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Hexo and the Dark Mode ... revised

Second approach to implement 'prefers-color-scheme'

While writing my post Hexo and the Dark Mode a few days ago, I thought it would be nice, if I could switch between the normal (light) and the dark theme, I’ve created for the support of the OS-related Dark Mode, even manually. The only thing I needed was a toggle element and a little bit of JavaScript.

Of course, I couldn’t manipulate the media query prefers-color-scheme itself, but introduce a different way by blog uses it. Instead of implementing the media query directly into my CSS (or Stylus) code, I used a root selector, which can be manipulated by JavaScript … something like this:

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body {
background-color: white;
color: black;
}

[data-theme="dark"] body {
background-color: black;
color: white;
}
}

In every Stylus file, where I used @media prefers-dark to achieve the automatic switch by the OS, I changed this line into /[data-theme="dark"] & :

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#mobile-nav-header
background-color: color-background
/[data-theme="dark"] &
background-color: dark-color-background
img.avatar
...
/[data-theme="dark"] &
filter: brightness(85%)

Some explanations on the Stylus syntax: / means the root of the DOM and & points to the parent selector. Therefore the example will be rendered into this:

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#mobile-nav-header {
background-color: #f1f1f1;
}
[data-theme="dark"] #mobile-nav-header {
background-color: #111;
}

#mobile-nav-header img.avatar {
...
}
[data-theme="dark"] #mobile-nav-header img.avatar
filter: brightness(85%);
}

Only problem was: the “Root + Parent” Stylus selector doesn’t work in the block variables in the _extend.styl. So I had to copy all theme relevant styles directly to the elements, where such a block was used: @extend <block-name>.

The Toggle Switch

In the footer.ejs I added a toggle checkbox, where I could bind my JavaScript…

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<div id="footer-theme">
<input type="checkbox" id="theme-switch">
<label for="theme-switch"></label>
</div>

… and some CSS in the footer.styl, to style it:

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input#theme-switch[type=checkbox] {
display:none;
}

input#theme-switch[type=checkbox] + label
height: 16px
width: 16px
display: inline-block
padding: 12px
font-size: 22px
cursor: pointer
&:before
display: inline-block
font-size: inherit
text-rendering: auto
-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased
font-family: fa-icon-solid
content: icon-moon

input#theme-switch[type=checkbox]:checked + label
&:before
content: icon-sun

The icon variables are defined in the _variables.styl like this:

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icon-moon = "\f186"
icon-sun = "\f185"

The JavaScript

Everything was now prepared to implement the switching code in JavaScript, which should support a manual switch by clicking the toggle element as well as the automatic switch by the OS.

I wrapped all necessary code into a seperate JS file and placed a reference in the after-footer.ejs, which places it at the bottom of the HTML:

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<%- js('js/dark-mode-toggle.js') %>
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function detectColorScheme() {
var theme = "light"; //default

// get last used theme from local cache
if(localStorage.getItem("theme")){
if(localStorage.getItem("theme") === "dark"){
theme = "dark";
}
} else if(!window.matchMedia) {
// matchMedia not supported
return false;
} else if(window.matchMedia("(prefers-color-scheme: dark)").matches) {
// OS has set Dark Mode
theme = "dark";
}

// set detected theme
if (theme === "dark") {
setThemeDark();
} else {
setThemeLight();
}
}

const toggleTheme = document.querySelector('input#theme-switch[type="checkbox"]');

function setThemeDark() {
localStorage.setItem('theme', 'dark');
document.documentElement.setAttribute('data-theme', 'dark');
toggleTheme.checked = true;
}
function setThemeLight() {
localStorage.setItem('theme', 'light');
document.documentElement.setAttribute('data-theme', 'light');
toggleTheme.checked = false;
}

// Listener for theme change by toggle
toggleTheme.addEventListener('change', function(e) {
if (e.target.checked) {
setThemeDark();
} else {
setThemeLight();
}
}, false);

// Listener for theme change by OS
var toggleOS = window.matchMedia('(prefers-color-scheme: dark)');
toggleOS.addEventListener('change', function (e) {
if (e.matches) {
setThemeDark();
} else {
setThemeLight();
}
});

// call theme detection
detectColorScheme();

By using the both addEventListener‘s, each switch will be recognized and this approach is capable to support even more themes, just by using different values in the data-theme attribute.

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