Define original roles and styles in Sphinx docs

conf.py

sys.path += ['.']
extensions += ['sphinxcontrib_roles']

# configuration case.1: define roles as list (define only roles)
roles = ['strike', 'red']


# configuration case.2: define roles as dict (define roles and its style on HTML)
roles = {'strike': "text-decoration: line-through;",
         'red': "color: red;" }

sphinxcontrib_roles.py

# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
import os
from docutils.parsers.rst import roles


def _define_role(name):
    base_role = roles.generic_custom_role
    role = roles.CustomRole(name, base_role, {'class': [name]}, [])

    roles.register_local_role(name, role)


def on_builder_inited(app):
    for name in app.builder.config.roles:
        _define_role(name)


def on_html_collect_pages(app):
    if isinstance(app.builder.config.roles, dict) and app.builder.config.roles:
        cssdir = os.path.join(app.builder.outdir, '_static')
        cssfile = os.path.join(cssdir, 'roles.css')
        if not os.path.exists(cssdir):
            os.makedirs(cssdir)

        fd = open(cssfile, 'wt')
        for name, style in app.builder.config.roles.items():
            fd.write("span.%s { %s }\n" % (name, style))
        fd.close()
           
    return ()


def html_page_context(app, pagename, templatename, context, doctree):
    if isinstance(app.builder.config.roles, dict) and app.builder.config.roles:
        if 'css_files' in context:
            context['css_files'].append('_static/roles.css')


def setup(app):
    app.add_config_value('roles', [], 'html')
    app.connect("builder-inited", on_builder_inited)
    app.connect("html-collect-pages", on_html_collect_pages)
    app.connect("html-page-context", html_page_context)