Pseudo selectors

Pseudo selectors can be used to apply only when some conditions are fulfilled.

Pseudo selectors are preceded with a colon and can be combined:

<Style name="Table:even:input" >
<Style name="Edit:focus" >
<Style name="Edit.important:focus" >

When combining several pseudo selectors, the style will be applied if all pseudo selector conditions are fulfilled.

Note: Depending on the type of the front-end, some pseudo selectors are meaningless, or unsupported. See the table below to check which pseudo selectors are supported on your front-end platform.

Pseudo selectors have different priorities; the style with the most important pseudo selector will be used when several styles match.


focus
query
display
input
even
odd
inactive
active
message
error
summaryLine

Table 1. Pseudo selectors for presentation styles
Priority	Pseudo selectors	Condition	GDC	HTML5	GMA	GMI
1	focus	The widget has the focus	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
2	query	The widget is in construct mode	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
3	display	The widget is in a display array	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
4	input	The widget is in an input array, input or construct	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
5	even	This widget is on an even row if an list (Table or Tree)	Yes	Yes	No	No
6	odd	This widget is on an odd row if an list (Table or Tree)	Yes	Yes	No	No
7	inactive	The widget is inactive	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
8	active	The widget is active	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
9	message	Applies only to text displayed with the `MESSAGE` instruction	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
10	error	Applies only to text displayed with the `ERROR` instruction	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
11	summaryLine	Applies only to text displayed in `AGGREGATE` fields of tables	Yes	Yes	No	No

Pseudo selectors also define the priority of your styles. A more generic style will be used when the pseudo-selector has a higher priority.

For instance: you want all important edits to have red text, but you want the current field to be displayed in blue:

<Style name="Edit.important" >
<Style name=":focus" >

The style ":focus" is more generic than "Edit.important"; therefore, it will be used for the focused item, as the pseudo selector is more precise.