Setting custom action bar colors - android

I am writing my first app using Android Studio 1.02 and following an on-line tutorial. In the build.gradle file I have minSdkVersion 15. I'm having a problem with setting custom action bar colors.
As per the instructions I tried setting the theme in the manifest at the application level with android:theme="#android:style/Theme.Holo.Light". The program would compile but not run on my phone (Android 4.4.2). After reading threads on this forum and else where I was never able to resolve this, but the tutorial showed how to point to custom theme with android:theme="#style/CustomActionBarTheme">
This worked, but not entirely. Below is my custom theme and colors value xml. The colors are all the same on purpose, for testing. The background color works, but the text shows up as white, no matter what values I put in there.
The other thing I had to do here to get this to compile was change all of the parent= references from parent="#style/Widget.Holo.ActionBar.TabText" to parrent="android:Widget.Holo.ActionBar.TabText"
Any help is appreciated.
Greg
<style name="CustomActionBarTheme"
parent="#style/Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar">
<item name="android:actionBarStyle">#style/MyActionBar</item>
<item name="android:actionBarTabTextStyle">#style/MyActionBarTabText</item>
<item name="android:actionMenuTextColor">#color/actionbar_text</item>
<!-- Support library compatibility -->
<item name="actionBarStyle">#style/MyActionBar</item>
</style>
<!-- ActionBar styles -->
<style name="MyActionBar"
parent="#style/Widget.AppCompat.Light.ActionBar.Solid.Inverse">
<item name="android:background">#color/actionbar_background</item>
<!-- Support library compatibility -->
<item name="background">#color/actionbar_background</item>
</style>
<!-- ActionBar title text -->
<style name="MyActionBarTitleText"
parent="android:TextAppearance.Holo.Widget.ActionBar.Title">
<item name="android:textColor">#color/actionbar_text</item>
</style>
<!-- ActionBar tabs text styles -->
<style name="MyActionBarTabText"
parent="android:Widget.Holo.ActionBar.TabText">
<item name="android:textColor">#color/actionbar_text</item>
</style>
<color name="disabled_text">#9FFF</color>
<color name="actionbar_background">#b43004</color>
<color name="background">#b43004</color>
<color name="actionbar_text">#b43004</color>

Related

Xamarin.Forms - Android - Change three dots or ellipsis icon in ContentPage.ToolbarItems

I have used the <ContentPage.ToolbarItems> in my code ti display a menu on the top right of the app. My app is only targeting Android at the moment even though it's written in Xamarin.Forms.
I am struggling to change the three dots icon. Any idea how I can achieve that either using Custom Renderer, Effects or styles.xml?
I have seen answers on this overflow but they are all referring to native android and I am struggling to understand how I can do it on Xamarin.Forms.
Thanks!
You can modify style.xml to achieve that .No mattter in forms or native , this will work .
Add item inside MainTheme.Base :
<item name="actionOverflowButtonStyle">#style/OverflowButtonStyle</item>
Then adding style inside resourses :
<style name="OverflowButtonStyle" parent="#android:style/Widget.ActionButton.Overflow">
<item name="android:src">#drawable/circle</item> //here set the wanted icon
</style>
The full style.xml is :
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<resources>
<style name="MainTheme" parent="MainTheme.Base">
</style>
<!-- Base theme applied no matter what API -->
<style name="MainTheme.Base" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar">
<!--If you are using revision 22.1 please use just windowNoTitle. Without android:-->
<item name="windowNoTitle">true</item>
<!--We will be using the toolbar so no need to show ActionBar-->
<item name="windowActionBar">false</item>
<!-- Set theme colors from https://aka.ms/material-colors -->
<!-- colorPrimary is used for the default action bar background -->
<item name="colorPrimary">#2196F3</item>
<!-- colorPrimaryDark is used for the status bar -->
<item name="colorPrimaryDark">#1976D2</item>
<!-- colorAccent is used as the default value for colorControlActivated
which is used to tint widgets -->
<item name="colorAccent">#FF4081</item>
<!-- You can also set colorControlNormal, colorControlActivated
colorControlHighlight and colorSwitchThumbNormal. -->
<item name="windowActionModeOverlay">true</item>
<item name="actionOverflowButtonStyle">#style/OverflowButtonStyle</item>
<item name="android:datePickerDialogTheme">#style/AppCompatDialogStyle</item>
</style>
<style name="AppCompatDialogStyle" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.Dialog">
<item name="colorAccent">#FF4081</item>
</style>
<style name="OverflowButtonStyle" parent="#android:style/Widget.ActionButton.Overflow">
<item name="android:src">#drawable/circle</item>
</style>
</resources>
The effect :

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!

change background colour on Android ActionBar

I have been trying to change the background colour of my ActionBar in my app. But it seems to give me some error.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
<!-- the theme applied to the application or activity -->
<style name="CustomActionBarTheme"
parent="#style/Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar">
<item name="android:actionBarStyle">#style/MyActionBar</item>
<!-- Support library compatibility -->
<item name="actionBarStyle">#style/MyActionBar</item>
</style>
<!-- ActionBar styles -->
<style name="MyActionBar"
parent="#style/Widget.AppCompat.Light.ActionBar.Solid.Inverse">
<item name="android:background">#drawable/actionbar_background</item>
<!-- Support library compatibility -->
<item name="background">#drawable/actionbar_background</item>
</style>
The error I get is on the
<item name="background">#drawable/actionbar_background</item>
I just want to change the background of the actionBar to a different colour.
Help will be appreciated. Thanks
If you target for minimum API level 11 , you can change ActionBar's background color by defining custom style, as:
<resources>
<style name="MyTheme" 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:background">ANY_HEX_COLOR_CODE</item>
</style>
</resources>
And, set "MyTheme" as theme for application / activity.
You can also use this online tool to generate a full customized ActionBar
Here is tool
It's also possible to change the color of the ActionBar programmatically, just call this line:
getActionBar().setBackgroundDrawable(new ColorDrawable(getResources().getColor(R.color.my_color)));
That's also possible via getSupportActionBar() (if you're using ActionBarSherlock).

Android ActionBar not changing background color

I am trying to change the background color of my action bar but it doesnt change. My app is using the AppCompat theme if that affects anything.
Here is my theme that is being used. My app points to use this theme so that is not the problem
<!-- Base application theme. -->
<style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light">
<item name="actionBarStyle">#style/ActionBar</item>
</style>
<!-- Action Bar Styles -->
<style name="ActionBar" parent="Widget.AppCompat.ActionBar">
<item name="android:background">#color/blue</item>
<item name="background">#color/blue</item>
</style>
In your ActionBar style, delete the android:background, only keep the background attribute. Also make sure to implement your AppTheme in the application tag or in the activities extending the action bar in your AndroidManifest.xml file. I've also added the "#style/" attribute before Widget.AppCompat since its a default style defined in the android library.
Your code should look like this :
<!-- Base application theme. -->
<style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light">
<item name="actionBarStyle">#style/ActionBar</item>
</style>
<!-- Action Bar Styles -->
<style name="ActionBar" parent="#style/Widget.AppCompat.ActionBar">
<item name="background">#0000ff</item>
</style>
You can se this from code as well
ab.setBackgroundDrawable(new ColorDrawable(newcolor));
Just in case your xml is not working
According to this link, https://developer.android.com/reference/android/R.attr.html#background
it doesn't seem to take color resource, so you either give it a hex color value or create a drawable that uses the color you want. You could try the following alternative to see if it works.
<!-- Base application theme. -->
<style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light">
<item name="actionBarStyle">#style/ActionBar</item>
</style>
<!-- Action Bar Styles -->
<style name="ActionBar" parent="Widget.AppCompat.ActionBar">
<item name="android:background">#0000ff</item>
<item name="background">#0000ff</item>
</style>

How to set custom ActionBar color / style?

I am using Android Navigation bar in my project,
I want to change the top color in action bar to something red, How can i do that?
I have something like this,
and i want something like this,
how can i achieve that?
You can define the color of the ActionBar (and other stuff) by creating a custom Style:
Simply edit the res/values/styles.xml file of your Android project.
For example like this:
<resources>
<style name="MyCustomTheme" parent="#android:style/Theme.Holo.Light">
<item name="android:actionBarStyle">#style/MyActionBarTheme</item>
</style>
<style name="MyActionBarTheme" parent="#android:style/Widget.Holo.Light.ActionBar">
<item name="android:background">ANY_HEX_COLOR_CODE</item>
</style>
</resources>
Then set "MyCustomTheme" as the Theme of your Activity that contains the ActionBar.
You can also set a color for the ActionBar like this:
ActionBar actionBar = getActionBar();
actionBar.setBackgroundDrawable(new ColorDrawable(Color.RED)); // set your desired color
Taken from here: How do I change the background color of the ActionBar of an ActionBarActivity using XML?
In general Android OS leverages a “theme” to allow app developers to globally apply a universal set of UI element styling parameters to Android applications as a whole, or, alternatively, to a single Activity subclass.
So there are three mainstream Android OS “system themes,” which you can specify in your Android Manifest XML file when you are developing apps for Version 3.0 and later versions
I am referring the (APPCOMPAT)support library here:--
So the three themes are
1. AppCompat Light Theme (Theme.AppCompat.Light)
AppCompat Dark Theme(Theme.AppCompat),
And a hybrid between these two ,AppCompat Light Theme with the Darker ActionBar.( Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar)
AndroidManifest.xml and see the tag, the android theme is mentioned as:-- android:theme="#style/AppTheme"
Open the Styles.xml and we have base application theme declared there:--
<style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar">
</style>
We need to override these parent theme elements to style the action bar.
ActionBar with different color background:--
To do this we need to create a new style MyActionBar(you can give any name) with a parent reference to #style/Widget.AppCompat.Light.ActionBar.Solid.Inverse that holds the style characteristics for the Android ActionBar UI element. So definition would be
<style name="MyActionBar" parent="#style/Widget.AppCompat.Light.ActionBar.Solid.Inverse">
<item name="background">#color/red</item>
</style>
And this definition we need to reference in our AppTheme, pointing to overridden ActionBar styling as--
#style/MyActionBar
Change the title bar text color (e.g black to white):--
Now to change the title text color, we need to override the parent reference parent="#style/TextAppearance.AppCompat.Widget.ActionBar.Title">
So the style definition would be
<style name="MyActionBarTitle" parent="#style/TextAppearance.AppCompat.Widget.ActionBar.Title">
<item name="android:textColor">#color/white</item>
</style>
We’ll reference this style definition inside the MyActionBar style definition, since the TitleTextStyle modification is a child element of an ActionBar parent OS UI element. So the final definition of MyActionBar style element will be
<style name="MyActionBar" parent="#style/Widget.AppCompat.Light.ActionBar.Solid.Inverse">
<item name="background">#color/red</item>
<item name="titleTextStyle">#style/MyActionBarTitle</item>
</style>
SO this is the final Styles.xml
<resources>
<!-- Base application theme. -->
<style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light">
<!-- This is the styling for action bar -->
<item name="actionBarStyle">#style/MyActionBar</item>
</style>
<style name="MyActionBar" parent="#style/Widget.AppCompat.Light.ActionBar.Solid.Inverse">
<item name="background">#color/red</item>
<item name="titleTextStyle">#style/MyActionBarTitle</item>
</style>
<style name="MyActionBarTitle" parent="#style/TextAppearance.AppCompat.Widget.ActionBar.Title">
<item name="android:textColor">#color/white</item>
</style>
</resources>
For further ActionBar options Menu styling, refer this link
For Android 3.0 and higher only
When supporting Android 3.0 and higher only, you can define the action bar's background like this:
res/values/themes.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
<!-- the theme applied to the application or activity -->
<style name="CustomActionBarTheme" parent="#style/Theme.Holo.Light.DarkActionBar">
<item name="android:actionBarStyle">#style/MyActionBar</item>
</style>
<!-- ActionBar styles -->
<style name="MyActionBar" parent="#style/Widget.Holo.Light.ActionBar.Solid.Inverse">
<item name="android:background">#ff0000</item>
</style>
</resources>
For Android 2.1 and higher
When using the Support Library, your style XML file might look like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
<!-- the theme applied to the application or activity -->
<style name="CustomActionBarTheme" parent="#style/Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar">
<item name="android:actionBarStyle">#style/MyActionBar</item>
<!-- Support library compatibility -->
<item name="actionBarStyle">#style/MyActionBar</item>
</style>
<!-- ActionBar styles -->
<style name="MyActionBar"
parent="#style/Widget.AppCompat.Light.ActionBar.Solid.Inverse">
<item name="android:background">#drawable/actionbar_background</item>
<!-- Support library compatibility -->
<item name="background">#drawable/actionbar_background</item>
</style>
</resources>
Then apply your theme to your entire app or individual activities:
for more details Documentaion
You can change action bar color on this way:
<style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar">
<item name="colorPrimary">#color/green_action_bar</item>
</style>
Thats all you need for changing action bar color.
Plus if you want to change the status bar color just add the line:
<item name="android:colorPrimaryDark">#color/green_dark_action_bar</item>
Here is a screenshot taken from developer android site to make it more clear, and here is a link to read more about customizing the color palete
Another possibility of making.
actionBar.setBackgroundDrawable(new ColorDrawable(Color.parseColor("#0000ff")));
I can change ActionBar text color by using titleTextColor
<style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar">
<item name="titleTextColor">#333333</item>
</style>
Custom Color:
<style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light">
<item name="colorPrimary">#color/ColorPrimary</item>
<item name="colorPrimaryDark">#color/ColorPrimaryDark</item>
<!-- Customize your theme here. -->
</style>
Custom Style:
<style name="Theme.AndroidDevelopers" parent="android:style/Theme.Holo.Light">
<item name="android:selectableItemBackground">#drawable/ad_selectable_background</item>
<item name="android:popupMenuStyle">#style/MyPopupMenu</item>
<item name="android:dropDownListViewStyle">#style/MyDropDownListView</item>
<item name="android:actionBarTabStyle">#style/MyActionBarTabStyle</item>
<item name="android:actionDropDownStyle">#style/MyDropDownNav</item>
<item name="android:listChoiceIndicatorMultiple">#drawable/ad_btn_check_holo_light</item>
<item name="android:listChoiceIndicatorSingle">#drawable/ad_btn_radio_holo_light</item>
</style>
For More: Android ActionBar
As I was using AppCompatActivity above answers didn't worked for me. But the below solution worked:
In res/styles.xml
<resources>
<!-- Base application theme. -->
<style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar">
<!-- Customize your theme here. -->
<item name="colorPrimary">#color/colorPrimary</item>
</style>
PS: I've used colorPrimary instead of android:colorPrimary
in the style.xml add this code
<resources>
<style name="MyTheme" parent="#android:style/Theme.Holo.Light">
<item name="android:actionBarStyle">#style/MyAction</item>
</style>
<style name="MyActionBarTheme" parent="#android:style/Widget.Holo.Light.ActionBar">
<item name="android:background">#333333</item>
</style>
</resources>
Use this - http://jgilfelt.github.io/android-actionbarstylegenerator/
Good tool to customize your actionbar with a live preview in couple of minutes.

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