Develop Reference

Change Text for loading screen in ActionBar-PullToRefresh library

I have successfully implemented ActionBar-PullToRefresh in my code. Now whenever I refresh the list it shows "Loading ..." text in ActionBar.
So how to change that text in ActionBar. Do I directly change the string in the library or is there any other way to do that...

Approved approach from the samples
Source: https://github.com/chrisbanes/ActionBar-PullToRefresh/tree/master/samples
Create a theme with text overrides (e.g. ptrPullText),
that is, res/values/styles.xml:
<resources>
<style name="Theme.Holo.CustomPtrHeader" parent="android:Theme.Holo">
<item name="ptrHeaderStyle">#style/Widget.Custom.PtrHeader</item>
</style>
<style name="Widget.Custom.PtrHeader" parent="android:Widget">
<item name="ptrRefreshingText">Pulling down the internet</item>
</style>
</resources>
Apply the custom theme to your activity in AndroidManifest.xml
<activity
...
android:theme="#style/Theme.Holo.CustomPtrHeader" />
or Register you own HeaderTransformer
For the example on how to do this, please see the GridView sample.
or A little hackier way
Please note that setPullText is not on the HeaderTransformer interface, it's an instance method of DefaultHeaderTransformer:
attacher = PullToRefreshAttacher.get(this);
attacher.addRefreshableView(listView, this);
transformer = ((DefaultHeaderTransformer)attacher.getHeaderTransformer());
transformer.setRefreshingText("Pulling down the internet");

Themes in android

A create a simple Theme as
<style name='one'>
<item name='android:textColor'>#eea</item>
<item name='android:textSize'>20sp</item>
</style>
However on viewing in the emulator the screen goes black.when i do not apply theme the screen has a white background .
what really happens here.i am just starting with android.
In addition ,if a apply a theme to my activity then the attributes of the theme applies to all components of my activity say button,textfields and edittexts .
why would i then write
android:textSize=?android:textSize
to reference value from the theme for any button in my layout when the same value would already be applying.
is the syntax above the correct way to reference an attribute from my theme to assign to attribute for any view in my layout.
thanks
tejinder

Yeah, so you need to do a little more reading.
Let's start with the basics,
You need to understand the differente betweent an Attribute, a Style, and a Theme.
An Attribute is something that can be styled. For instance: android:textSize is an attribute that can have any value.
A Style is a set of specific attributes that will be applied to a Widget. They are defined
in your /values/styles.xml
For instance:
<style name="normalTextThin" parent="android:Widget.Holo.Light.TextView">
<item name="android:gravity">left|center_vertical</item>
<item name="android:padding">8dp</item>
<item name="android:textColor">#FFFFFF</item>
<item name="android:textSize">16sp</item>
</style>
The styles can be applied either as part of a theme or directly as theme-independent.
Theme-indepentent styling of a widget is like this:
<TextView
android:id="#+id/text"
style="#style/normalTextThin"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"/>
You are then theming only that one TextView.
A Theme is a collection of Styles that can be applied to a part of your UI, such a a whole Activity, or your whole Application.
For instance:
<style name="AppTheme" parent="android:Theme.Light">
<item name="android:editTextStyle">#style/EditTextAppTheme</item>
<item name="android:buttonStyle">#style/ButtonAppTheme</item>
<item name="android:imageButtonStyle">#style/ImageButtonAppTheme</item>
</style>
Here, we are declaring that all EditText in your application will use the style named EditTextAppTheme, and so forth and on. When done like this, in order to actually have the theme be active, you declare it in the manifest:
<application
android:allowBackup="true"
android:icon="#drawable/ic_launcher"
android:label="#string/app_name"
android:theme="#style/AppTheme" >
That means that you are not required to declare the style on each widget you create.
<EditText
android:id="#+id/input"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:hint="#string/hint_search">
<requestFocus />
</EditText>
That widget right there would already be styled using EditTextAppTheme without the need of you explicitely declaring so.
I recommend you try to read on what attributes can be styled, how to style them, and so forth and on.
If you don't want to though, it's fine, you can still get a lot done with the following tools for styling:
ActionBarStyleGenerator to help you create styles for the ActionBar.
Android Holo Colors to help you style standard widgets.
Hope that helps.
Additional Info
Let me clarify on the whole ?attr/attributeName
The ? means that the system will choose the specific attributeName value for the current Configuration (not specific to different themes). This should be used only when you want the value to be different on different configurations. For example:
?android:attr/actionBarSize
This line is a dimension, and it will be different not based on the current theme, but on the current device screen size and orientation (values, values-land, values-sw600dp).
It's important to know that specifying ?android: means you are accessing preset Android values, not yours. If you have or want to create and use your own attribute values for specific configurations, you must do the following:
Create a file named attrs.xml on your /values/ folder.
Declare the desired custom attribute:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<resources>
<attr name="my_custom_attr" format="reference" />
</resources>
Declare a value for the custom attribute, let's say on your own theme.
<style name="AppTheme" parent="android:Theme.Light">
<item name="my_custom_attr">#resource_type/resource_name</item>
<item name="android:editTextStyle">#style/EditTextAppTheme</item>
<item name="android:buttonStyle">#style/ButtonAppTheme</item>
<item name="android:imageButtonStyle">#style/ImageButtonAppTheme</item>
</style>
And then you can use it on the Widget you'd like:
Hope that clears things out.
EDIT 2
For a better answer to your question, please update your question. And like I said, read more on how to properly create styles.
The Theme named 'one', what do you want to apply it to? An activity, a Widget, the whole Application?
How are you applying the theme? Show the lines of code where you specify the usage of theme 'one'.
Your theme as you specified is simply not a properly constructed theme/style.
<style name='one'>
<item name='android:textColor'>#eea</item>
<item name='android:textSize'>20sp</item>
</style>
This says absolutely nothing, and it is definitely not suitable for an Activity-level theme. The reason you specify a parent is so your theme can inherit all of the attributes from the parent, and then you specifiy which ones to change.
For instance, if you want to use your theme and have a light background, do this:
<style name='one' parent="android:Theme.Holo.Light>
<item name='android:textColor'>#eea</item>
<item name='android:textSize'>20sp</item>
</style>
But even here, despite the fact that it will apply, you don't want to have the same text color and size for the whole application do you? That'd be nonsense, different text color and sizes account for a big part of the user experience, so rather than setting those values from what we can refer to as the main style, we can create substyles and apply them to certain widgets.
I can't really go any more detailed that what I already have, the above explains how to accomplish Widget-specific styling, and activity/application level theming.
For a complete start-up guide, read the Android Developer Site, try the test styles declared there, see how they work, and until then try to create your own, don't try to create something out of nowhere if no reading has been made.

applying themes to my android app dynamically

I have three buttons to change themes. On clicking each button my app theme must change dynamically. How to do it programmatically.

To set the theme dynamically at runtime, call setTheme() in your activity's onCreate() method, before calling setContentView(). To change the theme, you simply need to restart your activity.
Here is a nice tutorial on how dynamically apply themes.
and this one too.

Please Visit this link for it.
<TextView
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:textColor="#00FF00"
android:typeface="monospace"
android:text="#string/hello" />
<TextView
style="#style/CodeFont"
android:text="#string/hello" />
By defining an xml theme file:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
<style name="CodeFont" parent="#android:style/TextAppearance.Medium">
<item name="android:layout_width">fill_parent</item>
<item name="android:layout_height">wrap_content</item>
<item name="android:textColor">#00FF00</item>
<item name="android:typeface">monospace</item>
</style>
</resources>
You can also apply styles to all activities of an application:
<application android:theme="#style/CustomTheme">
Or just one activity:
<activity android:theme="#android:style/Theme.Dialog">

Sorry but you can't change styles programmatically.
how to set the Style Attribute Programmatically in Android?
There are certainly other methods to achieve this desired behavior however. You could set onclick listeners for each button, and programmatically change text size, color, background etc of your various view elements

you can use a particular theme for a given xml file.
in graphical layout you can CHANGE the theme of the layout using editing config.
use onclick event to go to next layout and here your theme will be different from the first one.

Vimalatha, to change your background when you click a button just add this code to the onClick function of your button.
myLinearLayout.setBackgroundColor(Color.BLUE);
Assuming that myLinearLayout is your LinearLayout name...

Try to use Window.FEATURE_CUSTOM_TITLE but got Exception:You cannot combine custom titles with other title feature..

I am trying to use a custom title to include an image button to the title bar.
I got a lot of help form this post: android: adding button to the title of the app?, but could not get it work for my ListActivity.
In a nutshell, following is what I have:
I hide the titlebar in the AndroidManifest.xml
The specify a relative layout for the custom title (workorder_list_titlebar.xml)
My Activity Class looks like the following:
public class WorkOrderListActivity extends ListActivity {
String[] orders={"WO-12022009", "WO-12302009","WO-02122010", "02152010"};
#Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
requestWindowFeature(Window.FEATURE_CUSTOM_TITLE);
this.getWindow().setFeatureInt(Window.FEATURE_CUSTOM_TITLE, R.layout.workorder_list_titlebar);
setContentView(R.layout.workorder_list);
setListAdapter(new ArrayAdapter(this,R.layout.workorder_list, R.id.label,orders));
}
}
When I ran the app, I got AndroidRuntimeException: You cannot combine custom titles with other title features.
Base on the stack trace, the exception was thrown by com.android.internal.policy.impl.PhoneWindow.requestFeature(PhoneWindow.java:183), that was triggered by setlistAdapter call.
Does anyone have the same problem with ListActivity?
Also once I manage to get this work, how do I attach listeners to the image button for it to do something?
Thanks in advance.

I had the same issue and I fix it deleting
<item name="android:windowNoTitle">true</item>
from my theme.xml

Make you create custom style in “values” folder. Make sure you code as below.
<style name="CustomTheme" parent="android:Theme">
Don't modify parent parameter.
This did work for me.

Instead of modifying your theme.xml you may also:
create a new XML style file my_theme.xml in values folder like this:
<style name="MyWindowTitleBackground">
<item name="android:background">#444444</item>
</style>
<style name="MyTheme" parent="android:Theme">
<item name="android:windowTitleBackgroundStyle">#style/MyWindowTitleBackground</item>
</style>
You may define other settings as you like in this theme.
Then just use this theme in your manifest within the activity's attributes
android:theme="#style/MyTheme"
Finally set your custom title as always in your activity.java:
final Window window = getWindow();
boolean useTitleFeature = false;
// If the window has a container, then we are not free
// to request window features.
if (window.getContainer() == null) {
useTitleFeature = window
.requestFeature(Window.FEATURE_CUSTOM_TITLE);
}
setContentView(R.layout.screen_main);
if (useTitleFeature) {
window.setFeatureInt(Window.FEATURE_CUSTOM_TITLE,
R.layout.custom_title);
// Set up the custom title
main_title = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.title_left_text);
main_title.setText(R.string.app_name);
main_title = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.title_right_text);
main_title.setText(R.string.Main_titleInfo);
}
Don't forget to define the custom_title.xml file in your layout folder. For example...
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:gravity="center_vertical" >
<TextView
android:id="#+id/title_left_text"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"
android:ellipsize="end"
android:singleLine="true" />
<TextView
android:id="#+id/title_right_text"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:layout_centerInParent="true"
android:ellipsize="end"
android:singleLine="true"
android:textColor="#fff" />
</RelativeLayout>

I think notenking is right, that this is a problem in activities within tabs. Since some of my activities can either be stand-alone or within a tab, I've found the following helps:
final Window window = getWindow();
boolean useTitleFeature = false;
// If the window has a container, then we are not free
// to request window features.
if(window.getContainer() == null) {
useTitleFeature = window.requestFeature(Window.FEATURE_CUSTOM_TITLE);
}
setContentView(layoutId);
if (useTitleFeature) {
window.setFeatureInt(Window.FEATURE_CUSTOM_TITLE, R.layout.window_title);
}

May be you find this problem when use it in tab,for there already have a title and you can not add a custom title again.
you should add this custom title in the activity which you get the Tab

I did exactly as Sunny Dasari did but with one small change I put the # before and android in the parent attribute.
So my code looked like this.
<style name="CustomTheme" parent="#android:Theme">

To avoid crashing, you can simply add
android:theme="#style/android:Theme"
to the <Activity> tag in your AndroidManifest.xml:
<activity
android:name="test.TestActivity"
android:label="#string/app_name"
android:theme="#style/android:Theme">
This is because the styles defined in your default theme conflict with FEATURE_CUSTOM_TITLE (such as the attribute android:windowNoTitle). By using another theme, you can avoid such problems.
However, you might further need to define your own theme to change other attributes, such as android:windowTitleSize, background color, text color and font, etc. In this case, you can derive your theme from an existing theme (e.g., Theme.Light) and modify its attributes:
<resources>
<style name="CustomWindowTitleBackground">
<item name="android:background">#323331</item>
</style>
<style name="CustomTheme" parent="#style/android:Theme.Light">
<item name="android:windowNoTitle">false</item>
<item name="android:windowTitleSize">60dip</item>
<item name="android:windowTitleBackgroundStyle">#style/CustomWindowTitleBackground</item>
</style>
</resources>

Try swapping following lines:
setContentView(R.layout.workorder_list);
this.getWindow().setFeatureInt(Window.FEATURE_CUSTOM_TITLE, R.layout.workorder_list_titlebar);

I have run into this issue as well and it looks like it is an issue with what theme is applied to an activity in the AndroidManifest.xml file. If I use a theme like:
android:theme="#android:style/Theme.Holo
Then it will throw the error
android.util.AndroidRuntimeException: You cannot combine custom titles with other title features
However if I use a different theme like:
android:theme="#android:style/Theme.Black"
then it will not throw the error and subsequently will not crash. However I am trying to use a theme like Theme.Holo. I'm not sure if there is a way around this.

Since, I was trying to compile my program in android 4.0, I was facing the same problem. None of these solutions helped.So, I copied my style contents from values > styles.xml and pasted it in values-v11 styles.xml file and values-v14 styles.xml file. Bingo, the trick worked.

As a beginner most of the answers didn't help me for my case. So here is my answer.
Go to res/values folder in your android project and check for strings.xml (this file may vary in your case, something like themes.xml)
Inside the file under resource tag check whether you have style tags. If you don't find it, add the code below as mentioned below as a child to resources tag
something like below
<resources>
<style name="SomeNameHere">
<item name="android:windowNoTitle">true</item>
</style>
</resources>
if you already have style tag, just add the code below to your style tag
<item name="android:windowNoTitle">true</item>

Set title background color

In my android application I want the standard/basic title bar to change color.
To change the text color you have setTitleColor(int color), is there a way to change the background color of the bar?

This thread will get you started with building your own title bar in a xml file and using it in your activities
Edit
Here is a brief summary of the content of the link above - This is just to set the color of the text and the background of the title bar - no resizing, no buttons, just the simpliest sample
res/layout/mytitle.xml - This is the view that will represent the title bar
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<TextView
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:id="#+id/myTitle"
android:text="This is my new title"
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:textColor="#color/titletextcolor"
/>
res/values/themes.xml - We want to keep the default android theme and just need to change the background color of the title background. So we create a theme that inherits the default theme and set the background style to our own style.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
<style name="customTheme" parent="android:Theme">
<item name="android:windowTitleBackgroundStyle">#style/WindowTitleBackground</item>
</style>
</resources>
res/values/styles.xml - This is where we set the theme to use the color we want for the title background
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
<style name="WindowTitleBackground">
<item name="android:background">#color/titlebackgroundcolor</item>
</style>
</resources>
res/values/colors.xml - Set here the color you want
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
<color name="titlebackgroundcolor">#3232CD</color>
<color name="titletextcolor">#FFFF00</color>
</resources>
In the AndroidMANIFEST.xml, set the theme attribute either in the application (for the whole application) or in the activity (only this activity) tags
<activity android:name=".CustomTitleBar" android:theme="#style/customTheme" ...
From the Activity (called CustomTitleBar) :
#Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
requestWindowFeature(Window.FEATURE_CUSTOM_TITLE);
setContentView(R.layout.main);
getWindow().setFeatureInt(Window.FEATURE_CUSTOM_TITLE, R.layout.mytitle);
}

Thanks for this clear explanation, however I would like to add a bit more to your answer by asking a linked question (don't really want to do a new post as this one is the basement on my question).
I'm declaring my titlebar in a Superclass from which, all my other activities are children, to have to change the color of the bar only once. I would like to also add an icon and change the text in the bar. I have done some testing, and managed to change either one or the other but not both at the same time (using setFeatureDrawable and setTitle).
The ideal solution would be of course to follow the explanation in the thread given in the link, but as i'm declaring in a superclass, i have an issue due to the layout in setContentView and the R.id.myCustomBar, because if i remember well i can call setContentView only once...
EDIT
Found my answer :
For those who, like me, like to work with superclasses because it's great for getting a menu available everywhere in an app, it works the same here.
Just add this to your superclass:
requestWindowFeature(Window.FEATURE_CUSTOM_TITLE);
setContentView(R.layout.customtitlebar);
getWindow().setFeatureInt(Window.FEATURE_CUSTOM_TITLE, R.layout.customtitlebar);
customTitleText = (TextView) findViewById(R.id.customtitlebar);
(you have to declare the textview as protected class variable)
And then the power of this is that, everywhere in you app (if for instance all your activities are children of this class), you just have to call
customTitleText.setText("Whatever you want in title");
and your titlebar will be edited.
The XML associated in my case is (R.layout.customtitlebar) :
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:orientation="horizontal" android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="fill_parent" android:background="#color/background">
<ImageView android:layout_width="25px" android:layout_height="25px"
android:src="#drawable/icontitlebar"></ImageView>
<TextView android:id="#+id/customtitlebar"
android:layout_width="wrap_content" android:layout_height="fill_parent"
android:text="" android:textColor="#color/textcolor" android:textStyle="bold"
android:background="#color/background" android:padding="3px" />
</LinearLayout>

There is another way to change the background color, however it is a hack and might fail on future versions of Android if the View hierarchy of the Window and its title is changed. However, the code won't crash, just miss setting the wanted color, in such a case.
In your Activity, like onCreate, do:
View titleView = getWindow().findViewById(android.R.id.title);
if (titleView != null) {
ViewParent parent = titleView.getParent();
if (parent != null && (parent instanceof View)) {
View parentView = (View)parent;
parentView.setBackgroundColor(Color.rgb(0x88, 0x33, 0x33));
}
}

This code helps to change the background of the title bar programmatically in Android. Change the color to any color you want.
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState)
{
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.your_layout);
getActionBar().setBackgroundDrawable(new ColorDrawable(Color.parseColor("#1c2833")));
}

protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);
View titleView = getWindow().findViewById(android.R.id.title);
if (titleView != null) {
ViewParent parent = titleView.getParent();
if (parent != null && (parent instanceof View)) {
View parentView = (View)parent;
parentView.setBackgroundColor(Color.RED);
}
}
on above code you can try you can use title instead of titlebar
this will affect on all activity in your application

I suppose no.
You can create titleless activity and create your own title bar in activity layout.
Check this, Line 63 and below:
getWindow().setFeatureInt(Window.FEATURE_CUSTOM_TITLE, R.layout.custom_title_1)
sets customview instead of default title view.

Take a peek in platforms/android-2.1/data/res/layout/screen.xml of the SDK. It seems to define a title there. You can frequently examine layouts like this and borrow the
style="?android:attr/windowTitleStyle"
styles which you can then use and override in your own TextViews.
You may be able to even select the title for direct tweaking by doing:
TextView title = (TextView)findViewById(android.R.id.title);

Try with the following code
View titleView = getWindow().findViewById(android.R.id.title);
if (titleView != null) {
ViewParent parent = titleView.getParent();
if (parent != null && (parent instanceof View)) {
View parentView = (View)parent;
parentView.setBackgroundColor(Color.RED);
}
}
also use this link its very useful : http://nathanael.hevenet.com/android-dev-changing-the-title-bar-background/

There is an easier alternative to change the color of the title bar, by using the v7 appcompat support library provided by Google.
See this link on how to to setup this support library: https://developer.android.com/tools/support-library/setup.html
Once you have done that, it's sufficient to add the following lines to your res/values/styles.xml file:
<style name="AppTheme" parent="AppBaseTheme">
<item name="android:actionBarStyle">#style/ActionBar</item>
</style>
<!-- Actionbar Theme -->
<style name="ActionBar" parent="Widget.AppCompat.Light.ActionBar.Solid.Inverse">
<item name="android:background">#color/titlebackgroundcolor</item>
</style>
(assuming that "titlebackgroundcolor" is defined in your res/values/colors.xml, e.g.:
<color name="titlebackgroundcolor">#0000AA</color>
)

I have done this by changing style color values in "res" -> "values" -> "colors.xml"
This will change colors for entire project which is fine with me.

Things seem to have gotten better/easier since Android 5.0 (API level 21).
I think what you're looking for is something like this:
<style name="AppTheme" parent="AppBaseTheme">
<!-- Top-top notification/status bar color: -->
<!--<item name="colorPrimaryDark">#000000</item>-->
<!-- App bar color: -->
<item name="colorPrimary">#0000FF</item>
</style>
See here for reference:
https://developer.android.com/training/material/theme.html#ColorPalette

Paste this code after setContentView or into onCreate
if you have a color code use this ;
getSupportActionBar().setBackgroundDrawable(new ColorDrawable(Color.parseColor("#408ed4")));
if you want a specific code from Color library use this ;
getSupportActionBar().setBackgroundDrawable(new ColorDrawable(Color.WHITE));

you can use it.
toolbar.setTitleTextColor(getResources().getColor(R.color.white));