Status Bar Color

When you work with several systems at once - development, test, production - it is very easy to run an Action or a SQL statement on the wrong one. The Status bar color setting paints the Code for IBM i status bar items with a color of your choice, so the current environment is recognizable at a glance.

The color is stored per connection, and it can also be stored per profile, so that switching environments also switches the color.

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Where the color is applied

The color is a foreground color: it colors the text and the icons of the status bar items, not their background. Background states set by the extensions (for example the orange “pending transaction” warning of Db2 for IBM i) are not affected.

Extension	Status bar item
Code for IBM i (core)	The connected system item ($(settings-gear) SYSTEM (profile))
Code for IBM i (core)	The Disconnect from system item
Code for IBM i (core)	The source dates search item (shown when Enable source dates is on)
Db2 for IBM i	The SQL Job Manager item ($(database) job name)
IBM i FileSystem	The FS Quick Start item

Accepted values

• #rgb or #rrggbb hexadecimal values (for example #f00 or #ff0000).
• Black (#000000) means “no color”: the items keep the color of the current VS Code theme. This is the default, and it is also what the color picker shows when no color has been chosen yet.
• An empty or invalid value is treated like black.

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Changing the color of a connection

1. Hover over the connection name in the status bar and click Settings (or run Code for IBM i: Show Additional Settings from the command palette).
2. Open the Features tab.
3. Set Status bar color with the color picker, at the bottom of the tab.
4. Save.

The change is applied immediately: all the status bar items listed above refresh as soon as the connection settings are saved - no reconnection needed.

This value belongs to the connection, so it is used every time you connect to that system, whatever profile is active - unless the profile carries its own color (see below).

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Changing the color of a profile

Each profile can carry its own color, so activating a profile also changes the status bar color. This is handy when a single connection is used for several environments (different library lists, different iASPs).

1. In the Environment view, expand Profiles and click the profile to open the profile editor.
2. Set Status bar color.
3. Save.

Unlike most of the other profile fields, Status bar color stays editable even when the profile you are editing is the active one; saving it updates the connection’s color right away.

Hovering over a profile in the Environment view shows its color in the tooltip, along with the other profile settings.

How the two levels interact

Hovering over a profile in the Environment view shows its color in the tooltip, along with the other profile settings.

• Activating a profile that has a color sets the connection color to the profile’s color.
• Activating a profile that has no color leaves the current connection color untouched.
• Switching profile first saves the current connection color into the profile you are leaving (including the default, unnamed profile), exactly like the library list and the other profile settings.
• Unloading the active profile goes back to the default profile, and therefore to the color that was stored in it.
• Editing the color of the active profile also updates the connection’s color, and vice versa: the two values are kept in sync while the profile is active.

Tip

A practical setup: leave the connection color black (theme default) for your everyday profile and give a strong color - red is the usual choice - only to the production profile. The status bar stays neutral until you switch to the environment where mistakes are expensive.

Caution

Because the current color is saved into the outgoing profile when you switch, changing the color from the connection settings while a profile is active will end up storing the color in that profile. To keep a profile’s color stable, set it from the profile editor.

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Troubleshooting

• The core items are colored, but the Db2 for i or IBM i FileSystem ones are not. Those extensions get the color from the core extension’s API; make sure they are updated to a version that supports it. The FS Quick Start item also re-evaluates its color periodically, so it may take a couple of seconds to follow.
• Nothing changes after saving. Check that the chosen color is not black: black is the “use the theme color” value.