Hi.

Have you tried this in Powerbuilder 2022 R3? If yes, are you seeing the same behavior?

Generally, when using themes, the background color of your datawindows is set by themes. But, there is a way to change that. You have to modify your theme.json file from:

...

	"datawindow":
	{
		"drawing":true,
		"background-color-enabled":true,

...

to

...

	"datawindow":
	{
		"drawing":true,
		"background-color-enabled":false,

...

That way, the expressions should work. But this means that themes won't control at all the background color of your datawindows!

Now, this may not be what exactly you want to achieve. You may need such a behavior for certain datawindows. This can be done by setting a custom theme. Check the documentation in the following link:

Specifying application properties - - Users Guide

Based on the above documentation, you can add a custom theme that would affect a specific control. Example:

"w_mywindow.dw_mydatawidnow":
{
	"drawing":true,
	"background-color-enabled":false,
	...
}

This may be a way to achieve your goal.

Andreas.

Hi Andreas,

In Powerbuilder 2022 R3 is working fine. In Powerbuilder 2025 Beta is not working even if we set the background-color-enabled to false.

"datawindow":
	{
		"drawing":true,
		"background-color-enabled":false,

even if it worked, we only want it in the case of the grid-style datawindow.

Yes we can set theme properties for specific controls but this is not the case, and we want the behavior of Powerbuilder 2022 R3 

In the article https://community.appeon.com/index.php/articles-blogs/tutorials-articles/2-powerbuilder/230-applying-a-new-ui-theme-to-your-application

in the section "How to set the background color of DataWindow" says that:

"Solution:

You can set by the following method:

Method 1: Use the following script to modify the background color of the DataWindow Detail band:

dw_1.modify("datawindow.detail.color = "+string(il_BackColor))

Method 2: Use the expression in the properties dialog to modify the background color of the DataWindow Detail band. "

This is not working in Powerbuilder 2025 Beta

Sorry, I just tested an application in PB 2025. This is what you want to achieve?

(Here the first row has a different color because it's the selected one). Using Flat Design Gray.

The screenshot is from an application running in Powerbuilder 2025... In this specific test I'm using expressions in the designer.

What Build are you using?

Andreas.

Did again some tests. This time I used runtime 3484. Converted to solution (but I am pretty sure that this cannot make a difference in that specific issue).

The above datawindow shows a follows:

I'm using an expression (if(mod(getrow(), 2)=1, rgb(192, 220, 192), rgb(192, 220, 0)) in background color with vertical gradient).

I have added a button <none> that executes the following command:

dw_contracts_funds.modify("datawindow.detail.color = 12639424~tif(mod(getrow(), 2)=1, rgb(192, 220, 192), rgb(192, 220, 0))")

When pressing that button I see no change on my datawindow. But when testing the same in PB 2022 r3, the space on right of column max date changes color. So I do see a different behavior.

Also, setting:

...

	"datawindow":
	{
		"drawing":true,
		"background-color-enabled":false,

...

seems to have no effect in PB 2025 Beta, while in PB 2022 R3 I do see the background color that I set in the datawindow.

So I can say that I do see at least two points where the behavior differs.

Andreas.

Andreas,

without theme and without gradient mode and using the expression in background color of the detail band: if(mod(getrow(), 2)=1, rgb(192, 220, 192), rgb(192, 220, 0))  , I have the following:

Applying the Flat Design Grey Theme I have the Following:

the test was done with pure datawindow control in Powerbuilder 2025 build 3484 using the json themes of PowerBuilder 2025

Hi Stefanos,

Thank you for raising this issue.

PB 2025 UI theme has added support for setting the background color of DataWindow bands. In the theme.json file, you can now define the background-color for the detail-band, summary-band, and footer-band in grid-style DataWindows. However, due to this new functionality, the background-color setting in theme.json takes precedence, causing expressions for background color to not work as expected.

In practice, users often set colors in the detail band of the DataWindow to display different row colors based on conditions. We are looking into optimizing this by either adding a toggle for band background colors or prioritizing expressions over theme settings.

We suggest you submit this issue through a ticket so that we can follow up promptly and keep you updated on the progress:
https://www.appeon.com/standardsupport/newbug

Regards,
Kitty