How do you generate dynamic <style> tag content in Angular template at runtime? - html

Question

I have an Angular component that generates mat-checkbox dynamically at runtime and I need to change the individual background of each checkbox differently with different color and I don't (won't) have the information before hand, only available at runtime.
I have the following ng-template for the checkboxes:
<ng-template #renderCheckbox let-id="id" let-attr="attr">
<mat-checkbox
[checked]="attr.show"
[color]="'custom-' + id"
(change)="onChange($event.checked, attr)">
{{attr.name}}
</mat-checkbox>
</ng-template>
where, attr in the template has the following interface type, these infomation are pulled from Highcharts' series and I didn't want to hardcode the color.
interface LinkedSeriesAttributes {
id: string;
name: string;
index: number;
color: string;
checked: boolean;
}
Since there is no way to create css classes before hand and there is no way to directly apply color to the mat-checkbox, I could only generate the <style>...</style> right at the beginning of my template.
In my component, I have code that will generate the style which would give me something like this:
.mat-checkbox.mat-custom-hello.mat-checkbox-checked .mat-checkbox-background::before {
color: #6E8BC3 !important;
}
.mat-checkbox.mat-custom-world.mat-checkbox-checked .mat-checkbox-background::before {
color: #9ED6F2 !important;
}
...
However, I tried various ways to dump it inside <style> without success. I tried:
<style>{{ dynamicCSSStyles }}</style>
Which, my IDE shows that's an error with the curly braces, although it compiled fine and ran without errors, I got nothing, can't even see the <style> tag.
I also tried to include <style> inside my dynamicCSSStyles variable, and angular just dumped the whole thing out as text...
What's the correct way to generate a <style> in Angular.

Answer 1

I've found a REALLY dirty way of "making this work" but it causes Angular to keep adding the <style> back into the DOM.
First, set encapsulation to ViewEncapsulation.None.
Second, create a function to generate the <style> tag the old fashion way with an id:
updateDynsmicStyleNode() {
const id = 'dynamic-css-styles';
const nativeElm = this.elmRef.nativeElement;
const existing = nativeElm.querySelector(`style#${id}`);
if (!existing) {
const styleTag = document.createElement('style');
styleTag.setAttribute('id', id);
styleTag.innerHTML = this.dynamicCSSStyles;
nativeElm.prepend(styleTag);
} else {
existing.innerHTML = this.dynamicCSSStyles;
}
}
Third, call our function in ngAfterViewChecked:
ngAfterViewChecked() {
this.updateDynsmicStyleNode();
}
I mean while this worked, it is really bad, since moving the mouse around the screen would cause Angular to just continuously reinsert the <style> tag.
Does anyone know some other way more legit to archive this? LOL

Answer 2

You can use ngClass or [class] attribute. Since you can have the styles ready from the component.ts file.
You can do something like this:
Way 1: If you already know what the dynamic ids might be, (like if it always will be 'hello' and 'world')
let dynamicClasses = {};
// Once you get some classes from your logic, you can add them to the object above
dynamicClasses['hello'] = 'custom-hello';
dynamicClasses['world'] = 'custom-world';
// Then in HTML
<mat-checkbox [ngClass]="dynamicClasses"></mat-checkbox>
Way 2: If you dont know what the classes also might be, like if its not always be hello or world, then create a method and call it where required, you might need to do something similar to #codenamezero said.