Develop Reference

Why isn't the action bar text color changing?

I am on android lollipop and using the following style as my theme MyNavigationDrawerTheme
in styles v14
<style name="MyNavigationDrawerTheme" parent="MaterialNavigationDrawerTheme.Light">
<item name="actionMenuTextColor">#color/white</item>
</style>
in material drawer theme.xml (mostly irrelevant to this issue)
<style name="MaterialNavigationDrawerTheme.Light" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.NoActionBar" >
<item name="drawerType">#integer/DRAWERTYPE_ACCOUNTS</item>
<item name="drawerColor">#fafafa</item>
</style>
I understand that the theme Theme.AppCompat.Light.NoActionBar has black text for the action bar but why isn't it changing when I include the line
<item name="actionMenuTextColor">#color/white</item>
I have been trying to fix this for almost two days now tried so many things (eg here) but nothing works
Any idea

you could try this in styles.xml:
<style name="MyNavigationDrawerTheme" parent="MaterialNavigationDrawerTheme.Light">
<item name="android:actionMenuTextColor">#color/white</item>
<item name="android:actionMenuTextAppearance">#style/TextAppearance.ActionMenu
</item>
</style>
<style name="TextAppearance.ActionMenu">
<item name="android:textColor">#color/white</item>
</style>
ps:
yeah ,sometimes it won't works only by android:actionMenuTextColor ,such as Galaxy S4
just add attr android:actionMenuTextAppearance

In case you are using Toolbar, this is how you do it -
<style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.NoActionBar">
<item name="android:textColorPrimary">#android:color/holo_red_dark</item>
<item name="textColorPrimary">#android:color/holo_red_dark</item>
<!-- Customize your theme here. -->
</style>
Should work like a charm :)

Android actionbar background around title

Android Studio 1.1.0. SDK 22 Installed&Compiled, SDK 17 Target (I suppose it's not relevant, because issue occurs also on preview in IDE).
I started playing with Holo theme action bar styling and ran into an issue, involving background color. This is my styles.xml:
<resources>
<style name="AppTheme" parent="android:Theme.Holo.Light.DarkActionBar">
<item name="android:background">#ff0d3200</item>
<item name="android:actionBarStyle">#style/BarTheme</item>
</style>
<style name="BarTheme" parent="android:Widget.Holo.ActionBar">
<item name="android:background">#443322</item>
</style>
</resources>
And this is output. I want app title's background color to be the same as action bar's. As I've said, it's the same on the preview, so I don't think it's because my phone(SDK17) or emulator. Overflow button behaves the same way, there just isn't any in this case.
I tried setting android:titleTextStyle in BarTheme to this style:
<style name="TitleTheme" parent="android:TextAppearance.Holo">
<item name="android:background">#443322</item>
</style>
But it didn't change a thing. What do I do to overcome this?

try ,
<style name="AppTheme" parent="android:Theme.Holo.Light.DarkActionBar">
<!-- All customizations that are NOT specific to a particular API-level can go here. -->
<item name="android:actionBarStyle">#style/MyActionBar</item>
</style>
<style name="MyActionBar" parent="#android:style/Widget.Holo.Light.ActionBar">
<item name="android:background">value</item>
<item name="android:titleTextStyle">#style/TitleColor</item>
</style>
<style name="TitleColor" parent="android:TextAppearance.Holo.Widget.ActionBar.Title">
<item name="android:textColor">value</item>
</style>

Due to David's input I solved my problem myself. I had to set windowBackground, instead of background in AppTheme. I'm not sure what is the exact difference, but it works properly. Remember not to change attribute in your BarTheme, because it won't work with windowBackground. Therefore correct styles.xml file is:
<resources>
<color name="bcColor">#ff0d3200</color>
<style name="AppTheme" parent="android:Theme.Holo.Light.DarkActionBar">
<item name="android:windowBackground">#color/bcColor</item>
<item name="android:actionBarStyle">#style/BarTheme</item>
</style>
<style name="BarTheme" parent="android:Widget.Holo.ActionBar">
<item name="android:background">#443322</item>
</style>
</resources>
Note that color has to be defined as resource in this case and cannot be hardcoded. The clean way to do this is create colors.xml in values folder and define all colors there.

Lollipop Theme issue

I am using sherlock action bar in my project, I have used Theme.Sherlock.Light.DarkActionBar
<style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.Sherlock.Light.DarkActionBar">
<item name="android:homeAsUpIndicator">#drawable/transparent</item>
<item name="homeAsUpIndicator">#drawable/transparent</item>
<item name="actionBarStyle">#style/Widget.MyTheme.ActionBar</item>
<item name="android:actionBarStyle">#style/Widget.MyTheme.ActionBar</item>
<item name="android:titleTextStyle">#style/Widget.MyTheme.TitleTextStyle</item>
<item name="android:textAllCaps">false</item>
</style>
Problem :
I am getting light color menu with lollipop:
pre lollipop image :
Lollipop image :
can some one guide me, how can I get slimier menu color on both .

You can create a style which extends from actionbar sherlock to change color of you actionbar with other properties.
<style name="Theme.MyTheme" parent="Theme.Sherlock.ForceOverflow">
<item name="actionBarStyle">#style/Widget.MyTheme.ActionBar</item>
<item name="android:actionBarStyle">#style/Widget.MyTheme.ActionBar</item>
</style>
<style name="Widget.MyTheme.ActionBar" parent="Widget.Sherlock.ActionBar">
<item name="android:background">#ff000000</item>
<item name="background">#ff000000</item>
<item name="android:textColor">#CC3232</item>
</style>
For TextColor only
<style name="YOURTHEME.ActionBar.TitleTextStyle" parent="TextAppearance.Sherlock.Widget.ActionBar.Title">
<item name="android:textColor">#color/yourColor</item>
<item name="textColor">#color/yourColor</item>
</style>
Last resort Solution
<item name="android:textColorPrimary">#color/yourColor</item>

You should create a new styles.xml in a separate values-21 folder. There, you can define a specific theme/style that suits your needs for Lollipop devices only.

You should be using the ActionBar or ToolBar provided by app-compat library, instead of ActionBarSherlock.
ABS uses replacement Holo themes for older versions, which I guess hasn't been updated in a while.

How to change ActionBar Tab textStyle?

By default android actionBar Tab has text-style as CAPITAL. How can I set the text-style to normal camel-case style. Like "Abcd" instead of "ABCD"(Which is the by-default style)

To make the tab text lowercase, create a style that inherits Widget.Holo.Light.ActionBar.TabText Widget.Holo.ActionBar.TabText and set android:textAllCaps to false.
You can apply your own ActionBar.Tab text style by using the android:actionBarTabTextStyle attribute.
For AppCompat compatibility, your style should inherit Widget.AppCompat.Light.ActionBar.TabText or Widget.AppCompat.ActionBar.TabText and the attributes are the same as above, minus the android prefix.
For more information, you should read: Styling the ActionBar
Here's an example with AppCompat compatibility:
values
<style name="Your.Theme" parent="#style/Theme.AppCompat.Light">
<item name="android:actionBarTabTextStyle">#style/Your.TabText.Style</item>
<item name="actionBarTabTextStyle">#style/Your.TabText.Style</item>
</style>
<style name="Your.TabText.Style" parent="#style/Widget.AppCompat.Light.ActionBar.TabText">
<item name="textAllCaps">false</item>
</style>
values-v14
<style name="Your.TabText.Style" parent="#android:style/Widget.Holo.Light.ActionBar.TabText">
<item name="android:textAllCaps">false</item>
</style>
Results

Apply custom theme to your app where you can change actionbar's properties.
<style name="Theme.MyAppTheme" parent="#android:style/Theme.Holo.Light">
<item name="android:actionBarStyle">#style/MyActionBar</item>
</style>
<style name="MyActionBar" parent="#android:style/Widget.Holo.Light.ActionBar">
<item name="android:textAppearance">?android:attr/textAppearanceSmall</item>
<item name="android:textAllCaps">false</item>
</style>

can't change color of actionBar divider

I tried change color of my actionBar divider , but nothing work. I' using android support library v7 for support old devices and custom style, and i also change all action bar drawable, but nothing happend!
<resources>
<style name="MyTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat">
<item name="actionBarStyle">#style/MyActionBar</item>
</style>
<style name="MyActionBar" parent = "Widget.AppCompat.ActionBar">
<item name="background">#drawable/my_action_bar</item>
</style>
</resources>
And my ide show me strange error in layout , why did i get this error? it's not color value
java.lang.NumberFormatException: Color value '#drawable/abs__ab_transparent_dark_holo' must start with #
Solution: Need to add android namespace if use for api level >= 14 .May be it will be helpful to someone.

It is because the "divider" is an image. It's hardcoded in the Holo theme assets.
Look at platforms/android-19/data/res/drawable-xxhdpi/ab_transparent_dark_holo.9.png
The style is declared here for holo dark.
<style name="Widget.Holo.ActionBar" parent="Widget.ActionBar">
...
<item name="android:background">#android:drawable/ab_transparent_dark_holo</item>
...
</style>
It's a background. You will need to change the color in the image and replace the background of your bar.
It also needs different sizes for different resolutions.

Maybe you should set color directly, change your theme as
<item name="android:divider">#color/dividercolor</item>
Then you should add color dividercolor in you /value/color file,like
<item name="dividercolor"> #0099CC </item>

I hope this will be helpful to you
<style name="CustomTheme" parent="#android:style/Theme.Holo.Light">
<item name="android:actionBarStyle">#style/MyTheme.ActionBarStyle</item>
<item name="android:actionBarDivider">#drawable/action_vertical_doted</item>
<item name="android:actionButtonStyle">#style/MyTheme.ActionBar.ActionButton</item>
<item name="android:actionMenuTextColor">#ffffff</item>
<!-- <item name="android:actionMenuTextAppearance">#style/MyTheme.Menu.FontStyle</item> -->
<!-- <item name="android:actionBarSize">50dp</item> -->
</style>
<style name="MyTheme.ActionBarStyle" parent="#android:style/Widget.Holo.Light.ActionBar">
<item name="android:titleTextStyle">#style/MyTheme.ActionBar.TitleTextStyle</item>
<item name="android:background">#drawable/actionbar_bg_shap</item>
<item name="android:displayOptions">none</item>
<item name="android:backgroundSplit">#drawable/actionbar_bg_shap</item>
</style>
<style name="MyTheme.ActionBar.ActionButton" parent="#android:style/Widget.Holo.Light.ActionButton">
<item name="android:background">#drawable/main_button_inactive_tr</item>
</style>