pict-section-theme

A Pict section that gives every Pict / Retold web application the same out-of-the-box chrome: branded top bar, branded bottom bar, theme picker, mode toggle, scale select, and a deterministic project-name → SVG logo generator. One addProvider call wires it all together.

The point: stop rewriting the same boilerplate in every app. Branding, navigation chrome, theme switching, dark-mode handling, and favicons are solved problems — this module is the solved version.

Install

npm install pict-section-theme

pict-section-modal is an optional peer dependency. The Theme-Button uses it for the popup menu, and Theme-TopBar / Theme-BottomBar are designed to mount inside its shell() panels — but every other view works without it.

Quick start

In your application bootstrap:

const libPictApplication = require('pict-application');
const libPictSectionTheme = require('pict-section-theme');
const libBrand = require('./MyApp-Brand.js');  // see "Brand precompute" below

class MyApplication extends libPictApplication
{
    constructor(pFable, pOptions, pServiceHash)
    {
        super(pFable, pOptions, pServiceHash);

        // Register the standard chrome + theme machinery in one call.
        // Self-bootstraps: theme runtime, catalog, views, persistence,
        // brand, and the shared TopBar/BottomBar all wired up.
        this.pict.addProvider('Theme-Section',
        {
            ApplyDefault: 'pict-default',
            DefaultMode:  'system',
            DefaultScale: 1.0,
            Brand:        libBrand,
            Views:        ['Picker', 'ModeToggle', 'ScaleSelect', 'Button',
                           'BrandMark', 'TopBar', 'BottomBar'],
            ViewOptions:
            {
                TopBar:    { NavView: 'MyApp-TopBar-Nav', UserView: 'MyApp-TopBar-User', Height: 56 },
                BottomBar: { StatusView: 'MyApp-StatusBar', Height: 32 }
            }
        }, libPictSectionTheme);
    }
}

After this, the rest of your app provides:

A small NavView that fills #Theme-TopBar-Nav (your action buttons / links / breadcrumbs).
A small UserView that fills #Theme-TopBar-User (account widgets, log toggles, custom indicators).
A small StatusView that fills #Theme-BottomBar-Status (status text).
A layout view that drops the Theme-TopBar / Theme-BottomBar destinations somewhere in the DOM (typically inside pict-section-modal's shell() panels).

That's it. The brand mark, theme button, light/dark mode, and the brand-tinted top + bottom stripes are all handled.

Brand precompute

Every app has a brand: a name, a tagline, two colors, an icon, and favicons. Don't generate these at runtime. Precompute them at build time and persist into package.json under retold.brand. The runtime brand module is then 5 lines and the LogoGenerator never enters your production bundle.

The bundled CLI does this:

# manifest-driven (Retold-ecosystem apps with a Retold-Modules-Manifest.json)
npx pict-section-theme-brand \
    --manifest ../../Retold-Modules-Manifest.json \
    --module   my-app \
    --favicons web-application/favicons

# standalone (any Pict app — uses package.json's `name` + flags)
npx pict-section-theme-brand \
    --palette ocean \
    --display-name "My App" \
    --favicons public/favicons

Both modes write into the target package.json:

{
    "retold": {
        "brand": {
            "Hash": "my-app",
            "Name": "My App",
            "Tagline": "Description from package.json",
            "Palette": "ocean",
            "Icon": "<svg>...</svg>",
            "IconType": "svg",
            "Favicon": "<svg>...</svg>",
            "FaviconDark": "<svg>...</svg>",
            "Colors": {
                "Primary":        "#2f97b4",
                "Secondary":      "#e07e40",
                "PrimaryLight":   "#2f97b4",
                "PrimaryDark":    "#6dbcd2",
                "SecondaryLight": "#e07e40",
                "SecondaryDark":  "#e9b493"
            }
        }
    }
}

…and (when --favicons is supplied) a directory of favicon.svg, favicon-{16,32,48,64}.png, apple-touch-icon.png, favicon-{192,512}.png.

The runtime brand module then becomes:

// MyApp-Brand.js
module.exports = require('../../package.json').retold.brand;

Wire it into your build script:

{
    "scripts": {
        "brand":    "pict-section-theme-brand --palette ocean --favicons web-application/favicons",
        "prebuild": "npm run brand",
        "build":    "npx quack build"
    }
}

prebuild is an npm convention — it runs automatically before build.

Manifest mode vs. standalone mode

	Manifest	Standalone
Used by	Retold-ecosystem apps	Any Pict app
Source of truth	`Retold-Modules-Manifest.json` `Branding` block	package.json `name` + CLI flags
Required flags	`--manifest`, `--module`	none
Optional overrides	(Branding block)	`--palette`, `--display-name`, `--tagline`
Default palette	(none — must specify in Branding)	`mix`

Standalone mode also reads optional defaults from package.json under retold.brandConfig:

{
    "retold": {
        "brandConfig": {
            "Palette": "ocean",
            "DisplayName": "My App",
            "Tagline": "What it does"
        }
    }
}

CLI flags always win over brandConfig over package defaults. Re-running the CLI with no flags reproduces the same brand.

Curated palettes

mix (default), default, desert, ocean, forest, synthwave, twilight, cosmos, carnival. mix deterministically picks one of synthwave/ocean/desert per project — every project is internally cohesive, the ecosystem feels varied.

Chrome views

Theme-TopBar

Renders into #Theme-TopBar by default. Standard layout:

┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ [Brand-Mark]  [── Nav slot (flex-grow) ──]  [User-slot] [⚙ Theme]  │
│ ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ brand-primary stripe ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ │
│ ▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁ brand-secondary hairline ▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁ │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

The brand stripes at the bottom are how you tell six tabs of different apps apart at a glance — every app gets a unique color combination from its deterministic logo.

Slots

#Theme-TopBar-Nav — host fills via NavView option
#Theme-TopBar-User — host fills via UserView option

Options

Option	Default	Notes
`NavView`	`null`	Identifier of the host's nav slot view
`UserView`	`null`	Identifier of the host's user-area slot view
`Height`	`56`	px; match this to your panel `Size`
`NavAlign`	`'right'`	`'left'`, `'right'`, or `'center'`
`CompactBreakpoint`	`900`	px viewport width below which nav + user-slot collapse into a burger menu. `0` disables. Convention: ~1024 nav-heavy, ~900 default, ~768 minimal-nav, ~600 mobile-only
`MountBrandMark`	`true`	Set false to skip the auto Theme-Brand-Mark mount
`MountThemeButton`	`true`	Set false to skip the auto Theme-Button mount

Per-route swapping

// In your router callback
this.pict.views['Theme-TopBar'].setNavView('MyApp-Editor-Nav');
this.pict.views['Theme-TopBar'].setUserView('MyApp-Account-Widget');

Theme-BottomBar

Renders into #Theme-BottomBar by default. Three slots:

┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ brand-secondary hairline ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ │
│ ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ brand-primary thin line ▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔ │
│ Status text          [── Info slot (flex) ──]      [actions]       │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Slots

#Theme-BottomBar-Status — host fills via StatusView option
#Theme-BottomBar-Info — host fills via InfoView option (centered)
#Theme-BottomBar-Actions — host fills via ActionsView option

Options

Option	Default	Notes
`StatusView`	`null`	Identifier of the host's status slot view
`InfoView`	`null`	Identifier of the host's info slot view
`ActionsView`	`null`	Identifier of the host's actions slot view
`Height`	`32`	px

Per-route swapping: setStatusView(), setInfoView(), setActionsView().

Active-route indicator

Mark the current nav button with the W3C-standard aria-current="page". Theme-TopBar's CSS keys off the attribute selector and applies a brand-tinted highlight automatically:

<!-- In your NavView template -->
<button aria-current="{~D:Record.IsActive~}"
        onclick="...navigateTo('/foo')">Foo</button>

// In your NavView's onBeforeRender
onBeforeRender()
{
    return Object.assign({}, this.pict.AppData.MyApp,
    {
        IsActive: (this.pict.AppData.MyApp.CurrentRoute === 'foo') ? 'page' : ''
    });
}

The empty string is fine — only aria-current="page" matches the selector, blank/missing renders un-styled.

Compact / responsive

Two responsive breakpoints handle the typical "this app got too narrow" cases without the host writing any code:

Below 720px (default — the brand-mark breakpoint): .pict-theme-brand-mark-name collapses to icon-only. The deterministic logo is recognisable on its own.

Below 900px (default — the CompactBreakpoint option on Theme-TopBar): The nav slot and user-slot hide; a burger button (☰) appears in their place. Clicking the burger opens a pict-section-modal popup containing a clone of the original nav + user DOM, so every action remains reachable. Inline onclick="..." handlers on the cloned buttons keep working because they resolve _Pict at click time.

900px is the conventional "narrow desktop window" breakpoint — a docked window next to another app or a half-screen split typically lands in this range. Most desktop users will hit it while shrinking, where 600px is mobile-only territory most desktops never reach.

Coordinate with the shell — ResponsiveDrawer on side panels. If your layout uses pict-section-modal's shell() API with a sidebar or other side panel, the topbar's burger breakpoint won't actually trigger unless the sidebar gets out of the way too — the sidebar's MinSize plus the workspace's min-content width pins the page horizontally and the browser window can't shrink past that point.

Pass ResponsiveDrawer: <breakpoint> to the side panel's addPanel() call. The shell registers a matchMedia listener and flips the middle row's layout from row to column at that viewport width — the side panel stretches to full width and becomes a top drawer above the workspace (mirroring retold-remote's content-editor pattern). Above the breakpoint it snaps back into the docked column. The user's collapse / expand keeps working in both modes: collapsed in drawer mode just gives the panel height: 0 (only the collapse tab is visible), expanded restores the drawer to its DrawerHeight (default 33vh).

// Sidebar — flips to top drawer at the same threshold as the topbar
this._shell.addPanel({
    Hash: 'sidebar',
    Side: 'left',
    Mode: 'resizable',
    Size: 280,
    ResponsiveDrawer: 900,    // matches Theme-TopBar's CompactBreakpoint
    DrawerHeight: '33vh',     // optional; CSS units (px/vh/%) accepted
    // ... other options
});

This is the conventional "responsive sidebar" pattern: at narrow widths the sidebar moves above the workspace (giving content full width when collapsed, full height when the user opts to see the sidebar), instead of pinching the workspace into uselessness.

Override per-app from the recommended ladder:

ViewOptions:
{
    // Nav-heavy app with 6+ buttons + a brand mark — earlier collapse
    TopBar: { ..., CompactBreakpoint: 1024 }

    // Minimal nav, less crowded — later collapse
    TopBar: { ..., CompactBreakpoint: 768 }

    // Mobile-only collapse — only triggers at true phone widths
    TopBar: { ..., CompactBreakpoint: 600 }

    // Disable compact mode entirely (desktop-only app)
    TopBar: { ..., CompactBreakpoint: 0 }
}

Pass 0 to disable compact mode entirely (the burger stays hidden and the nav + user-slot always show — useful for desktop-only apps that don't need a mobile layout).

Between 600–720px (or whatever your breakpoints are), the nav slot scrolls horizontally instead of clipping. This is silent degradation — fine for moderately-overflowed nav rows but if you have a lot of buttons, consider an in-template "More ▾" button:

<!-- in your NavView template -->
<button class="action" onclick="document.querySelector('#my-more-menu').classList.toggle('open')">More ▾</button>
<div id="my-more-menu" class="more-popup">
    <!-- low-priority items go here -->
</div>

True priority+ overflow detection (auto-detect which buttons fit and roll the rest into a "More ▾" menu at runtime) is not currently built in — call it out as a future enhancement if you need it.

Customising the burger popup

The default openBurgerMenu() clones the existing nav + user DOM into the popup. If you want different content (e.g. a richer in-app menu, auth widgets, a search box), override the method on the instance:

this.pict.views['Theme-TopBar'].openBurgerMenu = function ()
{
    let tmpModal = this.pict.views['Pict-Section-Modal'];
    return tmpModal.show({
        title:   'Menu',
        content: this.pict.parseTemplateByHash('MyApp-BurgerMenu', {}),
        width:   '320px',
        closeable: true,
        buttons: [],
        onOpen:  () => this.pict.views['MyApp-BurgerMenu-Content'].render()
    });
};

API reference

`require('pict-section-theme')`

The default export is the PictSectionThemeProvider class, ready for addProvider().

Named exports:

Export	Type	What it is
`default_configuration`	object	Provider config defaults
`Provider`	class	The underlying `pict-provider-theme` runtime
`PictSectionThemeProvider`	class	Same as default export, named
`PickerView`	class	Theme-Picker view
`ModeToggleView`	class	Theme-ModeToggle view
`ScaleSelectView`	class	Theme-ScaleSelect view
`ButtonView`	class	Theme-Button view
`BrandStripView`	class	Theme-BrandStrip view (multi-row stripe chrome)
`BrandMarkView`	class	Theme-Brand-Mark view (inline icon+name)
`TopBarView`	class	Theme-TopBar view
`BottomBarView`	class	Theme-BottomBar view
`Catalog`	object	Theme registry singleton
`Brand`	object	Theme-Brand helper
`Scale`	object	Theme-Scale helper
`Persistence`	object	Theme-Persistence helper
`registerCatalog(pict)`	function	Push registry themes into the runtime
`listCatalog()`	function	Picker-friendly metadata for every registered theme
`install(pict, options)`	function	Legacy bootstrap (delegates to provider)
`clearPersistence(pict)`	function	Wipe the saved theme/mode/scale entry

The deterministic logo generator lives at pict-section-theme/source/Theme-Logo.js — require it directly when you need it (the build CLI does), but it's intentionally kept out of the main exports so app bundles don't ship the generator code.

Provider options (passed to `addProvider`)

Option	Default	Notes
`ApplyDefault`	`null`	Theme hash to apply at boot
`DefaultMode`	`null`	`'light'` / `'dark'` / `'system'` / `null`
`DefaultScale`	`null`	`0.75`–`2.0`
`Persistence`	`true`	Persist theme/mode/scale to localStorage
`PersistenceKey`	`null`	Storage scope; null → window.location.hostname
`RegisterCatalog`	`true`	Register every bundled theme
`Views`	`null`	Array of view shortnames; null → all
`ViewOptions`	`null`	Per-view option overrides
`Brand`	`null`	The `retold.brand` block from your package.json
`ProviderOptions`	`null`	`pict-provider-theme` overrides

CLI reference