How to: Change Styles on an Element in the Managed HTML Document Object Model

Article
07/20/2022

You can use styles in HTML to control the appearance of a document and its elements. HtmlDocument and HtmlElement support Style properties that take style strings of the following format:

name1:value1;...;nameN:valueN;

Here is a DIV with a style string that sets the font to Arial and all text to bold:

<DIV style="font-face:arial;font-weight:bold;">
Hello, world!
</DIV>

The problem with manipulating styles using the Style property is that it can prove cumbersome to add to and remove individual style settings from the string. For example, it would become a complex procedure for you to render the previous text in italics whenever the user positions the cursor over the DIV, and take italics off when the cursor leaves the DIV. Time would become an issue if you need to manipulate a large number of styles in this manner.

The following procedure contains code that you can use to easily manipulate styles on HTML documents and elements. The procedure requires that you know how to perform basic tasks in Windows Forms, such as creating a new project and adding a control to a form.

To process style changes in a Windows Forms application

Create a new Windows Forms project.
Create a new class file ending in the extension appropriate for your programming language.
Copy the StyleGenerator class code in the Example section of this topic into the class file, and save the code.

Save the following HTML to a file named Test.htm.

<HTML>
    <BODY>

        <DIV style="font-face:arial;font-weight:bold;">
            Hello, world!
        </DIV><P>

        <DIV>
            Hello again, world!
        </DIV><P>

    </BODY>
</HTML>

Add a WebBrowser control named webBrowser1 to the main form of your project.

Add the following code to your project's code file.

Important

Ensure that the webBrowser1_DocumentCompleted event handler is configured as a listener for the DocumentCompleted event. In Visual Studio, double-click on the WebBrowser control; in a text editor, configure the listener programmatically.

StyleGenerator sg = null;
HtmlElement elem = null;

private void webBrowser1_DocumentCompleted(object sender, WebBrowserDocumentCompletedEventArgs e)
{
    sg = new StyleGenerator();

    webBrowser1.Document.MouseOver += new HtmlElementEventHandler(Document_MouseOver);
    webBrowser1.Document.MouseLeave += new HtmlElementEventHandler(Document_MouseLeave);
}

void Document_MouseOver(object sender, HtmlElementEventArgs e)
{
    elem = webBrowser1.Document.GetElementFromPoint(e.MousePosition);
    if (elem.TagName.Equals("DIV"))
    {
        sg.ParseStyleString(elem.Style);
        sg.SetStyle("font-style", "italic");
        elem.Style = sg.GetStyleString();
    }
}

void Document_MouseLeave(object sender, HtmlElementEventArgs e)
{
    if (elem != null)
    {
        sg.RemoveStyle("font-style");
        elem.Style = sg.GetStyleString();
        // Reset, since we may mouse over a new DIV element next time.
        sg.Clear();
    }
}

Public Class Form1

    Dim SG As StyleGenerator = Nothing
    Dim Elem As HtmlElement = Nothing
    Dim WithEvents DocumentEvents As HtmlDocument

    Private Sub WebBrowser1_DocumentCompleted(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.WebBrowserDocumentCompletedEventArgs) Handles WebBrowser1.DocumentCompleted
        SG = New StyleGenerator()
        DocumentEvents = WebBrowser1.Document
    End Sub

    Private Sub Document_MouseOver(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As HtmlElementEventArgs) Handles DocumentEvents.MouseOver
        Elem = WebBrowser1.Document.GetElementFromPoint(e.MousePosition)
        If Elem.TagName.Equals("DIV") Then
            SG.ParseStyleString(Elem.Style)
            SG.SetStyle("font-style", "italic")
            Elem.Style = SG.GetStyleString()
        End If
    End Sub

    Private Sub Document_MouseLeave(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As HtmlElementEventArgs) Handles DocumentEvents.MouseLeave
        If (Elem IsNot Nothing) Then
            SG.RemoveStyle("font-style")
            Elem.Style = SG.GetStyleString()
            ' Reset, since we may mouse over a new DIV element next time.
            SG.Clear()
        End If
    End Sub
End Class

Run the project. Run your cursor over the first DIV to observe the effects of the code.

Example

The following code example shows the full code for the StyleGenerator class, which parses an existing style value, supports adding, changing, and removing styles, and returns a new style value with the requested changes.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;

namespace ManagedDOMStyles
{
    public class StyleGenerator
    {
        private Dictionary<string, string> styleDB;

        public StyleGenerator()
        {
            styleDB = new Dictionary<string, string>();
        }

        public bool ContainsStyle(string name)
        {
            return(styleDB.ContainsKey(name));
        }

        public string SetStyle(string name, string value)
        {
            string oldValue = "";

            if (!(name.Length > 0))
            {
                throw (new ArgumentException("Parameter name cannot be zero-length."));
            }
            if (!(value.Length > 0))
            {
                throw (new ArgumentException("Parameter value cannot be zero-length."));
            }

            if (styleDB.ContainsKey(name))
            {
                oldValue = styleDB[name];
            }

            styleDB[name] = value;

            return (oldValue);
        }

        public string GetStyle(string name)
        {
            if (!(name.Length > 0))
            {
                throw (new ArgumentException("Parameter name cannot be zero-length."));
            }

            if (styleDB.ContainsKey(name))
            {
                return (styleDB[name]);
            }
            else
            {
                return ("");
            }
        }

        public void RemoveStyle(string name)
        {
            if (styleDB.ContainsKey(name))
            {
                styleDB.Remove(name);
            }
        }

        public string GetStyleString()
        {
            if (styleDB.Count > 0)
            {
                StringBuilder styleString = new StringBuilder("");
                foreach (string key in styleDB.Keys)
                {
                    styleString.Append(String.Format("{0}:{1};", (object)key, (object)styleDB[key]));
                }

                return (styleString.ToString());
            }
            else
            {
                return ("");
            }
        }

        public void ParseStyleString(string styles)
        {
            if (styles.Length > 0)
            {
                string[] stylePairs = styles.Split(new char[] { ';' });
                foreach(string stylePair in stylePairs)
                {
                    if (stylePairs.Length > 0)
                    {
                        string[] styleNameValue = stylePair.Split(new char[] { ':' });
                        if (styleNameValue.Length == 2)
                        {
                            styleDB[styleNameValue[0]] = styleNameValue[1];
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        }

        public void Clear()
        {
            styleDB.Clear();
        }
    }
}

Imports System.Collections.Generic
Imports System.Text

Public Class StyleGenerator
    Dim styleDB As Dictionary(Of String, String)

    Public Sub New()
        styleDB = New Dictionary(Of String, String)()
    End Sub


    Public Function ContainsStyle(ByVal name As String) As Boolean
        Return styleDB.ContainsKey(name)
    End Function


    Public Function SetStyle(ByVal name As String, ByVal value As String) As String
        Dim oldValue As String = ""

        If (Not name.Length > 0) Then
            Throw New ArgumentException("Parameter name cannot be zero-length.")
        End If
        If (Not value.Length > 0) Then
            Throw New ArgumentException("Parameter value cannot be zero-length.")
        End If

        If (styleDB.ContainsKey(name)) Then
            oldValue = styleDB(name)
        End If

        styleDB(name) = value

        Return oldValue
    End Function

    Public Function GetStyle(ByVal name As String) As String
        If (Not name.Length > 0) Then
            Throw New ArgumentException("Parameter name cannot be zero-length.")
        End If

        If (styleDB.ContainsKey(name)) Then
            Return styleDB(name)
        Else
            Return ""
        End If
    End Function

    Public Sub RemoveStyle(ByVal name As String)
        If (styleDB.ContainsKey(name)) Then
            styleDB.Remove(name)
        End If
    End Sub

    Public Function GetStyleString() As String
        If (styleDB.Count > 0) Then
            Dim styleString As New StringBuilder("")
            Dim key As String
            For Each key In styleDB.Keys
                styleString.Append(String.Format("{0}:{1};", CType(key, Object), CType(styleDB(key), Object)))
            Next key

            Return styleString.ToString()
        Else
            Return ""
        End If
    End Function

    Public Sub ParseStyleString(ByVal styles As String)
        If (styles.Length) > 0 Then
            Dim stylePairs As String() = styles.Split(New Char() {";"c})
            Dim stylePair As String
            For Each stylePair In stylePairs
                If (stylePairs.Length > 0) Then
                    Dim styleNameValue As String() = stylePair.Split(New Char() {":"c})
                    If (styleNameValue.Length = 2) Then
                        styleDB(styleNameValue(0)) = styleNameValue(1)
                    End If
                End If
            Next stylePair
        End If
    End Sub


    Public Sub Clear()
        styleDB.Clear()
    End Sub
End Class

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How to: Change Styles on an Element in the Managed HTML Document Object Model

To process style changes in a Windows Forms application

Example

See also

Additional resources