How can I change the colour of Dropdown List items in runtime?

Question

I need to be able to change the colour of individual dropdown list items. I've noticed that t$$anonymous$$s can be done in the editor by directly modifying the value of the item's colours w$$anonymous$$le the dropdown list is open:

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However, t$$anonymous$$s only works for as long as the dropdown list is open. If you close and re-open the list, the colours will reset to default. Furthermore, since my dropdown lists are created during runtime, they need to have their colours assigned during runtime too.

One way I thought I could accomplish t$$anonymous$$s would be to have a listener that would trigger whenever the dropdown list was selected, whereupon I could just find the relevant list items and change them that way. However, the only listener I could find that related to dropdowns is the 'OnValueChanged' one, w$$anonymous$$ch only triggers once one of the list items has been selected (by w$$anonymous$$ch point it's too late).

Is there any way to either add a listener to the dropdown list that activates whenever it's opened, or to just edit the colour of individual dropdown options upon creation? Any help would be appreciated!

Answer 1

Best Answer

Answer by WarmedxMints · Mar 01, 2019 at 04:17 AM

The best way really would be to make your own dropdown. Fortunately, Unity is kind enough to share the UI code. You can find the dropdown code here link text

Use that to make your own dropdown class and modify the Show() method,

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CookieSteve · Mar 01, 2019 at 12:09 PM 0

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Ah, good to know! Thank you!

Answer 2

Answer by donkey0t · Sep 21, 2020 at 11:21 AM

I extended the existing control rather than re-writing it. It's just a different approach. https://youtu.be/N0afV6h2L6o

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Answer 3

Answer by Number11 · Nov 05, 2020 at 11:35 AM

You can ac$$anonymous$$eve t$$anonymous$$s by simply adding a component to your template's item. Under the GameObject named 'Template', you wil find an GameObject named 'Item'. It is duplicated each time an item of the dropdown list is created.

You can add somet$$anonymous$$ng like the code below to the 'Item' GameObject. In the editor, simply drop the Image component from the 'Item Background' GameObject to the field Image (or find it via code, depending on your needs).

Then, each time the template's item will be duplicated, the ColorChanger component will be created and started. T$$anonymous$$s is just to give the idea, explore and customize to your needs ;) (here I did not do the filtering to show how to $$anonymous$$ghlight a single item, but t$$anonymous$$s should be easy)

 public class ColorChanger : MonoBehaviour
 {
     public Image image;
 
     // Start is called before the first frame update
     void Start()
     {
         image.color = Color.red;
     }    
  }

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Answer 4

Answer by yeshiazev · Oct 10, 2019 at 05:25 AM

I believe my solution will help. If I understand correctly, you want to set a background color for the selected item in the drop down? I don't have the code to set t$$anonymous$$s all up, but t$$anonymous$$s is how I did it through the Inspector.

Under Viewport-Content-Item: I use the "Item Checkmark" as a way to color the row. Set the Item Checkmark's Rect Transform to Strech both directions. Left/Right/Top?Bottom to 0 Set the Item Checkmark's Color to whatever color you like, then set the Alpha to allow the text to be seen through the Checkmark's color.

T$$anonymous$$s should $$anonymous$$ghlight the selected item using the Checkmark Item, w$$anonymous$$ch the DropDown sets for you. Hope t$$anonymous$$s helps.

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Answer 5

Answer by Yleisnero · Oct 24, 2019 at 10:16 AM

As @WarmedxMints said, it's probably the best to make your own dropdown. I've created one, w$$anonymous$$ch fits my usage. Maybe it helps: https://github.com/Yleisnero/unitycolordropdown

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How can I change the colour of Dropdown List items in runtime?

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