Using Themes

Default Theme

The default theme for custom components is Spark, just like other Flex components included with the Flex SDK. In fact, some Ardisia components only have skins defined for the Spark theme and most Ardisia components assume that the stylesheet for the Spark theme will be included in all projects. Therefore, it is extremely important that the "defaults.css" file, which is located in the root of the Library package, is embedded into the SWC file.

When a "defaults.css" file located in the root of a SWC file, it is automatically included in projects. Therefore, there is no need to explicitly include the "/defaults.css" file in the MXML root application file for your projects.

That being said, when components have skins defined for custom themes that are not Spark, developers should use skins from these custom themes because they are generally superior to Spark theme skins.

Custom Themes

All custom themes define skins and styles for the same components. Custom themes can be found in the "/ardisia/themes/" directory with each theme's "defaults.css" stylesheet located at the top of its respective directory.

To use a custom theme, the recommended way is to simply include the
"/ardisia/themes/ theme name  /defaults.css" file in the root of your application.

For example:

<s:Application xmlns:fx="http://ns.adobe.com/mxml/2009"
	xmlns:s="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/spark"
	xmlns:mx="library://ns.adobe.com/flex/mx">

	<fx:Style source="ardisia/themes/stockholm/defaults.css" />

This is not the only way to include a custom theme but it is most reliable.

Fonts

The default font for custom themes is Arial 12. The demo application uses an embedded open source OpenSans font.

Using FTE in MX Components

If you want to use the FTE text engine with MX components, include the "frameworks/projects/spark/MXFTEText.css" file. See this link for more information.

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