How to dynamically create CSS class in JavaScript and apply?

Question

I need to create a CSS stylesheet class dynamically in JavaScript and assign it to some HTML elements like - div, table, span, tr, etc and to some controls like asp:Textbox,

Answer 1

function createCSSClass(selector, style, hoverstyle) 
{
    if (!document.styleSheets) 
    {
        return;
    }

    if (document.getElementsByTagName("head").length == 0) 
    {

        return;
    }
    var stylesheet;
    var mediaType;
    if (document.styleSheets.length > 0) 
    {
        for (i = 0; i < document.styleSheets.length; i++) 
        {
            if (document.styleSheets[i].disabled) 
            {
                continue;
            }
            var media = document.styleSheets[i].media;
            mediaType = typeof media;

            if (mediaType == "string") 
            {
                if (media == "" || (media.indexOf("screen") != -1)) 
                {
                    styleSheet = document.styleSheets[i];
                }
            } 
            else if (mediaType == "object") 
            {
                if (media.mediaText == "" || (media.mediaText.indexOf("screen") != -1)) 
                {
                    styleSheet = document.styleSheets[i];
                }
            }

            if (typeof styleSheet != "undefined") 
            {
                break;
            }
        }
    }

    if (typeof styleSheet == "undefined") {
        var styleSheetElement = document.createElement("style");
        styleSheetElement.type = "text/css";
        document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0].appendChild(styleSheetElement);
        for (i = 0; i < document.styleSheets.length; i++) {
            if (document.styleSheets[i].disabled) {
                continue;
            }
            styleSheet = document.styleSheets[i];
        }

        var media = styleSheet.media;
        mediaType = typeof media;
    }

    if (mediaType == "string") {
        for (i = 0; i < styleSheet.rules.length; i++) 
        {
            if (styleSheet.rules[i].selectorText.toLowerCase() == selector.toLowerCase()) 
            {
                styleSheet.rules[i].style.cssText = style;
                return;
            }
        }

        styleSheet.addRule(selector, style);
    }
    else if (mediaType == "object") 
    {
        for (i = 0; i < styleSheet.cssRules.length; i++) 
        {
            if (styleSheet.cssRules[i].selectorText.toLowerCase() == selector.toLowerCase()) 
            {
                styleSheet.cssRules[i].style.cssText = style;
                return;
            }
        }

        if (hoverstyle != null) 
        {
            styleSheet.insertRule(selector + "{" + style + "}", 0);
            styleSheet.insertRule(selector + ":hover{" + hoverstyle + "}", 1);
        }
        else 
        {
            styleSheet.insertRule(selector + "{" + style + "}", 0);
        }
    }
}





createCSSClass(".modalPopup  .header",
                                 " background-color: " + lightest + ";" +
                                  "height: 10%;" +
                                  "color: White;" +
                                  "line-height: 30px;" +
                                  "text-align: center;" +
                                  " width: 100%;" +
                                  "font-weight: bold; ", null);

Answer 2

An interesting project which could help you out in your task is JSS.

JSS is a better abstraction over CSS. It uses JavaScript as a language to describe styles in a declarative and maintainable way. It is a high performance JS to CSS compiler which works at runtime in the browsers and server-side.

JSS library allows you to inject in the DOM/head section using the .attach() function.

Repl online version for evaluation.

Further information on JSS.

An example:

// Use plugins.
jss.use(camelCase())

// Create your style.
const style = {
  myButton: {
    color: 'green'
  }
}

// Compile styles, apply plugins.
const sheet = jss.createStyleSheet(style)

// If you want to render on the client, insert it into DOM.
sheet.attach()

Answer 3

Short answer, this is compatible "on all browsers" (specifically, IE8/7):

function createClass(name,rules){
    var style = document.createElement('style');
    style.type = 'text/css';
    document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(style);
    if(!(style.sheet||{}).insertRule) 
        (style.styleSheet || style.sheet).addRule(name, rules);
    else
        style.sheet.insertRule(name+"{"+rules+"}",0);
}
createClass('.whatever',"background-color: green;");

And this final bit applies the class to an element:

function applyClass(name,element,doRemove){
    if(typeof element.valueOf() == "string"){
        element = document.getElementById(element);
    }
    if(!element) return;
    if(doRemove){
        element.className = element.className.replace(new RegExp("\\b" + name + "\\b","g"));
    }else{      
        element.className = element.className + " " + name;
    }
}

Here's a little test page as well: https://gist.github.com/shadybones/9816763

The key little bit is the fact that style elements have a "styleSheet"/"sheet" property which you can use to to add/remove rules on.

Answer 4

Here is my modular solution:

var final_style = document.createElement('style');
final_style.type = 'text/css';

function addNewStyle(selector, style){
  final_style.innerHTML += selector + '{ ' + style + ' } \n';
};

function submitNewStyle(){
  document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(final_style);

  final_style = document.createElement('style');
  final_style.type = 'text/css';
};

function submitNewStyleWithMedia(mediaSelector){
  final_style.innerHTML = '@media(' + mediaSelector + '){\n' + final_style.innerHTML + '\n};';
    submitNewStyle();
};

You basically anywhere in your code do:
addNewStyle('body', 'color: ' + color1); , where color1 is defined variable.

When you want to "post" the current CSS file you simply do submitNewStyle(),
and then you can still add more CSS later.

If you want to add it with "media queries", you have the option.
After "addingNewStyles" you simply use submitNewStyleWithMedia('min-width: 1280px');.

---

It was pretty useful for my use-case, as I was changing CSS of public (not mine) website according to current time. I submit one CSS file before using "active" scripts, and the rest afterwards (makes the site look kinda-like it should before accessing elements through querySelector).

Answer 5

Looked through the answers and the most obvious and straight forward is missing: use document.write() to write out a chunk of CSS you need.

Here is an example (view it on codepen: http://codepen.io/ssh33/pen/zGjWga):

<style>
   @import url(http://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Open+Sans:800);
   .d, body{ font: 3vw 'Open Sans'; padding-top: 1em; }
   .d {
       text-align: center; background: #aaf;
       margin: auto; color: #fff; overflow: hidden; 
       width: 12em; height: 5em;
   }
</style>

<script>
   function w(s){document.write(s)}
   w("<style>.long-shadow { text-shadow: ");
   for(var i=0; i<449; i++) {
      if(i!= 0) w(","); w(i+"px "+i+"px #444");
   }
   w(";}</style>");
</script> 

<div class="d">
    <div class="long-shadow">Long Shadow<br> Short Code</div>
</div>

Answer 6

YUI has by far the best stylesheet utility I have seen out there. I encourage you to check it out, but here's a taste:

// style element or locally sourced link element
var sheet = YAHOO.util.StyleSheet(YAHOO.util.Selector.query('style',null,true));

sheet = YAHOO.util.StyleSheet(YAHOO.util.Dom.get('local'));


// OR the id of a style element or locally sourced link element
sheet = YAHOO.util.StyleSheet('local');


// OR string of css text
var css = ".moduleX .alert { background: #fcc; font-weight: bold; } " +
          ".moduleX .warn  { background: #eec; } " +
          ".hide_messages .moduleX .alert, " +
          ".hide_messages .moduleX .warn { display: none; }";

sheet = new YAHOO.util.StyleSheet(css);

There are obviously other much simpler ways of changing styles on the fly such as those suggested here. If they make sense for your problem, they might be best, but there are definitely reasons why modifying css is a better solution. The most obvious case is when you need to modify a large number of elements. The other major case is if you need your style changes to involve the cascade. Using the dom to modify an element will always have a higher priority. Its the sledgehammer approach and is equivalent to using the style attribute directly on the html element. That is not always the desired effect.