Accessing a CSS custom property (aka CSS variable) through JavaScript

javascript jquery css css-variables
MarcZ picture MarcZ · Mar 18, 2016 · Viewed 21.6k times · Source

How do you get and set CSS custom properties (those accessed with var(…) in the stylesheet) using JavaScript (plain or jQuery)?

Here is my unsuccessful try: clicking on the buttons changes the usual font-weight property, but not the custom --mycolor property:

<html>
<head>
  <script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.2.0/jquery.min.js"></script>
  <style>
    body { 
      --mycolor: yellow;
      background-color: var(--mycolor);
    }
  </style>
</head>
<body>

  <p>Let's try to make this text bold and the background red.</p>
  <button onclick="plain_js()">Plain JS</button>
  <button onclick="jQuery_()">jQuery</button>

  <script>
  function plain_js() { 
    document.body.style['font-weight'] = 'bold';
    document.body.style['--mycolor'] = 'red';
  };
  function jQuery_() {
    $('body').css('font-weight', 'bold');
    $('body').css('--mycolor', 'red');
  }
  </script>
</body>
</html>

Answer

CMedina picture CMedina · Mar 18, 2016

You can use document.body.style.setProperty('--name', value);:

var bodyStyles = window.getComputedStyle(document.body);
var fooBar = bodyStyles.getPropertyValue('--foo-bar'); //get

document.body.style.setProperty('--foo-bar', newValue);//set

More Information here.

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