Develop Reference

How to set unique TextView text color through Android Theme when multiple Themes are available

I have a couple of Themes in an app and it works ok. Now I wanted to set a chat bubble text color to color red when user select BaseTheme.Red, and text color orange when user select BaseTheme.Orange (see code below)
It´s only the chat bubble text right that I want to be like red for the ´Red´ and Orange for the Orange Theme and all other TextView text color in the app will have default Theme color.
I try to learn Android Themes and got into trouble setting this chat TextView text color to another color then this global:
<item name="android:textColor">#color/white</item>
I created this: Inside the BaseTheme.Red
<item name="chatBubbleTextColor">#color/material_red_500</item>
and thought I could use it in the TextView xml like
android:textColor="?attr/chatBubbleTextColor"
but i cannot get it to work maybe it does not work like that?
How can I with the Themes below make this work?
Here is two Themes Red and Orange:
<!-- Base Theme -->
<style name="BaseTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar">
<!-- Attributes for all APIs -->
<item name="windowActionBar">false</item>
<item name="windowNoTitle">true</item>
<item name="dialogTheme">#style/AppTheme.Dialog</item>
<item name="alertDialogTheme">#style/AppTheme.Dialog.Alert</item>
<item name="colorControlHighlight">#color/selector_black_pressed</item>
<!-- Theme for the Preferences -->
<item name="preferenceTheme">#style/AppPreferenceTheme</item>
<!-- Theme for the pacv_placesAutoCompleteTextV -->
<item name="pacv_placesAutoCompleteTextViewStyle">#style/Widget.AppCompat.EditText</item>
<!-- Default App Theme -->
<style name="AppTheme" parent="BaseTheme">
<!-- API specific attributes 14+ -->
<item name="selectableRectDrawable">#drawable/state_list_selectable_rect_black</item>
<item name="selectableRectDrawableInverse">#drawable/state_list_selectable_rect_white</item>
<item name="selectableRectDrawableColored">#drawable/state_list_selectable_rect_black</item>
<item name="selectableRoundedRectDrawable">#drawable/state_list_selectable_rounded_rect_black</item>
<item name="selectableRoundedRectDrawableInverse">#drawable/state_list_selectable_rounded_rect_white</item>
<item name="selectableRoundedRectDrawableColored">#drawable/state_list_selectable_rounded_rect_black</item>
</style>
<!-- Orange App Theme -->
<style name="BaseTheme.Orange" parent="AppTheme">
<!-- Attributes for all APIs -->
<item name="colorPrimary">#color/material_orange_500</item>
<item name="colorPrimaryDark">#color/material_orange_700</item>
<item name="colorAccent">#color/material_orange_a700</item>
<item name="dialogTheme">#style/AppTheme.Dialog.Orange</item>
<item name="alertDialogTheme">#style/AppTheme.Dialog.Alert.Orange</item>
<item name="android:windowBackground">#color/material_orange_300</item>
</style>
<style name="AppTheme.Orange" parent="BaseTheme.Orange">
<!-- API specific attributes 14+ -->
<item name="selectableRectDrawableColored">#drawable/state_list_selectable_rect_orange</item>
<item name="selectableRoundedRectDrawableColored">#drawable/state_list_selectable_rounded_rect_orange</item>
<!-- Add your custom overall styles here -->
</style>
<!-- Red App Theme -->
<style name="BaseTheme.Red" parent="AppTheme">
<!-- Attributes for all APIs -->
<item name="colorPrimary">#color/material_red_500</item>
<item name="colorPrimaryDark">#color/material_red_700</item>
<item name="colorAccent">#color/material_red_a700</item>
<item name="dialogTheme">#style/AppTheme.Dialog.Red</item>
<item name="alertDialogTheme">#style/AppTheme.Dialog.Alert.Red</item>
<item name="android:windowBackground">#color/material_red_300</item>
<!-- Chat bubble attribute not working-->
<item name="chatBubbleTextColor">#color/material_red_500</item>
</style>
<style name="AppTheme.Red" parent="BaseTheme.Red">
<!-- API specific attributes 14+ -->
<item name="selectableRectDrawableColored">#drawable/state_list_selectable_rect_red</item>
<item name="selectableRoundedRectDrawableColored">#drawable/state_list_selectable_rounded_rect_red</item>
<!-- Add your custom overall styles here -->
</style>

I found the answer to my own question here
Basically, it goes like this:
In the file attr.xml, I define this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
<attr name="ChatBubbleBackGroundColor" format="reference|color" />
<attr name="ChatBubbleTextColor" format="reference|color" />
</resources>
Next I add to my two BaseTheme:
<style name="BaseTheme.Red" parent="AppTheme">
<item name="ChatBubbleBackGroundColor">#color/material_red_a200</item>
<item name="ChatBubbleTextColor">#color/material_red_a700</item>
</style>
<style name="BaseTheme.Orange" parent="AppTheme">
<item name="ChatBubbleBackGroundColor">#color/material_orange_a200</item>
<item name="ChatBubbleTextColor">#color/material_orange_a700</item>
</style>
and finally in my layout
<TextView
android:id="#+id/quoteTitle"
android:textColor="?ChatBubbleTextColor"
android:BackGround="?ChatBubbleBackGroundColor"
...
</TextView>

Reference a style without "#" symbol?

i have this code:
<!-- Base application theme. -->
<style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar">
<item name="colorPrimary">#color/primary_color</item>
<item name="colorPrimaryDark">#color/primary_dark_color</item>
<item name="actionBarStyle">#style/MiwokAppBarStyle</item>
<item name="android:windowContentOverlay">#null</item>
</style>
<!-- App bar style -->
<style name="MiwokAppBarStyle" parent="style/Widget.AppCompat.Light.ActionBar.Solid.Inverse">
<!-- Remove the shadow below the app bar -->
<item name="elevation">0dp</item>
</style>
<!-- Style for a tab that displays a category name -->
<style name="CategoryTab" parent="Widget.Design.TabLayout">
<item name="tabIndicatorColor">#android:color/white</item>
<item name="tabSelectedTextColor">#android:color/white</item>
<item name="tabTextAppearance">#style/CategoryTabTextAppearance</item>
</style>
<!-- Text appearance style for a category tab -->
<style name="CategoryTabTextAppearance" parent="TextAppearance.Design.Tab">
<item name="android:textColor">#A8A19E</item>
</style>
</resources>
why in MiwokAppBarStyle we don't use # symbol in referencing the parent style like this parent="#style/Widget.AppCompat.Light.ActionBar.Solid.Inverse" ?, and why we referencing parent style using style/ insted of referencing without style/ prefix like parent="Widget.AppCompat.Light.ActionBar.Solid.Inverse" ??

Android: Can't seem to theme SearchView

I've been trying real hard to theme SearchView. My min API is sdk 21 too, so I should be able to use the new styling options.
Specifically, I want the in-app-bar text field that appears when I click on the search icon to be theme-able. I want to ultimately make the background white, and the text/cursor either blue or black.
Here is my styles.xml. The last theme is the new SearchTheme I'm working on. The actual values don't matter, they're garbage values I threw in just trying to make a change happen.
<resources>
<!-- Base application theme. -->
<style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar">
<!-- Customize your theme here. -->
<item name="colorPrimary">#color/colorPrimary</item>
<item name="colorPrimaryDark">#color/colorPrimaryDark</item>
<item name="colorAccent">#color/colorAccent</item>
<item name="android:windowBackground">#android:color/white</item>
<item name="android:searchViewStyle">#style/AppTheme.SearchTheme</item>
</style>
<style name="AppTheme.NoActionBar">
<item name="windowActionBar">false</item>
<item name="windowNoTitle">true</item>
</style>
<style name="AppTheme.PreferencesTheme" parent="AppTheme">
<item name="android:windowBackground">#android:color/white</item>
</style>
<style name="AppTheme.AppBarOverlay" parent="ThemeOverlay.AppCompat.Dark.ActionBar">
<item name="android:windowBackground">#android:color/white</item>
<item name="android:searchViewStyle">#style/AppTheme.SearchTheme</item>
</style>
<style name="AppTheme.PopupOverlay" parent="ThemeOverlay.AppCompat.Light">
<item name="android:windowBackground">#android:color/white</item>
<item name="android:searchViewStyle">#style/AppTheme.SearchTheme</item>
</style>
<style name="AppTheme.SearchTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light">
<item name="android:closeIcon">#drawable/contacts5icon</item>
<item name="android:voiceIcon">#drawable/contacts5icon</item>
<item name="android:queryBackground">#android:color/black</item>
<item name="android:windowBackground">#android:color/white</item>
</style>
</resources>
I've assigned the AppTheme.SearchTheme to the other main themes that I'm using in my layout. But nothing I do seems to have any effect. The values don't seem to change.
I haven't really messed with Android theming before, so I'm a bit lost.

This should help you get on the right track, per Chris Banes' walk-through for using material design on pre-lollipop androids. For you, in a nutshell: set item property searchViewStyle under your main style with a Widget.AppCompat.SearchView style extension.
You can use the queryBackground item property for altering the text field's background. Other properties are detailed below.
<style name=”Theme.MyTheme” parent=”Theme.AppCompat”>
<item name=”searchViewStyle”>#style/MySearchViewStyle</item>
</style>
<style name=”MySearchViewStyle” parent=”Widget.AppCompat.SearchView”>
<!-- Background for the search query section (e.g. EditText) -->
<item name="queryBackground">...</item>
<!-- Background for the actions section (e.g. voice, submit) -->
<item name="submitBackground">...</item>
<!-- Close button icon -->
<item name="closeIcon">...</item>
<!-- Search button icon -->
<item name="searchIcon">...</item>
<!-- Go/commit button icon -->
<item name="goIcon">...</item>
<!-- Voice search button icon -->
<item name="voiceIcon">...</item>
<!-- Commit icon shown in the query suggestion row -->
<item name="commitIcon">...</item>
<!-- Layout for query suggestion rows -->
<item name="suggestionRowLayout">...</item>
</style>
more here

Backward compatibity using v-21/styles.xml not working

I am trying to style my button while maintaining backwards compatibility.
I have 2 files as follows:
values/styles.xml:
<resources>
<!-- Base application theme. -->
<style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar">
<!-- Main theme colors -->
<!-- your app branding color for the app bar -->
<item name="colorPrimary">#color/primary</item>
<!-- darker variant for the status bar and contextual app bars -->
<item name="colorPrimaryDark">#color/primary_dark</item>
<!-- theme UI controls like checkboxes and text fields -->
<item name="colorAccent">#color/accent</item>
<item name="android:textColorPrimary">#color/primary_text</item>
<item name="android:textColorSecondary">#color/secondary_text</item>
<item name="android:buttonStyle">#style/RoundedButton</item>
</style>
<style name="RoundedButton" parent="#style/Widget.AppCompat.Button">
</style>
<style name="AppName.NoActionBar" parent="AppTheme" >
<item name="windowActionBar">false</item>
<item name="windowNoTitle">true</item>
</style>
<style name="DemoButton">
<item name="android:layout_width">wrap_content</item>
<item name="android:layout_height">wrap_content</item>
<item name="android:minWidth">40dp</item>
</style>
</resources>
values-v21/styles.xml:
<resources>
<style name="RoundedButton" parent="Widget.AppCompat.Button">
<item name="android:background">#drawable/btn_rounded</item>
</style>
</resources>
But even then my button looses all attributes i.e. just a text is displayed as per android-studio's "XML preview". I just want the button to default to the usual Holo theme on pre-lolipop devices. It works as expected on Lolipop devices.
What am I doing wrong?

In values/styles.xml
<style name="RoundedButton" parent="#style/Widget.AppCompat.Button">
</style>
change it to as Follow :-
<style name="RoundedButton" parent="android:Widget.Holo">
</style>

I couldn't figure out the reason of why this was happening so I removed the line <item name="android:buttonStyle">#style/RoundedButton</item> from my values/styles.xml file, and added it to my values-v21/styles.xml.
I do not like this solution as there is a lot of code duplication. The only good thing about it is that it works.
Now my files look like:
values/styles.xml:
<resources>
<!-- Base application theme. -->
<style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar">
<!-- Main theme colors -->
<!-- your app branding color for the app bar -->
<item name="colorPrimary">#color/primary</item>
<!-- darker variant for the status bar and contextual app bars -->
<item name="colorPrimaryDark">#color/primary_dark</item>
<!-- theme UI controls like checkboxes and text fields -->
<item name="colorAccent">#color/accent</item>
<item name="android:textColorPrimary">#color/primary_text</item>
<item name="android:textColorSecondary">#color/secondary_text</item>
</style>
<style name="AppName.NoActionBar" parent="AppTheme" >
<item name="windowActionBar">false</item>
<item name="windowNoTitle">true</item>
</style>
<style name="DemoButton">
<item name="android:layout_width">wrap_content</item>
<item name="android:layout_height">wrap_content</item>
<item name="android:minWidth">40dp</item>
</style>
</resources>
v21/styles.xml:
<resources>
<!-- Base application theme. -->
<style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar">
<!-- Main theme colors -->
<!-- your app branding color for the app bar -->
<item name="colorPrimary">#color/primary</item>
<!-- darker variant for the status bar and contextual app bars -->
<item name="colorPrimaryDark">#color/primary_dark</item>
<!-- theme UI controls like checkboxes and text fields -->
<item name="colorAccent">#color/accent</item>
<item name="android:textColorPrimary">#color/primary_text</item>
<item name="android:textColorSecondary">#color/secondary_text</item>
<item name="android:buttonStyle">#style/RoundedButton</item>
</style>
<style name="RoundedButton" parent="Widget.AppCompat.Button">
<item name="android:background">#drawable/btn_rounded</item>
</style>
<style name="AppName.NoActionBar" parent="AppTheme" >
<item name="windowActionBar">false</item>
<item name="windowNoTitle">true</item>
</style>
<style name="DemoButton">
<item name="android:layout_width">wrap_content</item>
<item name="android:layout_height">wrap_content</item>
<item name="android:minWidth">40dp</item>
</style>
</resources>

can we set actionbar height manually in android theme.light

I am using "Theme.Light" theme for my android project and while setting up a navigation drawer how can i set actionbar size(height).
I used the below code and i got an error..
<style name="Theme.Light.ActionBar" parent="#android:style/Theme.Light">
<item name="android:windowNoTitle">false</item>
<item name="android:windowActionBar">true</item>
<item name="actionBarSize">36dip</item>
<item name="android:windowActionBarOverlay">true</item>
</style>
can you please reply to my problem as soon as possible and thank you.

Use height attribute,for actionBarHeight
<item name="android:height">#dimen/bar_height</item>
you have to create style like this:
<!-- Application theme. -->
<style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light">
<!-- Main theme colors -->
<!-- your app branding color for the app bar -->
<item name="colorPrimary">#color/primary</item>
<!-- darker variant for the status bar and contextual app bars -->
<item name="colorPrimaryDark">#color/primary_dark</item>
<!-- theme UI controls like checkboxes and text fields -->
<!-- native widgets will now be "tinted" with accent color -->
<item name="colorAccent">#color/accent</item>
<!--Action bar style-->
<item name="android:actionBarStyle">#style/AppTheme.ActionBar</item>
<item name="actionBarStyle">#style/AppTheme.ActionBar</item>
</style>
<style name="AppTheme.ActionBar" parent="Widget.AppCompat.Light.ActionBar">
<item name="titleTextStyle">#style/AppTheme.ActionBar.TitleText</item>
<item name="android:titleTextStyle">#style/AppTheme.ActionBar.TitleText</item>
<item name="android:height">#dimen/bar_height</item>
</style>
<style name="AppTheme.ActionBar.TitleText" parent="TextAppearance.AppCompat.Widget.ActionBar.Title">
<item name="android:textSize">#dimen/bar_text_size</item>
<item name="android:textColor">#color/bar_text_color</item>
</style>
you have to try below code :
<resources>
<style name="Theme.FixedSize" parent="#android:style/Theme.Holo.Light.DarkActionBar">
<item name="actionBarSize">48dip</item>
<item name="android:actionBarSize">48dip</item>
</style>
</resources>

If you are using AppCompat, you can set the "actionBarSize" attribute in your theme (which must inherit from Theme.AppCompat.x). You can also use a Toolbar in your layout and set its layout_height to the desired value.