Can't change Column color at runtime if its default color is "Transparent"

Question

I use the following code to change the color of particular columns when I open the datewindow up for editing:

dw_1.object.description.Background.Color = RGB(255, 255, 255)

This works great as long as the default background color was not "Transparent" in the painter. If it starts out transparent, this code does nothing.

How can I have the column be transparent, but change it to white and then back again?

Thanks,

Answer 1

Change the background.mode property to 0 to remove the transparency and take the background.color into account.

The manual says in the Background.property DataWindow object property entry:

Transparent background
If Background.Mode is transparent (1), Background.Color is ignored.

Answer 2

Set up your column backcolor to white (for example) and set its backcolor expression to 553648127.

After that you may change it with Modify

// To white
dw_1.Modify("description.Background.Color='16777215~t16777215'")
// To transparent
dw_1.Modify("description.Background.Color='16777215~t553648127'")

May be dw_1.SetRedraw(true) will be needed.

You may also create hidden column (desc_bc for example), set its name into expression for backcolor, and change its value instead of calling Modify.