Forcing the front end to update style definitions

Question

tl;dr

I need a way to apply style edits in stylesheets, even when I can't use cmd+Shift+E

ntl;wr

A while back I wrote a suite of stylesheet editing tools to automate operations I did in batch, which basically just finds all Cell[StyleData[style],___] cells. The tools work great, except for when I need to apply the edits I've performed.

For example, try this:

new = CreateDocument[Cell[BoxData@"input", "Input"],
   System`ClosingSaveDialog -> False];
SetOptions[new,
  StyleDefinitions ->
   Notebook[{
     Cell[StyleData[StyleDefinitions -> "Default.nb"]],
     Cell[StyleData["Input"]],
     Cell[BoxData@ToBoxes@Unevaluated@
         SetOptions[Cells[][[2]],
          Background -> LightBlue
          ],
      "Input",
      InitializationCell -> True],
     Cell[BoxData@ToBoxes@Unevaluated[
         SelectionMove[
          Cells[][[2]],
          All,
          Cell
          ];
         FrontEndTokenExecute@"ToggleShowExpression"; 
         FrontEndTokenExecute@"ToggleShowExpression";
         ],
      "Input"]
     },
    StyleDefinitions -> "PrivateStylesheetFormatting.nb"]
  ];
FrontEndTokenExecute[new, "EditStyleDefinitions"];
FrontEndTokenExecute["EvaluateInitialization"]

It'll apply the styling with SetOptions but doesn't update.

I can force updating using the "ToggleShowExpression" calls in the second input cell there, but that only works if I can actually move to the cell.

Usually I'm building styles in a notebook, so I can, but sometimes this doesn't work. Case in point, I've recently been playing with the hidden style notebooks that Mathematica opens to track style changes. E.g.

$DefaultStyleNotebook :=
SelectFirst[FrontEndExecute@FrontEnd`ObjectChildren[$FrontEnd], 
  Quiet@NotebookFileName@# ===
FileNameJoin@{$InstallationDirectory,
  "SystemFiles", "FrontEnd", "StyleSheets", "Default.nb"} &

]

That's the (usually hidden) notebook that sets all the default styles. Now I can set its properties using StylesheetEdit[style, ops], but the changes can't be applied because I can't use "ToggleShowExpression".

I've looked through many of the front-end packets, but can't find where whatever "cascade-update" type functionality the front end uses to apply these updates is hidden.

Can anyone help me out? Note that the real dream would be something that I can just evaluate in the kernel, but which preserves the CellObject. (i.e. no rewriting with NotebookWrite)

Example

As an example this is the sort of syntax I'm using:

SSEdit["Input", True,
 FontColor -> Red
 ]

where the True just means create a new Cell with StyleData["Input",...] if it doesn't exist in the style definitions notebook.

After application this is what we see:

And then we revert it like this:

SSEdit["Input", True,
 FontColor -> Inherited
 ]

Which we can see does indeed revert the change:

But here's the annoying code I have to use to get those changes to apply:

SSApplyEdits[cells : {__CellObject}] :=     
 With[{e = EvaluationCell[]},
  Do[
   SelectionMove[c, All, Cell,
    AutoScroll -> False];
   FrontEndTokenExecute[ParentNotebook@c,"ToggleShowExpression"];
   FrontEndTokenExecute[ParentNotebook@c,"ToggleShowExpression"];,
   {c, cells}
   ];
   SelectionMove[e, After, Cell]
   ];

Answer 1

Updating the style definition cascade after in-memory modification of a stylesheet using SetOptions

I've found that simple (and invalid) FrontEndExecute@ExportPacket[] doesn't work for this purpose but a valid ExportPacket works:

FrontEndExecute@ExportPacket[Notebook[{Cell[""]}], "BoundingBox"]; // AbsoluteTiming

{0.0135368, Null}

(instead of "BoundingBox" one can request "InputText" or "PlainText" what appears to be slightly faster).

How I tested this. First, I find the cell defining the "Input" style:

input = Select[Cells[$DefaultStyleNotebook], 
    First@NotebookRead[#] === StyleData["Input"] &][[1]];

Then I apply SetOptions on it:

SetOptions[input, {FontSize -> 16}]

Nothing is changed visually. Now after evaluating

FrontEndExecute@ExportPacket[Notebook[{Cell[""]}], "BoundingBox"];

The font size of the input cells changes...

---

Update: additional methods

It is sufficient just to create an invisible Notebook and immediately close it for forcing the style definitions cascade to update:

NotebookClose[CreateNotebook[Visible -> False]] // AbsoluteTiming

{0.0696042, Null}

Toggling dynamic updating twice also works (and for a stylesheet it should be safe since it shouldn't contain Dynamic elements)

Do[FrontEndExecute[
   FrontEndToken[$DefaultStyleNotebook, "ToggleDynamicUpdating"]], {2}] // AbsoluteTiming

{0.0126106, Null}

Answer 2

So I discovered the problem is just fundamentally that I'm an idiot. The issue wasn't that the notebook wasn't visible. It's that "ToggleShowExpression" was being called on the wrong notebook.

For completeness here's how I'm doing it:

StylesheetApplyEdits[cells : {__CellObject}] :=

  With[{e = EvaluationCell[]},
   Do[
    SelectionMove[c, All, Cell,
     AutoScroll -> False];
    FrontEndTokenExecute[ParentNotebook@c, "ToggleShowExpression"]; 
    FrontEndTokenExecute[ParentNotebook@c, "ToggleShowExpression"];,
    {c, cells}];
   SelectionMove[e, After, Cell]
   ];
StylesheetApplyEdits[nb : _CellObject | Automatic : Automatic] :=

  StylesheetApplyEdits[{Replace[nb, Automatic :> EvaluationCell[]]}];

This now works, so I can do silly things like:

SSEdit[$DefaultStyleNotebook, "Notebook",
 Background -> LightBlue
 ]

And all my style definitions update without me having to edit "Default.nb".

I'm still interested in the best way to do this, though. Surely there's a better way than using a front-end token.

Answer 3

Warning: this answer is about updating the default style definitions after changing CurrentValue[$FrontEndSession, DefaultStyleDefinitions] as shown here. About updating the style cascade after in-memory modification of a stylesheet using SetOptions see another answer in this thread.

---

One simple way to force updating of the style definitions is to invoke Export or Rasterize with a blank string:

ExportString["", "MGF"]; // AbsoluteTiming

{0.0522419, Null}

Rasterize[""]; // AbsoluteTiming

{0.0437933, Null}

More efficient approach is to call FrontEndExecute@ExportPacket[] directly:

FrontEndExecute@ExportPacket[] // AbsoluteTiming

{0.00790514, $Failed}

(it does update the style definitions despite $Failed).

It seems to be as efficient as FrontEndTokenExecute["ToggleShowExpression"] but has no drawback of potentially changing the state of selected cell(s):

FrontEndTokenExecute["ToggleShowExpression"] // AbsoluteTiming

{0.00952195, Null}