Themes are artistic representations which enhance the visual display of an R:BASE screen. There are 86 pre-defined themes available in R:BASE. Themes can be applied to Forms, External Forms, Applications, the Print Preview window and the CHOOSE, DIALOG, PAUSE, PRNSETUP and #WHERE dialog windows.
External themes can be loaded into R:BASE. External theme files must have the ".msstyles" file extension. The themes can be acquired from any online resource or from a custom theme you created yourself. After a theme is loaded into the R:BASE session, the theme name specified will be listed in every available location where themes are specified and will appear in the Data Dictionary list. When using external themes, the theme file must be loaded into R:BASE each time the session is launched.
In the scenario where the R:BASE installation is on the server, with the R:BASE Themes DLL also on the server, the end users may see extended processing times when using themes in the custom application. The reason is that each of the 86 themes are stored within the DLL file, which is approximately 90MB in size. So, for every form and/or custom dialog window that uses a theme, R:BASE must read the DLL from the server and transfer it across the network.
Processing times can be decreased for R:BASE server installations using themes by performing the following:
•load external themes into R:BASE, rather than using the native R:BASE themes
•removing themes from forms that contain a large number of controls, as a theme is applied to each control
In order to load a theme into R:BASE, the PROPERTY command must be used. The following PROPERTY command parameters are to manage external themes in R:BASE:
Parameter |
Value 1 |
Value 2 |
Description |
LOAD_THEME |
theme name |
theme file |
loads a new theme for the session |
RELEASE_THEME |
theme name |
TRUE |
releases an existing loaded theme |
CHANGE_THEME |
theme name |
new theme file |
loads a new a different theme for a loaded theme name |
Load Theme Example:
PROPERTY LOAD_THEME 'NewLuna' LunaBlue.msstyles
After this command is issued, the theme "NewLuna" will be available in all locations where a theme can be specified.
Release Theme Example:
PROPERTY RELEASE_THEME NewLuna TRUE
After this command is issued, the theme "NewLuna" will be released.
Change Theme Example:
PROPERTY CHANGE_THEME NewLuna LunaXP.msstyles
After this command is issued, the NewLuna theme will use the styles defined in the LunaXP.msstyles file. This command parameter is provided to alter the theme file, and to avoid changing the specified "theme name" in every location within the code.
