with query parameter ?t=contoso then the startup code appends a line like this into the <head> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="https://*somecompany*. blob.core.windows.net/*myapp*/*contoso.css*"> They can edit this external css file and override selectors without touching the original app's files. Firstly ... is this sensible? It works, but there is a problem. To override a certain colour they have to code something like this: .HeadLinkSel { background-color: BlueViolet !important; } Note how the !important is needed, sometimes. I can't figure out why yet, but !important needs to be added to the overrides most of the time. I thought that the last selector override all previous identical ones, and it's really irritating and confuses people settings the overrides. Can anyone explain this? Maybe my whole technique is flawed and naïve. I'm keen for suggestions or links to recommended techniques for doing this sort of thing. Cheers, *Greg Keogh*
I just use Chrome's css tools to tell me the order in which things are getting evaluated. From: Greg Keogh via ozdotnet <ozdotnet@ozdotnet.com> Sent: Friday, December 1, 2023 3:51 PM To: ozDotNet <ozdotnet@ozdotnet.com> Cc: Greg Keogh <gfkeogh@gmail.com> Subject: Blazor css overrides Folks, TGIF Our Blazor app has a simple classic shape with a local wwwroot/app.css file containing all the styles for the app. I had to allow people to customise the appearance, and my way of doing that works, but not as smoothly as I hoped and I think someone might be able to suggest a better more elegant technique. If someone starts the app with query parameter ?t=contoso then the startup code appends a line like this into the <head> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="https://somecompany.blob.core.windows.net/<http://blob.core.windows.net/>myapp/contoso.css"> They can edit this external css file and override selectors without touching the original app's files. Firstly ... is this sensible? It works, but there is a problem. To override a certain colour they have to code something like this: .HeadLinkSel { background-color: BlueViolet !important; } Note how the !important is needed, sometimes. I can't figure out why yet, but !important needs to be added to the overrides most of the time. I thought that the last selector override all previous identical ones, and it's really irritating and confuses people settings the overrides. Can anyone explain this? Maybe my whole technique is flawed and naïve. I'm keen for suggestions or links to recommended techniques for doing this sort of thing. Cheers, Greg Keogh
I recall doing something similar in the past but I believe I gave each client their own entire css. So app.css by default OR use the client’s css if the config value is passed (via querystring or whatever). I don’t see a problem with using !important if it guarantees it and they do it always. If they don’t want to then the alternative above may suit. I’ve never bothered going down the rabbit hole of css to be honest. On Fri, 1 Dec 2023 at 15:53, Greg Keogh via ozdotnet <ozdotnet@ozdotnet.com> wrote:
Folks, TGIF
Our Blazor app has a simple classic shape with a local wwwroot/app.css file containing all the styles for the app. I had to allow people to customise the appearance, and my way of doing that works, but not as smoothly as I hoped and I think someone might be able to suggest a better more elegant technique.
If someone starts the app with query parameter ?t=contoso then the startup code appends a line like this into the <head>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="https://*somecompany*. blob.core.windows.net/*myapp*/*contoso.css*">
They can edit this external css file and override selectors without touching the original app's files. Firstly ... is this sensible? It works, but there is a problem.
To override a certain colour they have to code something like this:
.HeadLinkSel { background-color: BlueViolet !important; }
Note how the !important is needed, sometimes. I can't figure out why yet, but !important needs to be added to the overrides most of the time. I thought that the last selector override all previous identical ones, and it's really irritating and confuses people settings the overrides. Can anyone explain this?
Maybe my whole technique is flawed and naïve. I'm keen for suggestions or links to recommended techniques for doing this sort of thing.
Cheers, *Greg Keogh* -- ozdotnet mailing list To manage your subscription, access archives: https://codify.mailman3.com/
I recall doing something similar in the past but I believe I gave each client their own entire css. So app.css by default OR use the client’s css if the config value is passed (via querystring or whatever).
I was thinking of that as the best choice. If t=company is specified then I'll insert a link to a complete css file in their storage, falling back to a local app.css. They have complete control of the styling that way. EXCEPT... if we invent new styles, which is quite possible, foreign copies will need to be synchronised, which is fragile. Maybe not the best choice after all. I don’t see a problem with using !important if it guarantees it and they do
it always. If they don’t want to then the alternative above may suit.
Articles tell you to never use !important in public shared css files, but since the customer's overrides are the top of the food chain, then maybe it's acceptable.
I’ve never bothered going down the rabbit hole of css to be honest.
That's putting it politely. If I bothered to learn all about css then it would certainly displace other knowledge from my brain that is more valuable. *Greg*
On Fri, 1 Dec 2023 at 15:53, Greg Keogh via ozdotnet < ozdotnet@ozdotnet.com> wrote:
Folks, TGIF
Our Blazor app has a simple classic shape with a local wwwroot/app.css file containing all the styles for the app. I had to allow people to customise the appearance, and my way of doing that works, but not as smoothly as I hoped and I think someone might be able to suggest a better more elegant technique.
If someone starts the app with query parameter ?t=contoso then the startup code appends a line like this into the <head>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="https://*somecompany*. blob.core.windows.net/*myapp*/*contoso.css*">
They can edit this external css file and override selectors without touching the original app's files. Firstly ... is this sensible? It works, but there is a problem.
To override a certain colour they have to code something like this:
.HeadLinkSel { background-color: BlueViolet !important; }
Note how the !important is needed, sometimes. I can't figure out why yet, but !important needs to be added to the overrides most of the time. I thought that the last selector override all previous identical ones, and it's really irritating and confuses people settings the overrides. Can anyone explain this?
Maybe my whole technique is flawed and naïve. I'm keen for suggestions or links to recommended techniques for doing this sort of thing.
Cheers, *Greg Keogh* -- ozdotnet mailing list To manage your subscription, access archives: https://codify.mailman3.com/
-- ozdotnet mailing list To manage your subscription, access archives: https://codify.mailman3.com/
It's not always the last selector that overrides previous ones. You're probably running into specificity issues from the original stylesheet, and the !important is nuking them from orbit, to be sure. Using !important isn't a great solution in general terms, but for this use case is probably fine. https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/Specificity On 1/12/2023 14:50, Greg Keogh via ozdotnet wrote:
Folks, TGIF
Our Blazor app has a simple classic shape with a local wwwroot/app.css file containing all the styles for the app. I had to allow people to customise the appearance, and my way of doing that works, but not as smoothly as I hoped and I think someone might be able to suggest a better more elegant technique.
If someone starts the app with query parameter ?t=contoso then the startup code appends a line like this into the <head>
<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="https:///somecompany/.blob.core.windows.net/ <http://blob.core.windows.net/>/myapp//_contoso.css_">
They can edit this external css file and override selectors without touching the original app's files. Firstly ... is this sensible? It works, but there is a problem.
To override a certain colour they have to code something like this:
.HeadLinkSel { background-color: BlueViolet !important; }
Note how the !important is needed, sometimes. I can't figure out why yet, but !important needs to be added to the overrides most of the time. I thought that the last selector override all previous identical ones, and it's really irritating and confuses people settings the overrides. Can anyone explain this?
Maybe my whole technique is flawed and naïve. I'm keen for suggestions or links to recommended techniques for doing this sort of thing.
Cheers, /Greg Keogh/
participants (4)
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Greg Keogh -
Tony McGee