How to pass a color as global variable?

[Cicorione]

Hi @pgundlach ,

I am trying to create some global variables to handle the colors in the switch cases, but it is not working as I expected, and before to open a bug a want to catch out the pebcak first.

I have my global variables in the header, since is not working with my personal colors, I tried with the default ones, but the result did not change, colors aren't displayed.

My test variables (not used at the same time):

<SetVariable variable="title-bar-color" select="blue" />
<SetVariable variable="title-bar-color" select="'blue'" />

My code:

[...]
<Tr valign="middle" minheight="8mm">
    <Td>
        <Box height="8mm" width="4mm" graphic="tableedgeleft" />
    </Td>
    <Td padding-right="1mm" padding-bottom="-3pt" background-color="$title-bar-color">
        <Paragraph>
            <B>
                <Value select="upper-case(@title)" />
            </B>
        </Paragraph>
    </Td>
    <Message select="concat('BAR1: ',$title-bar-color)" />
[...]

The warning:
<entry level="warn" msg="[page 3] Background: Color &#34;$title-bar-color&#34; is not defined"></entry>

But the message is read:
<entry level="message" msg="BAR1: blue" line="295" page="4"></entry>

What am I doing wrong this time? 😩

Thanks... 🙏

[pgundlach]

<SetVariable variable="title-bar-color" select="blue" />
<SetVariable variable="title-bar-color" select="'blue'" />

the first line will not work, as you select the value of the element blue. The second works since you select the string "blue".

When you use background-color="$title-bar-color" you explicitly ask for the color named $title-bar-color which could be defined with

<DefineColor name="$title-bar-color" ...>

which I assume you did not do.

You need to use curly braces as described in the manual. It jumps into XPath mode and evaluates the expression, in this case it is a variable reference (getting the contents of the variable with the nametitle-bar-color).

In the case of

<Message select="concat('BAR1: ',$title-bar-color)" />

the XPath expression is evaluated by using select.

There are two cases

1. the name of the attribute is select or test: the contents of the attribute will be evaluated as an XPath expression
2. the name of the attribute is not select or test: the contents of the attribute is taken verbatim. You can jump into XPath mode with curly braces.

This is why the error message is msg="[page 3] Background: Color "$title-bar-color" is not defined". The command Td does not evaluate the attribute background-color as an XPath expression.

Solution:

<Td padding-right="1mm" padding-bottom="-3pt" background-color="{$title-bar-color}">

(untested)

[Cicorione]

Thank you Patrick, I came right here to say that I found the pebcak:

<Td padding-right="1mm" padding-bottom="-3pt" background-color="{$title-bar-color}">

🤦‍♂️

[Cicorione]

Hi Patrick I have the colors defined this way:

<DefineColor name="aglgray" model="cmyk" c="0" m="0" y="0" k="40" />

I want to keep the colors and only change the variables, I could do the other way around too but it looks for me more rationale assigning a color to a variable than creating several copies of the same color assigned to different places... 🤔

[pgundlach]

I wan't to keep the color and only change the variables, I could do the other way around too but it looks for me more rationale assigning a color to a variable than creating several copies of the same color assigned to different places... 🤔

You can do both, just a matter of taste. No performance or memory penalty if you chose either way.