Changing the source of mx:Style at run time

Question

Is there a way to be able to change the stylesheet for an
application at run time? Or is the only way to handle it on the
server?

Answer 1

For those who might be interested, here is a class that will
load a xml file (that describes styles) and applies the styles
found to your application.
The xml file is in the format:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<dynamicStyles>
<Application selectorType="type"
backgroundImage="images/background.jpg"/>
<ApplicationControlBar selectorType="type"
highlightAlphas="0.5, 0.25"/>
<ToggleButtonBar selectorType="type"
highlightAlphas="0.5, .25"/>
<viewPanel borderStyle="solid" borderThickness="1"
borderColor="#efefef" backgroundColor="#d0d0d0"
backgroundAlpha="0.5" color="#170505" cornerRadius="5"
dropShadowEnabled="true"/>
<infoPanel borderStyle="solid" borderThickness="1"
borderColor="#7f7e7e" backgroundColor="#ffffff"
backgroundAlpha="1.0" cornerRadius="5"
dropShadowEnabled="false"/>
<infoLabel fontSize="11" fontWeight="bold"/>
</dynamicStyles>
The AS class is the following (be sure to name the .as file
that same as the class name and modify the "package" section yo
include any path required by your setup.
package
import mx.styles.CSSStyleDeclaration;
import mx.styles.StyleManager;
import flash.net.URLLoader;
import flash.net.URLRequest;
import flash.events.*;
import flash.xml.XMLNode;
import flash.errors.IOError;
public final class RuntimeStyle
private var _source:String;
public function get source():String {
return _source;
public function set source(value:String):void {
if (value != _source){
getStylesheet(value);
_source = value;
private function getStylesheet(value:String):void {
var urlRequest:URLRequest = new URLRequest(value);
var urlLoader:URLLoader = new URLLoader();
urlLoader.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, completeHandler);
urlLoader.addEventListener(IOErrorEvent.IO_ERROR,
ioErrorHandler);
urlLoader.addEventListener(SecurityErrorEvent.SECURITY_ERROR,
securityErrorHandler);
urlLoader.load(urlRequest);
private function completeHandler(event:Event):void {
var loader:URLLoader = URLLoader(event.target);
var xmlDoc:XML = new XML(loader.data);
applyStyles(xmlDoc);
private function ioErrorHandler(event:IOErrorEvent):void {
throw new IOError("Error Attempting to load
RuntimeStylesheet:" + source + " Original Error: " + event.text);
private function
securityErrorHandler(event:SecurityErrorEvent):void {
throw new SecurityError("Error Attempting to load
RuntimeStylesheet:" + source + " Original Error: " + event.text);
private function applyStyles(xmlDoc:XML):void {
var xmlList:XMLList = xmlDoc.children();
for each(var node:XML in xmlList) {
if (node.@selectorType == "type") {
var cssStyle:CSSStyleDeclaration =
StyleManager.getStyleDeclaration(node.name());
if (cssStyle != null)
setStyle(cssStyle, node);
else {
var cssStyleDeclaration:CSSStyleDeclaration = new
CSSStyleDeclaration();
setStyle(cssStyleDeclaration, node);
StyleManager.setStyleDeclaration("." +
node.name().toString(), cssStyleDeclaration, true);
private function
setStyle(cssStyleDeclaration:CSSStyleDeclaration, node:XML):void {
var attributes:XMLList = node.attributes();
for each(var attributeNode:XML in attributes) {
var attributeName:String = attributeNode.name().toString();
if (attributeName != "selectorType") {
var attributeValue:String =
node.attribute(attributeName).toString();
if (attributeValue.indexOf(",") == -1)
cssStyleDeclaration.setStyle(attributeName, attributeValue);
else
cssStyleDeclaration.setStyle(attributeName,
attributeValue.split(","));
}