// get the stylesheet
// array position depends on how many style sheets you're loading.
// adjust as needed.
var sheet = document.styleSheets[0];
// simplest method: insertRule()
// setTimeout only for demo so you can see the change
window.setTimeout(function(){
// @media all {} is a trick to insert more than one
// selector and/or properties at once. Otherwise it's:
// sheet.insertRule(":root", "--header-color: green"); ...repeat...
sheet.insertRule("@media all { :root { --header-color: green; --main-color: orange; } }", 1);
}, 1200);
// SAFER method via addCSSRule.
// button and getAjaxStyles are just placeholders, obviously
var btn = document.querySelector('button');
btn.addEventListener("click", getAjaxStyles);
function getAjaxStyles() {
// success callback... break apart the json and update the CSS variables
addCSSRule(sheet, ":root", "--header-color: orange");
addCSSRule(sheet, ":root", "--main-color: blue");
addCSSRule(sheet, ":root", "--alt-color: red");
addCSSRule(sheet, ":root", "--borderColorA: lavender");
// or go with a single big string. definitely faster:
// addCSSRule(sheet, ":root", "--alt-color: red; --borderColorA: #0ff; ")
}
// Credit for addCSSRule() goes to Diego Flórez in a comment on
// https://davidwalsh.name/add-rules-stylesheets
var addCSSRule = function(sheet, selector, rules) {
//Backward searching of the selector matching cssRules
var index = sheet.cssRules.length - 1;
for (var i = index; i > 0; i--) {
var current_style = sheet.cssRules[i];
if (current_style.selectorText === selector) {
//Append the new rules to the current content of the cssRule;
rules = current_style.style.cssText + rules;
sheet.deleteRule(i);
index = i;
}
}
if (sheet.insertRule) {
sheet.insertRule(selector + "{" + rules + "}", index);
} else {
sheet.addRule(selector, rules, index);
}
return sheet.cssRules[index].cssText;
}
/* Set initial CSS variables */
:root {
--header-color: #333;
--main-color: #888;
--alt-color: #bbb;
--borderColorA: #ccc;
}
h1 {
color: var(--header-color);
}
p {
border-bottom: 1px solid var(--borderColorA);
color: var(--main-color);
}
p+p {
color: var(--alt-color);
}
<h1>header</h1>
<p>paragraph 1</p>
<p>paragraph 2</p>
<button>Update CSS Variables</button>