Develop Reference

Make all views transparent to see only theme background image

I saw a lot of modern beautiful apps in the Play Store that use image as background. I decided to use this solution in my application. I develop for minimum API 21 Android 5.0. I prepared image 1920x1080 for xxhdpi Nexus 5 AVD.
I use material light theme. Here is my modified theme definition xml
<resources>
<!-- Base application theme. -->
<style name="AppTheme" parent="android:Theme.Material.Light">
<!-- Customize your theme here. -->
<item name="android:colorPrimary">#color/colorPrimary</item>
<item name="android:colorPrimaryDark">#color/colorPrimaryDark</item>
<item name="android:colorAccent">#color/colorAccent</item>
<item name="android:background">#drawable/parquet</item>
<item name="android:actionBarStyle">#style/transparentActionBar</item>
<item name="android:statusBarColor">#android:color/transparent</item>
</style>
<style name="transparentActionBar" parent="android:Widget.Material.Light.ActionBar">
<item name="android:background">#android:color/transparent</item>
</style>
When I run application I see that each view uses its own scaled copy of theme image. My custom defined style 'transparentActionBar' has no effect on action bar. Only behind status bar I see something like original image. Is it possible to define all views transparency via XML to make visible only screen background image? If no, tell please what is right approach to the solution of this problem.
Regards.

This code does exact what I want
<resources>
<!-- Base application theme. -->
<style name="AppTheme" parent="android:Theme.Material.Light">
<!-- Customize your theme here. -->
<item name="android:colorPrimary">#color/colorPrimary</item>
<item name="android:colorPrimaryDark">#color/colorPrimaryDark</item>
<item name="android:colorAccent">#color/colorAccent</item>
<item name="android:statusBarColor">#android:color/transparent</item>
<item name="android:windowBackground">#drawable/parquet</item>
<item name="android:actionBarStyle">#style/ActionBarStyle.Transparent</item>
</style>
<style name="ActionBarStyle.Transparent" parent="android:Widget.Material.Light.ActionBar">
<item name="android:background">#null</item>
</style>

How to set background color of android app and background of action bar

I am trying to modify my app to have a dark blue action bar with a light blue background. So far I have only been able to make the entire app dark blue. How can I modify my code to keep the action bar the color it is now but make the background with the team numbers a light blue? Please note my apps minimum API is 14.
I am currently using the following code in my styles.xml:
<!-- Base application theme. -->
<style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar">
<item name="android:background">#color/teamLightBlue</item>
</style>
<!-- Activity themes -->
<style name="Theme.Base" parent="android:Theme.Light" />
<style name="Theme.Sample" parent="Theme.Base" />
<!-- the theme applied to the application or activity -->
<style name="CustomActionBarTheme"
parent="AppTheme">
<item name="android:actionBarStyle">#style/MyActionBarTheme</item>
</style>
<!-- ActionBar styles -->
<style name="MyActionBarTheme" parent="#android:style/Widget.Holo.Light.ActionBar">
<item name="android:background">#color/teamDarkBlue</item>
</style>

If you choose to use Theme.AppCompat, you can change Action Bar's background color using:
<item name="colorPrimary">#ffffff</item>
but if you choose the Holo one, you can change that color using
<item name="android:colorPrimary">#ffffff</item>
Hope this helps.

As far as I know your code is good instead of Widget.Holo.Light.ActionBar as its not part of AppCompat v7. Use this instead
<style name="CustomActionBarTheme" parent="AppTheme">
<item name="android:actionBarStyle" tools:ignore="NewApi">#style/MyActionBarTheme</item>
<item name="actionBarStyle">#style/MyActionBarTheme</item>
</style>
<style name="MyActionBarTheme" parent="#style/Widget.AppCompat.Light.ActionBar.Solid.Inverse">
<item name="android:background">#color/teamDarkBlue</item>
<item name="background">#color/teamDarkBlue</item>
</style>
It should work fine!

How to change the app icon in Action Bar in SDK 22?

Now I make app with SDK 22,but the Action Bar's app icon dispear.
Here are my code.
<resources>
<!-- Base application theme. -->
<style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar">
<!-- Customize your theme here. -->
<item name="android:actionBarStyle">#style/ActionBar</item>
<item name="actionBarStyle">#style/ActionBar</item>
<item name="actionOverflowButtonStyle">#style/overflowButton</item>
</style>
<!--ActionBar-->
<style name="ActionBar" parent="#style/Widget.AppCompat.Light.ActionBar.Solid.Inverse">
<item name="android:background">#color/bg</item>
<item name="background">#color/bg</item>
<item name="android:title">#string/test</item>
<item name="title">#string/test</item>
<item name="icon">#mipmap/ic_launcher</item> <!-- here I want to show the app icon,but it can't-->
<item name="android:icon">#mipmap/ic_launcher</item>
</style>
<style name="overflowButton">
<item name="android:src">#mipmap/ic_add_black_48dp</item>
<item name="android:showAsAction"></item>
</style>
<style name="NoActionBarTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.NoActionBar"></style>
</resources>
I have try to solve it by android deceloper,but fail.I also try many other ways,it also fail.Please help me .

As per my understanding, your main issue is that application icon do not appear on actionbar.
For that you need to set display option to actionbar.
getSupportActionBar().setDisplayOptions(ActionBar.DISPLAY_SHOW_HOME | ActionBar.DISPLAY_SHOW_TITLE);
getSupportActionBar().setIcon(R.drawable.ic_launcher);
PS you need to import android.support.v7.app.ActionBar to your activity.

Set text size of menu items in popup menu

I have created options using customized popup menu.
Now, I want to set the text size of menu items. I am getting default text size this time.
How can I achieve this? I don't want to use popup window. Is it possible to achive this using popup menu only?

I had the same problem. You can change the text size and color by adding this code to styles.xml and use it in manifest file. For me it worked.
<style name="AppTheme" parent="AppBaseTheme">
<item name="android:popupMenuStyle">#style/PopupMenu</item>
<item name="android:textAppearanceLargePopupMenu"> #style/myPopupMenuTextAppearanceLarge</item>
<item name="android:textAppearanceSmallPopupMenu"> #style/myPopupMenuTextAppearanceSmall</item>
<!-- All customizations that are NOT specific to a particular API-level can go here. -->
</style>
<style name="PopupMenu" parent="#android:style/Widget.PopupMenu">
<item name="android:popupBackground">#android:color/white</item>
<item name="android:textColor">#FF01F0</item>
<item name="android:textSize">12sp</item>
</style>
<style name="myPopupMenuTextAppearanceSmall" parent="#android:style/TextAppearance.DeviceDefault.Widget.PopupMenu.Small">
<item name="android:textColor">#545656</item>
<item name="android:textSize">15sp</item>
</style>
<style name="myPopupMenuTextAppearanceLarge" parent="#android:style/TextAppearance.DeviceDefault.Widget.PopupMenu.Large">
<item name="android:textColor">#545656</item>
<item name="android:textSize">25sp</item>
</style>

You can use something like the below in the manifest file
<activity
android:name=".ActivityName"
android:theme="#style/styleName"/>

Change color title bar

I want to change the color of the title bar. I tried this:
<style name="AppTheme" parent="AppBaseTheme">
<!-- All customizations that are NOT specific to a particular API-level can go here. -->
<item name="android:actionBarStyle">#style/ColorBar</item>
</style>
<style name="ColorBar" parent="#android:style/Widget.Holo.Light.ActionBar">
<item name="android:background">#color/white</item>
<item name="android:textColor">#color/orange</item>
</style>
But it doesn't work. What is wrong in my code shown above?
EDIT : it's the color of the text i want to change, not the background (it's running for the background)

This should work for all devices, you will need the support library (appcompat_v7)
<style name="Theme" parent="#style/BaseTheme"></style>
<style name="BaseTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar">
<item name="actionBarStyle">#style/ActionBar</item>
<item name="android:actionBarStyle">#style/ActionBar</item>
</style>
<style name="ActionBar" parent="#style/Widget.AppCompat.Light.ActionBar">
<item name="android:background">#color/orange </item>
<item name="background">#color/orange </item>
<item name="android:titleTextStyle">#style/ActionBar.Text</item>
<item name="titleTextStyle">#style/ActionBar.Text</item>
</style>
<style name="ActionBar.Text" parent="#android:style/TextAppearance.Medium">
<item name="android:textColor">#color/orange</item>
</style>
manifest :
android:theme="#style/Theme"

There may be problem with the android version. You should consider old ones and new ones. Try adding these both lines for different versions.
<item name="android:background">#drawable/your_color</item>
<item name="background">#drawable/your_color</item>

Does changing the parent to parent="#android:style/Widget.Holo.Light.ActionBar.Solid" make a difference?
If not, let me know what happens if you move the
<item name="android:actionBarStyle">#style/ColorBar</item> into the AppBaseTheme style
Try setting all of these:
<item name="android:background">#color/something</item>
<item name="android:backgroundStacked">#color/something</item>
<item name="android:backgroundSplit">#color/something</item>

This is an easy way for settings the color of the actionbar-title by Java
getActionBar().setTitle(Html.fromHtml("<font color=\"#ffffff\">" + "TITLE" + "</font>"));
If you're using a support library, then you can use getSupportActionBar();.

I'm new to all of this but I found it easier to go to Res > Value > colors.xml and from there you can change the "primary color." This changed the title bar to the color I selected.