Change CodeBrowser Listing Cursor Color Highlight for a Specific Address

[VincentDary]

Hello,

I am instrumenting a ghidra.app.plugin.core.codebrowser.CodeBrowserPlugin instance and I would like to change the cursor (not the listing background) color highlight of the Listing view only for a specific address. Via the Ghidra API of course. Any way ?

Ghidra version: 11.0.3
Java version: 17.0.13
OS: GNU/Linux Debian Bookworm

[dragonmacher]

Not sure if this is what you are looking for., but you can use the ColorizingService to color address ranges. You can get the service from the tool:

    ColorizingService service = tool.getSerivce(ColorizingService.class);

[VincentDary]

Thank's for your answer @dragonmacher but ghidra.app.plugin.core.colorizer.ColorizingService class do not contain any method to change the color of the cursor highlight, only a method to change the listing background color via setBackgroundColor().

[VincentDary]

Digging into the source code I have found the option GhidraOptions.HIGHLIGHT_CURSOR_LINE_COLOR which allows to set the cursor color highlight in AbstractCodeBrowserPlugin.optionsChanged

@dragonmacher, I have found the following way to change the cursor color highlight.

CodeBrowserPlugin plugin = null;

for(Plugin p: tool.getManagedPlugins()) {
    if (p instanceof CodeBrowserPlugin){
        plugin = (CodeBrowserPlugin) p;
        break;
    }
}

plugin.optionsChanged(
  new ToolOptions(GhidraOptions.CATEGORY_BROWSER_FIELDS),
  GhidraOptions.HIGHLIGHT_CURSOR_LINE_COLOR,
  null,
  new Color(246, 6, 6)
);

It works nice !

Now propably the best way would be to wrap the call to CodeBrowserPlugin.optionsChanged() in an event listner when currentCursorMarkers location change in the listing, in order to set the desired color only when the cursor is located at a specific address.

Any way to set an event handler on cursor location change ?

[VincentDary]

Found !

It is possible to add a PluginEventListener to the CodeBrowser tool via PluginTool.addListenerForAllPluginEvents(), when the listing cursor location change a ProgramLocationPluginEvent is generated and provide the getLocation() method to retrieve the new location of the cursor, next a call to CodeBrowserPlugin.optionsChanged() ( see previous answer ) allows to set the cursor color according the new location address value.

@dragonmacher, a last question in this feed, using CodeBrowserPlugin.optionsChanged() to change the cursor color is not too dirty ? Maybe a better way exist ?

[dragonmacher]

a last question in this feed, using CodeBrowserPlugin.optionsChanged() to change the cursor color is not too dirty

I can think of few solutions dirtier 😄 That being said, your code helped me better understand what you are trying to do.

We did not explicitly allow for this behavior, but you should be able to accomplish this by changing the correct theme value. Below is a script snippet that does just this. Every time you run the script, it will update the color. Note that the script is only changing the focused color. There is also an 'unfocused' color you may wish to change, which defaults to a lighter version of the focused color.

		String focusedCursor = "color.cursor.focused.listing";
		//"color.cursor.unfocused.listing"

		ThemeManager tm = ThemeManager.getInstance();

		Color newColor = null;
		Color currentColor = tm.getColor(focusedCursor);
		if (currentColor.equals(Color.BLUE)) {
			newColor = Color.CYAN;
		}
		else {
			newColor = Color.BLUE;
		}

		tm.setColor(focusedCursor, newColor);

[VincentDary]

@dragonmacher thank you very much for your answer and your code snipet.

Unfortunaly, in my context, a custom Ghidra application based on GhidraRun, your code is not working, the color remain the same when I use this code in an ProgramLocationChange event handler triggered by the CodeBrowser. Below, your wrapped code in a method which I used in my CodeBrowser event handler. I have tried to wrap the code in a swing thread and transaction but It seems not necessary.... not working.

    public void setCursorColor(Color newColor){
        program.withTransaction("setCursorColor", () -> {
            SystemUtilities.runSwingNow(() -> {
                System.out.println("[debug] setting cursor color");
                String focusedCursor = "color.cursor.focused.listing";
                String unFocusedCursor = "color.cursor.unfocused.listing";
                ThemeManager tm = ThemeManager.getInstance();
                tm.setColor(focusedCursor, newColor);
                tm.setColor(unFocusedCursor, newColor);
            });
        });
    }

Furthermore when I try to close the Ghidra application I have the following messages popups which prevent to close the app.

If I click abort the GUI is freezed !, else if I click saved, I have the following popup.

Maybe I make an improper use of your code snipet, or maybe your code must be wrapped to be usable ?

[dragonmacher]

Regarding the code not working, I put that same code inside of the CodeBrower plugin's processEvent() method and it worked. I did not use this:

        program.withTransaction("setCursorColor", () -> {
            SystemUtilities.runSwingNow(() -> {\

You should not need the transaction code at all. If your code is responding to location events, then you do not need the other SystemUtilities call either.

---

Regarding the dialogs, I added this call to the plugin's dispose() method, which prevents the dialog:

		ThemeManager tm = ThemeManager.getInstance();
		tm.restoreThemeValues();

[VincentDary]

I deduce you are subclassing AbstractCodeBrowserPlugin since you put your code in processEvent and dispose, in my case I have instanciate the CodeBrowser plugin via project.getToolServices().launchTool(), I am catching the event via a PluginEventListener registered with addListenerForAllPluginEvents, but I think is equal since I am catching the ProgramLocationPluginEvent cursor change.
I have suppress the nested call to withTransaction and runSwingNow but in my case this is not working at all !
But thanks for the tips, I keept it in mind.

[dragonmacher]

I actually just edited the CodeBrowserPlugin for my test. As mentioned in the other discussion, #7907, I can't really say what is happening without being able to debug the issue. Good luck!

[VincentDary]

@dragonmacher, ok, thank's for everything.