B4J Tutorial [ABMaterial] Custom Icons

A much asked feature has been to integrate custom icons in ABMaterial. In version 4.25, this will be possible.

customicons.png


Couple of notes first:
1. The already Build-in font icons (font awesome, google icons) are a lot faster to load, so consider them first
2. Some basic CSS knowledge will be needed (margins, padding, fill)
3. Custom icons MUST be named starting with abm-

There are three ways to load custom icons in ABM:

1. SVG
These type of icons MUST be loaded in BuildPage. This is because, when used, they link to the SVG tags (contrary to embedded SVG, see further). If used multiple times, it will make your HTML code smaller as the SVG code is only included once in the HTML.

B4X:
page.AddSVGIcon("abm-si-maki-basketball-11", $"<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" version="1.1" style="width:0;height:0;position:absolute;overflow:hidden;">
     <defs><symbol viewBox="0 0 11 10.54083251953125" aria-labelledby="basi-maki-basketball-11-title" id="abm-si-maki-basketball-11"><title id="basi-maki-basketball-11-title">icon basketball-11</title><path d="M11 1a1 1 0 1 1-2 0 1 1 0 0 1 2 0zM4.5 3a1.5 1.5 0 1 0 0-3 1.5 1.5 0 0 0 0 3zm3.89 6.69L6 6.59V4.5h.5a.49.49 0 0 0 .41-.23l1.5-2A.49.49 0 0 0 8.5 2a.5.5 0 0 0-.86-.34L6.25 3.5H2.5a.5.5 0 0 0-.36.16l-2 2.54a.49.49 0 0 0-.14.3.5.5 0 0 0 .5.5.49.49 0 0 0 .41-.23L2.74 4.5H3v2.09L.61 9.69a.5.5 0 0 0 .39.81.49.49 0 0 0 .41-.23L3.94 7h1.12l2.52 3.27A.5.5 0 0 0 8.5 10a.49.49 0 0 0-.11-.3v-.01z"/></symbol> </defs>
   </svg>"$, 24,24,"margin-top: 12px;fill: black")

As you can see, in here we have also to declare a margin-top and a fill color in CSS. The name for our icon is 'abm-si-maki-basketball-11'. This must be THE SAME in the id tag of the <svg>!

Icons like this typically have an SVG tag looking like this (hidden, width & height = 0, ALL properties are required!):
B4X:
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" version="1.1" style="width:0;height:0;position:absolute;overflow:hidden;">...</svg>

10000+ icopns of this type can be found here: https://leungwensen.github.io/svg-icon/

2. Embedded SVG
These type of icons can be loaded at runtime (e.g. in ConnectPage) as the SVG tag code will be included in the html. This also means if you use the same icon multiple times, the full SVG code will be added multiple times too!

B4X:
page.AddEmbeddedSVGIcon("abm-aardbei", $"<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" height="32" width="26" viewBox="0 0 116.76708 149.28999" style="margin-top: 8px;fill: red">
  <defs id="defs3749" />
  <g transform="translate(-129.2905,-77.659)" id="g3744">
  <g id="g3728">
  <path style="stroke:#000000;stroke-miterlimit:10" id="path3726" d="m 243.873,168.241 c -9.344,35.617 -43.232,58.208 -56.131,58.208 -13.155,0 -45.451,-28.357 -56.387,-63.353 -7.225,-23.113 12.081,-42.038 26.423,-42.112 21.474,-0.11 23.813,12.248 32.681,9.449 9.898,-3.125 8.874,-12.884 28.954,-12.606 12.542,0.171 31.997,21.688 24.46,50.414 z" stroke-miterlimit="10" />
  </g>
  <path style="fill:#ffffff" id="path3730" d="m 156.34,148.723 c 0,5.688 -1.251,10.304 -2.801,10.304 -1.55,0 -2.801,-4.615 -2.801,-10.304 0,-5.689 1.251,-10.3 2.801,-10.3 1.55,0 2.801,4.611 2.801,10.3 z" />
  <path style="fill:#ffffff" id="path3732" d="m 170.818,175.338 c 0,5.688 -1.251,10.296 -2.802,10.296 -1.55,0 -2.802,-4.607 -2.802,-10.296 0,-5.689 1.252,-10.304 2.802,-10.304 1.55,0 2.802,4.615 2.802,10.304 z" />
  <path style="fill:#ffffff" id="path3734" d="m 190.6,203.347 c 0,5.695 -1.251,10.304 -2.801,10.304 -1.55,0 -2.802,-4.608 -2.802,-10.304 0,-5.688 1.251,-10.296 2.802,-10.296 1.549,0 2.801,4.607 2.801,10.296 z" />
  <path style="fill:#ffffff" id="path3736" d="m 211.903,175.338 c 0,5.688 -1.251,10.296 -2.801,10.296 -1.55,0 -2.801,-4.607 -2.801,-10.296 0,-5.689 1.251,-10.304 2.801,-10.304 1.55,0 2.801,4.615 2.801,10.304 z" />
  <path style="fill:#ffffff" id="path3738" d="m 192.462,160.498 c 0,5.688 -1.251,10.303 -2.794,10.303 -1.55,0 -2.802,-4.614 -2.802,-10.303 0,-5.692 1.251,-10.3 2.802,-10.3 1.543,0 2.794,4.608 2.794,10.3 z" />
  <path style="fill:#ffffff" id="path3740" d="m 226.324,148.723 c 0,5.688 -1.252,10.304 -2.802,10.304 -1.55,0 -2.802,-4.615 -2.802,-10.304 0,-5.689 1.251,-10.3 2.802,-10.3 1.55,0 2.802,4.611 2.802,10.3 z" />
  <path id="path3742" d="m 153.539,77.659 24.503,24.531 c 0,0 4.202,2.784 6.954,0.68 4.366,-3.328 32.268,-25.211 32.268,-25.211 l -12.842,21.712 c 0,0 -3.015,4.604 1.878,5.22 4.892,0.618 27.148,-6.854 32.126,19.917 0,0 -2.297,-15.409 -29.325,-11.513 0,0 -9.421,1.721 -14.719,6.841 0,0 -4.714,6.891 -12.138,1.244 0,0 -27.077,-15.366 -46.219,5.646 0,0 13.304,-25.724 34.792,-22.136 z" />
  </g>
</svg>"$)

Here too, some CSS has to be used + setting the width & height too.

A typical svg tag looks like this.
B4X:
<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" width="32" height="32" viewBox="0 0 1024 1024" style="margin-top: 14px;fill: black">...</svg>

Such svg tags are e.g. created when exporting it from Illustrator.

3. Images
These type of icons are just plain png/jpg images. Make sure you use the appropriate size of the image to load. e.g. if your icon is going to be 32x32, do not load a 1024x1024 image!

B4X:
page.AddImageIcon("abm-batman", "../images/batman.png", 32, 32, "margin-top: 8px", "Batman")

In this case, width, height and the CSS are part of the load method.

You can find 65000+ of these icons here: https://icons8.com/

USAGE

Now you can use your loaded icons like you would load font based icons:

e.g.
B4X:
Dim lblTest As ABMLabel
lblTest.Initialize(page, "lblTest", "This is some test {IC:#000000}abm-si-maki-basketball-11{/IC} with {IC:#000000}abm-aardbei{/IC} special icons {IC:#000000}abm-gmail{/IC} or {IC:#000000}abm-gmail2{/IC}.", ABM.SIZE_H6, True, "")
page.Cell(9,1).AddComponent(lblTest)

Note that the color in the {IC} tag must be set for compatibility reasons, but is ignored.

Another example is in the sidebar menu:
B4X:
page.NavigationBar.AddSideBarItem("MDL4", "Batmans layer", "abm-batman", "")
page.NavigationBar.AddSideBarDivider
page.NavigationBar.AddSideBarItem("MDL5", "From icons8.com", "abm-facebook", "")
page.NavigationBar.AddSideBarDivider

Or on the action button:
B4X:
Dim actionB As ABMActionButton
actionB.Initialize(page, "ActionB", "abm-aardbei-action", "", "")
page.AddActionButton(actionB)

Alwaysbusy
 
Last edited:
Top