How do I obtain the Gtk3 selection color of a widget using GtkStyleContext

Question

I'm trying to obtain the selection color of a Gtk3 IconView in python but I'm confused how to interpret the existing C++ documentation and how it relates to Python.

My current python code is as follows:

color = self.iconview.get_style().bg[Gtk.StateType.SELECTED]

This works ok in Ubuntu 12.04 - Gnome/Gtk 3.2 I think.

However the documentation here says get_style is deprecated since 3.0

• http://developer.gnome.org/gtk3/stable/GtkWidget.html#gtk-widget-get-style

In Ubuntu 12.10 which uses the latest GTK, the above does not work - I get an error:

CRITICAL **: StackOverflow protection.  Can't copy array element into GIArgument

The document says I should use GtkStyleContext - but how?

Can anyone give me a concrete python example?

Answer 1

In C:

GdkRGBA color;
GtkStyleContext *style =
    gtk_widget_get_style_context(iconview);
gtk_style_context_get_background_color
    (style, GTK_STATE_FLAG_SELECTED, &color);

Python translation by fossfreedom:

context = self.iconview.get_style_context()
color = context.get_background_color(Gtk.StateFlags.SELECTED)

It appears that the GtkStyle struct from gtk2 was simply replaced with the more modern GtkStyleContext class in gtk3

Answer 2

The new answer is "you don't". There isn't necessarily a single background color any more.

Per the documentation of https://developer.gnome.org/gtk3/stable/GtkStyleContext.html#gtk-style-context-get-background-color:

"This function is far less useful than it seems, and it should not be used in newly written code. CSS has no concept of "background color", as a background can be an image, or a gradient, or any other pattern including solid colors."