Setting a different theme - android

I want to use a few themes, for instance, Dark and Light.
I have written in the style.xml two different styles: DarkStyle and LightStyle. I have set part of the volatile properties by color.xml and part straight away.
<style name="BaseTheme.LightStyle">
<item name="clientBrand">#color/clientBrand</item>
<item name="desktopScreenBg">#E6E6E6</item>
</style>
<style name="BaseTheme.DarkStyle">
<item name="clientBrand">#color/clientBrand</item>
<item name="desktopScreenBg">#000000</item>
</style>
Which is the best practice to the choice theme
a. Build time?
b. Run time?
How I can to set to some other theme values from my theme.
<style name="OtherTheme">
<item name="android:textColor">dependsOnChosenTheme</item>
</style>
The final goal is:
<ViewGroup background = DarkOrLightColorBg/>
<TextView textColor = DarkOrLightColorBg/>
I figured out how to bind the desired theme in the build time
<style name="LightStyle">
<style name="DarkStyle">
//by requrements
<style name="DarkStyle.ActiveStyle">
Now, how I can do something like this?
<ViewGroup backgroun=ActiveStyle.colorBg/>
//Or
<style SomeTheme
<item name="android:textColor">#style/ActiveStile.colorText</item>
</style>

Here is an example how to create multi theme app. It is so easy, your activity has a context, inside context you could override method to inject selected theme by user.
Also if you don't need to runtime change, you could change theme at compile time, in AndroidManifest.xml.

Related

The night/theme.xml in android studio

The "colorprimary" changes in themes.xml then the button colour also changes "(image in lite mode)enter image description here (image in dark mode)enter image description hereedittext hint selection colour also changes . I want to edit text colour with out changing the theme and without changing button colour
I think, is important to mention first that a theme is different than a style. Basically, when you apply a style it only affects to the component( edit text, view, textview, etc). But when you apply a theme it affects in general terms to the app. More info about in this Link.
So, if you are applying a theme probably you are modifying some attributes that are being used in the app scope such as primaryColor, secondaryColor, etc. Probably, the editText is using primaryColor in order to set the color of the hint and when you change to another theme, primaryColor is affected, then the color hint of the editText is affected as well.
Based on the above description, we can apply multiple solutions. I would like to suggest the following.
default theme.xml
<style name="AppTheme" parent="AppTheme.Base" />
<style name="AppTheme.Base" parent="Theme.MaterialComponents.DayNight.NoActionBar">
<item name="colorPrimary">#color/gray_medium_dark</item>
<item name="colorPrimaryDark">#color/colorPrimaryDark</item>
<item name="colorPrimaryVariant">#color/gray_dark</item>
<item name="colorSecondary">#color/cyan</item>
<item name="editTextStyle">#style/CustomEditTextStyle</item>
</style>
nigh theme theme.xml
<style name="AppTheme" parent="AppTheme.Base">
<item name="android:windowLightNavigationBar" tools:ignore="NewApi">false</item>
</style>
style.xml
<style name="CustomEditTextStyle" parent="Widget.AppCompat.EditText">
<item name="android:textSize">#dimen/text_size_16sp</item>
<item name="android:textColorHint">#color/gray_normal_light</item>
<item name="android:fontFamily">#font/roboto_condensed</item>
<item name="android:textColor">#color/colorPrimaryText</item>
<item name="android:inputType">textVisiblePassword</item>
</style>
Explanation: Another important point about style and themes is that we can apply something similar to inheritance. It means that we ca re-use some attributes or/and modify others.
So, <item name="editTextStyle">#style/CustomEditTextStyle</item> means that for all the edittext on my application I want to set up CustomEditTextStyle style. Also, in nigh theme we are applying parent as parent="AppTheme.Base" and this parent also has CustomEditTextStyle as style for edittext, so it will no change.

Is this the correct way to have different values/styles for different versions

Android Studio 2.1 preview 3
This is just a question, as I am confused as I have seen many alternatives in doing this.
I have created a new android project and my Activity extends AppCompatActivity
public class MainActivity extends AppCompatActivity {
I want to have the transparent statusbar on devices running 21 and over.
So in my values/styles I have the following
<resources>
<!-- Base application theme. -->
<style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.NoActionBar">
<!-- Customize your theme here. -->
<item name="colorPrimary">#color/colorPrimary</item>
<item name="colorPrimaryDark">#color/colorPrimaryDark</item>
<item name="colorAccent">#color/colorAccent</item>
</style>
</resources>
And in my values-21/styles I have the following
<resources>
<style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.NoActionBar">
<!-- Customize your theme here. -->
<item name="colorPrimary">#color/colorPrimary</item>
<item name="colorPrimaryDark">#color/colorPrimaryDark</item>
<item name="colorAccent">#color/colorAccent</item>
<!-- Make the statusbar transparent -->
<item name="android:windowTranslucentStatus">true</item>
</style>
</resources>
My Manifest I select the theme
android:theme="#style/AppTheme"
Just some questions
Is this the correct way, or is there any better way to do this?
Would values-21/styles inherit all the colors in values/styles so I would have to repeat this?
It's the right way. May I suggest you to organize your style better?
values/styles.xml
<resources>
<!-- Base application theme. -->
<style name="AppTheme" parent="CommonTheme">
</style>
<style name="CommonTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.NoActionBar">
<item name="colorPrimary">#color/colorPrimary</item>
<item name="colorPrimaryDark">#color/colorPrimaryDark</item>
<item name="colorAccent">#color/colorAccent</item>
</style>
</resources>
values-v21/styles.xml
<resources>
<!-- Base application theme. -->
<style name="AppTheme" parent="CommonTheme">
<!-- All customization of the theme for this version -->
<item name="android:windowTranslucentStatus">true</item>
</style>
</resources>
So you don't need to repeat the common values of the style for every api level.
I will try to answer it giving some references
Maintaining Compatibility
To avoid duplication of code, define your styles inside res/values/,
modify the styles in res/values-v21/ for the new APIs, and use style
inheritance, defining base styles in res/values/ and inheriting from
those in res/values-v21/
So you should try to avoid code duplication in your style.xml at different folders res/values/ and res/values-v21/ by using style inheritance.
Style Inheritence
If you want to inherit from styles that you've defined yourself, you
do not have to use the parent attribute. Instead, just prefix the name
of the style you want to inherit to the name of your new style,
separated by a period.
If you want to inherit a style that you've defined yourself you can skip adding a parent attribute and inherit from it using a dot or period notation.
With this, you can define a base theme BaseTheme in res/values/ with different colors and inherit from it as BaseTheme.StyledStatusBar without specifying a parent attribute.
<resources>
<style name="BaseTheme.StyledStatusBar"></style>
<!-- Base application theme. -->
<style name="BaseTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.NoActionBar">
<item name="colorPrimary">#color/colorPrimary</item>
<item name="colorPrimaryDark">#color/colorPrimaryDark</item>
<item name="colorAccent">#color/colorAccent</item>
</style>
</resources>
In values-21/, add item android:windowTranslucentStatus to BaseTheme.StyledStatusBar
<resources>
<style name="BaseTheme.StyledStatusBar">
<item name="android:windowTranslucentStatus">true</item>
</style>
</resources>
In manifest, select the theme
android:theme="#style/BaseTheme.StyledStatusBar"
1) Is this the correct way, or is there any better way to do this?
Yes. That's the correct/recommended way of having different values for different API versions.
2) Would values21/styles inherit all the colors in values/styles so I would have to repeat this?
I'm not sure I fully follow this question. Both styles you showed will inherit from Theme.AppCompat.Light.NoActionBar so your colors should be declared again, but I'll present two better alternatives:
Alternative 1, a little bit better:
Use a BaseTheme that is common for both. To view the code for it, please check #mimmo-grottoli answer.
Alternative 2, much better:
If the only different on the two themes is the android:windowTranslucentStatus that was introduced in KitKat (API level 19), you can put it all in the same theme in values/styles, like the following:
<resources>
<style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.NoActionBar">
<!-- Customize your theme here. -->
<item name="colorPrimary">#color/colorPrimary</item>
<item name="colorPrimaryDark">#color/colorPrimaryDark</item>
<item name="colorAccent">#color/colorAccent</item>
<!-- Make the statusbar transparent -->
<item name="android:windowTranslucentStatus">true</item>
</style>
</resources>
The Android Framework ignores XML parameters that it does not recognize. That means that on JellyBean or ICS, the device will ignore windowTranslucentStatus while correctly applying the colors and in KitKat and up, it will correctly apply windowTranslucentStatus.
That tricky is valid for all XML in Android (even layouts), the IDE might give you warnings about API level, but in XML they're always safe to use.
Different folders of values/styles are made to give a unique style when your app is running on a specific version of Android.
So yes you are right when saying that the newer version inherits from the older one. When adding items in your latest version of styles you keep the latest version up to date to the latest APIs.
To conclude, your way is the very commun way, it's an organized and a clean way to keep your app updated.
Is this the correct way, or is there any better way to do this?
Yes. That's the right way of having different values for different API versions.
Would values-21/styles inherit all the colors in values/styles so I would have to repeat this?
Yes
technically <item name="android:windowTranslucentStatus">true</item> won't give you fully transparent statusbar.
If you want it to by fully transparent, you can use <item name="android:statusBarColor">#android:color/transparent</item>

Alert Dialog Box Theme Issue

I am getting an error when trying to set theme for alertDialogbox. I am betting white box behind the alertdialogbox. Any idea how i can get rid of it? Here is my code for styles.xml.
<style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.NoActionBar">
<item name="android:windowSoftInputMode">stateUnchanged|adjustPan</item>
<item name="android:alertDialogTheme">#style/alertTheme</item>
</style>
<style name="alertTheme" parent="#android:style/Theme.Holo.Light.Dialog">
</style>
In your values res folder, your alertDialogTheme should have the following property:
<!-- In API <21, this gives a funky background. Set to translucent -->
<item name="android:windowBackground">#color/translucent</item>
where #color/translucent is defined in colors.xml as #00000000, which gives opacity of 0.
In your values-v21 res folder, your alertDialogTheme should have the following property:
<!-- In API 21+, this is the dialog background color -->
<item name="android:windowBackground">#color/someColor</item>
This does nothing to alertDialogs in any API as far as I can tell:
<!--<item name="android:colorBackground">...</item>-->
I've only tested this on the Light AppCompat theme.
You do not provide any code, but in any way you should use AppCompat.
Your dialog style should inherit from AppCompat.Dialog
<style name="AlertDialog" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.Dialog"/>
and you should only use the AppCompat AlertDialog. Additionally you then pass in your style to the constructor.
new android.support.v7.app.AlertDialog.Builder(context, R.style.AlertDialog).show();
Without AppCompat
If you chose to try without AppCompat, be sure to test on multiple devices. You will need to provide different themes for phones before and after API 21 and handling the android:windowBackground yourself by either setting or hiding it.
Try adding to your alertTheme
<item name="android:background">#null</item>
Here goes a little bit improved answer of samGbos:
values/styles.xml
<style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar">
...
<item name="android:alertDialogTheme">#style/SplashScreenDialog</item>
<item name="alertDialogTheme">#style/SplashScreenDialog</item>
</style>
...
<style name="SplashScreenDialog" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.Dialog.Alert">
<item name="android:windowBackground">#android:color/transparent</item>
</style>
values-v21/styles.xml
...
<style name="SplashScreenDialog" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.Dialog.Alert">
</style>

Themes for different text sizes not working

I'd like to have two themes in my app: one with normal font size and one with smaller font size. I need to dynamically change themes in the activity's onCreate or onStart.
I've defined two themes (file themes.xml):
<style name="AppBaseTheme" parent="android:Theme.Light">
</style>
<!-- Default theme with normal font size. This one is set for the whole app in the manifest -->
<style name="NormalTheme" parent="AppBaseTheme">
<item name="android:textAppearance">#style/NormalTextSize</item>
<item name="android:textAppearanceLarge">#style/NormalTextSize.Large</item>
<item name="android:textAppearanceMedium">#style/NormalTextSize.Medium</item>
<item name="android:textAppearanceSmall">#style/NormalTextSize.Small</item>
<item name="android:editTextStyle">#style/EditText_NormalTextSize</item>
</style>
<!-- Small font size -->
<style name="SmallFontTheme" parent="NormalTheme">
<item name="android:textAppearance">#style/SmallTextSize</item>
<item name="android:textAppearanceLarge">#style/SmallTextSize.Large</item>
<item name="android:textAppearanceMedium">#style/SmallTextSize.Medium</item>
<item name="android:textAppearanceSmall">#style/SmallTextSize.Small</item>
<item name="android:editTextStyle">#style/EditText_SmallTextSize</item>
</style>
And in the file styles.xml I've defined style sets for each theme:
<!-- Normal font -->
<style name="NormalTextSize" parent="#android:style/TextAppearance">
<item name="android:textSize">16sp</item>
</style>
<style name="NormalTextSize.Large" >
<item name="android:textSize">22sp</item>
</style>
<style name="NormalTextSize.Medium" >
<item name="android:textSize">18sp</item>
</style>
<style name="NormalTextSize.Small" >
<item name="android:textSize">14sp</item>
</style>
<style name="EditText_NormalTextSize" parent="#android:style/Widget.EditText">
<item name="android:textSize">16sp</item>
</style>
<!-- Small font -->
<style name="SmallTextSize" parent="#android:style/TextAppearance">
<item name="android:textSize">14sp</item>
</style>
<style name="SmallTextSize.Large" >
<item name="android:textSize">20sp</item>
</style>
<style name="SmallTextSize.Medium" >
<item name="android:textSize">16sp</item>
</style>
<style name="SmallTextSize.Small" >
<item name="android:textSize">12sp</item>
</style>
<style name="EditText_SmallTextSize" parent="#android:style/Widget.EditText">
<item name="android:textSize">14sp</item>
</style>
To test the theme change I've created an activity and I've added two TextViews (one with textAppearanceLarge and one with textAppearanceSmall). I've also added an EditText and a list view. I haven't touched any style attribute on these views, I've kept them as they are when dropped in the layout editor. My goal is to change the theme for the whole app without having to define style or appearance for each widget.
I've also added some buttons to trigger the theme change: the new theme resource id is stored in preferences, then the activity is self-finished and a new Intent to the same test activity is launched. The activity reads the current theme setting in onCreate or onStart and calls setTheme. This theme setting change works, but only the ListView is resizing the text: the TextViews and the EditText don't resize.
So my question is what on earth have I done wrong. I've followed 3-4 tutorials and my styles are consistent with what it is supposed to work.
Notice I've only overrided text appearances in the themes because I thought that almost every text-based widget would resize based on the appearance alone (when dropped from the layout editor, every widget has an appearance). I've readed somewhere that it doesn't work that way (if so, good job guys at Google) and that you need to define text size for every kind of widget inside the themes. Well in the example above I've overrided editTextStyle and didn't work. I have also tried buttons and text views with identical result. But what puzzles me is that the ListView, which is the most complex widget on screen, is resizing correctly without defining an style for it, while the most simple widgets are not, even when defining styles for those particular kind of widgets!
The themes were ok.
The problem was the activity. You need to call setTheme before setContentView.
Kudos to #mozarty for his answer

setTitle text appearance

I'm using Theme.Dialog on one of my activities. I'm using setTitle(mMyTitle) to set the title. I would also like to set the textAppearance. How would I go about this?
I'm not sure if I can make my own title layout for this, since I'm already using Theme.Dialog.
Create a new style and extend Theme.Dialog then override what you want to change. Example:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
<style name="MyActivityDialogTheme" parent="#android:style/Theme.Dialog">
<item name="android:windowTitleStyle">#style/MyTitleStyle</item>
</style>
<style name="MyTitleStyle" parent="#android:style/DialogWindowTitle">
<item name="android:textAppearance">#style/MyTextApperance</item>
</style>
<style name="MyTextApperance" parent="#android:style/TextAppearance.DialogWindowTitle">
<item name="android:textColor">#ffff0000</item>
<item name="android:textSize">36sp</item>
</style>
</resources>
Anything you don't specify will use the Dialog defaults. I've only specified the colour and font size of the textApperance in this example.
Now just use MyActivityDialogTheme (or whatever you call your style) as the theme for your activity instead of Theme.Dialog.
Check this out first, but I believe what you're looking for is about 3/4 the way down when it discusses tweaking a built-in resource by referencing it as a parent for your custom theme. As such:
<color name="custom_theme_color">#b0b0ff</color>
<style name="CustomTheme" parent="android:Theme.Dialog">
<item name="android:windowBackground">#color/custom_theme_color</item>
<item name="android:colorBackground">#color/custom_theme_color</item>
</style>
Hope it's what you're looking for.

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