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

There is a light jQuery plugin which allows to generate CSS declarations: jQuery-injectCSS

In fact, it uses JSS (CSS described by JSON), but it's quite easy to handle in order to generate dynamic css stylesheets.

$.injectCSS({
    "#test": {
        height: 123
    }
});

Answer 2

Here is Vishwanath's solution slightly rewritten with comments :

function setStyle(cssRules, aSelector, aStyle){
    for(var i = 0; i < cssRules.length; i++) {
        if(cssRules[i].selectorText && cssRules[i].selectorText.toLowerCase() == aSelector.toLowerCase()) {
            cssRules[i].style.cssText = aStyle;
            return true;
        }
    }
    return false;
}

function createCSSSelector(selector, style) {
    var doc = document;
    var allSS = doc.styleSheets;
    if(!allSS) return;

    var headElts = doc.getElementsByTagName("head");
    if(!headElts.length) return;

    var styleSheet, media, iSS = allSS.length; // scope is global in a function
    /* 1. search for media == "screen" */
    while(iSS){ --iSS;
        if(allSS[iSS].disabled) continue; /* dont take into account the disabled stylesheets */
        media = allSS[iSS].media;
        if(typeof media == "object")
            media = media.mediaText;
        if(media == "" || media=='all' || media.indexOf("screen") != -1){
            styleSheet = allSS[iSS];
            iSS = -1;   // indication that media=="screen" was found (if not, then iSS==0)
            break;
        }
    }

    /* 2. if not found, create one */
    if(iSS != -1) {
        var styleSheetElement = doc.createElement("style");
        styleSheetElement.type = "text/css";
        headElts[0].appendChild(styleSheetElement);
        styleSheet = doc.styleSheets[allSS.length]; /* take the new stylesheet to add the selector and the style */
    }

    /* 3. add the selector and style */
    switch (typeof styleSheet.media) {
    case "string":
        if(!setStyle(styleSheet.rules, selector, style));
            styleSheet.addRule(selector, style);
        break;
    case "object":
        if(!setStyle(styleSheet.cssRules, selector, style));
            styleSheet.insertRule(selector + "{" + style + "}", styleSheet.cssRules.length);
        break;
    }

Answer 3

Using google closure:

you can just use the ccsom module:

goog.require('goog.cssom');
var css_node = goog.cssom.addCssText('.cssClass { color: #F00; }');

The javascript code attempts to be cross browser when putting the css node into the document head.

Answer 4

As of IE 9. You can now load a text file and set a style.innerHTML property. So essentially you can now load a css file through ajax (and get the callback) and then just set the text inside of a style tag like this.

This works in other browsers, not sure how far back. But as long as you don't need to support IE8 then it would work.

// RESULT: doesn't work in IE8 and below. Works in IE9 and other browsers.
$(document).ready(function() {
    // we want to load the css as a text file and append it with a style.
    $.ajax({
        url:'myCss.css',
        success: function(result) {
            var s = document.createElement('style');
            s.setAttribute('type', 'text/css');
            s.innerHTML = result;
            document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0].appendChild(s);
        },
        fail: function() {
            alert('fail');
        }
    })
});

and then you can have it pull an external file like the myCss.css

.myClass { background:#F00; }

Answer 5

I was looking through some of the answers here, and I couldn't find anything that automatically adds a new stylesheet if there are none, and if not simply modifies an existing one that already contains the style needed, so I made a new function (should work accross all browsers, though not tested, uses addRule and besides that only basic native JavaScript, let me know if it works):

function myCSS(data) {
    var head = document.head || document.getElementsByTagName("head")[0];
    if(head) {
        if(data && data.constructor == Object) {
            for(var k in data) {
                var selector = k;
                var rules = data[k];

                var allSheets = document.styleSheets;
                var cur = null;

                var indexOfPossibleRule = null,
                    indexOfSheet = null;
                for(var i = 0; i < allSheets.length; i++) {
                    indexOfPossibleRule = findIndexOfObjPropInArray("selectorText",selector,allSheets[i].cssRules);
                    if(indexOfPossibleRule != null) {
                        indexOfSheet = i;
                        break;
                    }
                }

                var ruleToEdit = null;
                if(indexOfSheet != null) {

                    ruleToEdit = allSheets[indexOfSheet].cssRules[indexOfPossibleRule];

                } else {
                    cur = document.createElement("style");
                    cur.type =  "text/css";
                    head.appendChild(cur);
                    cur.sheet.addRule(selector,"");
                    ruleToEdit = cur.sheet.cssRules[0];
                    console.log("NOPE, but here's a new one:", cur);
                }
                applyCustomCSSruleListToExistingCSSruleList(rules, ruleToEdit, (err) => {
                    if(err) {
                        console.log(err);
                    } else {
                        console.log("successfully added ", rules, " to ", ruleToEdit);
                    }
                });
            }
        } else {
            console.log("provide one paramter as an object containing the cssStyles, like: {\"#myID\":{position:\"absolute\"}, \".myClass\":{background:\"red\"}}, etc...");
        }
    } else {
        console.log("run this after the page loads");
    }

};  

then just add these 2 helper functions either inside the above function, or anywhere else:

function applyCustomCSSruleListToExistingCSSruleList(customRuleList, existingRuleList, cb) {
    var err = null;
    console.log("trying to apply ", customRuleList, " to ", existingRuleList);
    if(customRuleList && customRuleList.constructor == Object && existingRuleList && existingRuleList.constructor == CSSStyleRule) {
        for(var k in customRuleList) {
            existingRuleList["style"][k] = customRuleList[k];
        }

    } else {
        err = ("provide first argument as an object containing the selectors for the keys, and the second argument is the CSSRuleList to modify");
    }
    if(cb) {
        cb(err);
    }
}

function findIndexOfObjPropInArray(objPropKey, objPropValue, arr) {
    var index = null;
    for(var i = 0; i < arr.length; i++) {
        if(arr[i][objPropKey] == objPropValue) {
            index = i;
            break;
        }
    }
    return index;
}

(notice that in both of them I use a for loop instead of .filter, since the CSS style / rule list classes only have a length property, and no .filter method.)

Then to call it:

myCSS({
    "#coby": {
        position:"absolute",
        color:"blue"
    },
    ".myError": {
        padding:"4px",
        background:"salmon"
    }
})

Let me know if it works for your browser or gives an error.

Answer 6

Although I'm not sure why you want to create CSS classes with JavaScript, here is an option:

var style = document.createElement('style');
style.type = 'text/css';
style.innerHTML = '.cssClass { color: #F00; }';
document.getElementsByTagName('head')[0].appendChild(style);

document.getElementById('someElementId').className = 'cssClass';