How can I find the current background/foreground color?

you do override getGlanceView similar to how you override getInitialView

flocsy🤠 said:

you do override getGlanceView similar to how you override getInitialView

Sorry, I mistyped. I meant getGlanceTheme(), which @bram.d referred to in his post.  I’ve corrected my original post.

bram.d said:

On Edge if you set the GLANCE_THEME_XXX by implementing getGlanceTheme() in your AppBase subclass then

Hmm, I think it needs to be tested, and then according to what we see it really does a "bug report" could be made to improve the documentation. When I read the docs I 1st thought it's like the getGlanceView: the app can tell the system which theme it wants to be displayed with. But I read it again now and I can also read it the way you did. For sure a clarification would be needed.

flocsy🤠 said:

When I read the docs I 1st thought it's like the getGlanceView: the app can tell the system which theme it wants to be displayed with. But I read it again now and I can also read it the way you did. For sure a clarification would be needed.

Yes, the documentation on this is quite limited. I tested it and overriding does work.

At first I tried it in the simulator with the Edge 850, but it seems this is not implemented there. However, when using the Fenix 8 Pro in the simulator, the glance is rendered differently. Below is GLANCE_THEME_GOLD:

Sorry I was busy with other things. Yes you can override getGlanceTheme(), I don't recall where I read that. Garmin's documentation quality is abysmal to my standards (40 yrs professional SE). I include a boilerplate code for a Glance.  It also includes handling of day/night mode and a link to the documentation for that. As to fonts, you are right - the system glance font is not italics and indeed many glances provided by Garmin apply italics. Personally I don't mind but if you insist to have italics you will need to make custom fonts.

import Toybox.Application;
import Toybox.Lang;
import Toybox.WatchUi;
import Rez.Styles;


(:glance)
class MyApp extends Application.AppBase {

    private function setTheme() {
        // Test for night mode
        if (Styles.device_info.hasNightMode
        &&  System.DeviceSettings has :isNightModeEnabled) {
            _theme = System.getDeviceSettings().isNightModeEnabled ? :nighttime : :daytime;
        } else {
            _theme = :daytime;
        }
    }


    function initialize() {
        AppBase.initialize();
        
        setTheme();

    }

    // onStart() is called on application start up
    function onStart(state as Dictionary?) as Void {
    }

    // onStop() is called when your application is exiting
    function onStop(state as Dictionary?) as Void {
    }

    // Return the glance theme to set
    function getGlanceTheme(){
        return GLANCE_THEME_RED;
    }

    // Return the glance view
    function getGlanceView() {
        return [ new MyGlanceView() ];
    }

    // Return the initial view of your application here
    function getInitialView() {
        return [ new MyView(), new MyViewDelegate() ];
    }

    // Application handler for changes in day/night mode
    function onNightModeChanged() {
        setTheme();
        WatchUi.requestUpdate();
    }

    // Mode accessor
    function getTheme() as Theme {
        return _theme;
    }

    // Return night mode state as boolean
    function isNightModeEnabled() as Boolean {
        return (_theme == :nighttime);
    }

}

(:glance)
function getApp() as MyApp {
    return Application.getApp() as MyApp;
}

import Toybox.Graphics;
import Toybox.Lang;
import Toybox.WatchUi;
import Rez.Styles;

(:glance)
class MyGlanceView extends GlanceView {

    hidden var _glanceText = "Hello, World";

    
    //! constructor
    function initialize(){
        GlanceView.initialize();
//        _glancetext = MyData.getGlanceString(); // returns the content for the Glance
    }

    //! onLayout
    function onLayout(dc as Dc) as Void {
        // set layout here
    }

    //! onUpdate
    function onUpdate(dc as Dc) as Void {
        // For understanding the following refer to:
        // https://developer.garmin.com/connect-iq/personality-library/colors/
        // Full coding example given in that link
        // Set foreground color
        if ($.getApp().isNightModeEnabled()) {      // We're in night mode
            dc.setColor(system_color_dark__text.color, system_color_dark__text.background);
        } else {                                    // We're in daylight mode
            dc.setColor(system_color_light__text.color, system_color_light__text.background);
        }

        // Update your content here
//        _glanceText = MyData.getGlanceString();

        // Draw foreground
        dc.drawText(
            0,
            dc.getHeight()/2,
            Graphics.FONT_SMALL, 
            _glanceText,
            Graphics.TEXT_JUSTIFY_LEFT|Graphics.TEXT_JUSTIFY_VCENTER
        );
    }
    
}

After reviewing your code, I have one suggestion:

For the background color, I recommend using Graphics.COLOR_TRANSPARENT instead of the system color. Do that if you want the gradient background that some devices have to work properly. You can see this in the Fenix 8 Pro screenshot I posted above.

Also interesting: when using these styles in a glance with the strictest type checking level (3), the project does not compile. The compiler reports that they are not available “in all function scopes.”

To make it compile, you need to disable the scope check by adding the (:typecheck(disableGlanceCheck)) annotation to the function where you want to use them.

Thanks for all the responses.  I couldn't let it go so continued to test and finally figured out how to utilize the default background color in glances.  I was making the mistake of clearing which overrode the default colors on the Edge device which in day mode is an off-white/bluish background and at nigh a gray.  I also testing the getTheme method thinking maybe that would help me but it doesn't.  The problem with the getTheme method is it always returns default, unless you modify the theme.  Of course if you are modifying the theme, you already know what it is so the method in my use case does not help me.  I also what to call out that Garmin is overloading the use of theme in their methods and personality documentation.  In the personality documentation they are simply setting a cached value to day or night mode and calling it a theme.  Not really a theme in that context but showing the concept of caching.  I am not caching day or night mode because it can change while you are viewing.  Granted a very restricted use case, but that's my reasoning at the moment.  I may ultimately cache and go with a counter to refresh the cache after every 10 entries to minimize the overhead a bit.  I am also not using any Styles since they did not allow me to render the glance in the way I wanted for consistency.  I'm also giving up on the Italics, at least for now.  Here is my current code snippet for setting foreground and background colors that mirror the glance backgrounds and text colors for Fenix 6, Fenix 8, Venu 3, Venu 4, and Edge 1050.  I suspect it would work on most devices to match background and foreground glance patterns.

    private function setupDisplay(dc) {
        var isEdge = isEdgeDevice();
        var isNight = isNightModeEnabled();
         
         var textColor;
         if (isEdge) {
            if (isNight) {
                textColor = Graphics.COLOR_WHITE;
            } else {
                textColor = Graphics.COLOR_BLACK;
            }
        } else {
            if (isNight) {
                textColor = Graphics.COLOR_BLACK;
            } else {
                textColor = Graphics.COLOR_WHITE;
            }
        }
        
        dc.setColor(textColor, Graphics.COLOR_TRANSPARENT);
    }

Thanks for your responses.

I had put a lengthy reply together  with a code snippet on how I resolved background consistency, but it was flagged as spam.