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Unable to set custom background colour of ActionBar

I'm trying to make the background colour of my ActionBar a colour corresponding to the code. For some reason my app crashes when it reaches this line of code.
getActionBar().setBackgroundDrawable(new ColorDrawable(Color.parseColor("#3f9845")));
When I remove it the error goes (ActionBar background is set to black by default). I've tried rearranging the line to be above and below
super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
setContentView(R.layout.layout_register1);
but still no luck.
This is the theme I'm using if it has any relevance
<style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar"> </style>
Thanks in advance for any help

If you are using AppCompat, you need to call getSupportActionBar() instead.
If you want to change the color by style with the recent versions of AppCompat, you just need to set the "colorPrimary" attribute in your theme to the color you want.

you can set it in the style:
<style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar">
<!-- colorPrimary is used for the default action bar background -->
<item name="colorPrimary">#color/my_action_bar_color</item>
</style>

Android ActionBar background (when app is collapsed/minimized)

Can't find how to set background color of ActionBar in collapsed state.
In fullscreen/opened state it works well but in collapsed/minimized it always the same gray color (color of android theme i derive from).
I want it to look like in youtube app.
Please help me.
Thank you beforehand.

Solution found.
Just set color to android:colorPrimary property.
<style name="AppTheme" parent="#style/Theme.AppCompat.Light">
<item name="android:textColorPrimary" tools:targetApi="21">#color/white</item>
<item name="android:colorPrimary" tools:targetApi="21">#color/green_back</item>
<item name="android:colorPrimaryDark" tools:targetApi="21">#color/green_back_dark</item>
...
</style>

ActionBarSherlock becoming transparent when using windowActionBarOverlay

I'm using ActionBarSherlock for an Android app I'm making, and am displaying an image on one of my screens. On this screen, I want the actionbar to go away and come back as the user presses on the screen without the image being stretched. This part I have working, but to do so I created the following style and applied it to that screen. . .
<style name="DarkActionBar.ActionBarOverlay" parent="#style/Theme.Sherlock">
<item name="android:windowActionBarOverlay">true</item>
<item name="windowActionBarOverlay">true</item>
</style>
The problem is, now my action bar is transparent and I can't figure out why. If I change the parent of my style to Theme.Sherlock.Light.DarkActionBar, it is no longer transparent but doesn't look the same as Theme.Sherlock, so it will be inconsistent with the rest of my app.
I've also tried the following. . .
<style name="MyActionBar" parent="#style/Theme.Sherlock.Light.DarkActionBar">
<item name="android:background">#color/black</item>
<item name="background">#color/black</item>
</style>
<style name="DarkActionBar.ActionBarOverlay" parent="#style/Theme.Sherlock">
<item name="android:windowActionBarOverlay">true</item>
<item name="windowActionBarOverlay">true</item>
<item name="android:actionBarStyle">#style/MyActionBar</item>
</style>
Can anyone tell me why the windowActionBarOverlay items are making my actionbar transparent, and what I can do to fix it? Thank you.

As the transparent ActionBar is a feature called "Actionbar Overlay", I think the problem is inside this line:
<item name="windowActionBarOverlay">true</item>
You may need to set it to false.
Please have a read of the following paragraph:
To enable overlay mode for the action bar, you need to create a custom
theme that extends an existing action bar theme and set the
android:windowActionBarOverlay property to true
Also please have a look at Overlaying the Actionbar on Android Developers

Light.DarkActionBar menu item text colour unchangeable?

The application I've been developing uses ActionBarSherlock, and the main theme inherits from Theme.Sherlock.Light.DarkActionBar. The design requires that the overflow menu popups have a dark coloured background and white text. This works fine for devices without a physical menu button, and the text appears white as intended. However, if the device DOES have a physical menu button, the text shown in the menu displayed remains black.
My main theme contains
<item name="android:panelBackground">#drawable/menu_hardkey_panel</item>
...Where #drawable/menu_hardkey_panel is a dark coloured 9patch.
The resulting appearance of the menu popup is...
I'm unable to determine why this is happening, or how to manually change the colour of the text. In my main theme, I've tried all of the following...
<item name="android:actionMenuTextColor">#android:color/white</item>
<item name="android:textAppearanceLargePopupMenu">#style/MyMenuTextAppearance.Large</item>
<item name="android:textAppearanceSmallPopupMenu">#style/MyMenuTextAppearance.Small</item>
I've even tried
<item name="android:actionBarWidgetTheme">#style/Theme.MyApp.Dark</item>
...Where Theme.MyApp.Dark is...
<style name="Theme.MyApp.Dark" parent="#style/Theme.Sherlock">
<item name="android:dropDownListViewStyle">#style/DropDownListView</item>
<item name="dropDownListViewStyle">#style/DropDownListView</item>
</style>
None have let me change the text to white. If I make my base theme inherit from Theme.Sherlock, the problem is solved and the text is white, but unfortunately that's not an option.

Not entirely sure about this, but I believe the pop-up menu uses the same styling as the overflow menu. In which case you'd just do something like this.
<item name="android:itemTextAppearance">#style/your_new_text_appearance</item>
<style name="your_new_text_appearance">
<item name="android:textColor">#android:color/white</item>
</style>

Giving it a chance: there is a text appearance called actionMenuTextAppearance. Have you tried that?
Update: I did some more digging and I believe that this file is the layout And there they refer to textAppearanceListItemSmall and textAppearanceSmall. However, it takes this value from a special theme which is specified as following in Theme.Holo.Light
<item name="panelMenuListTheme">#android:style/Theme.Holo.Light.CompactMenu</item>
And like this in Theme.Holo:
<item name="panelMenuListTheme">#android:style/Theme.Holo.CompactMenu</item>
The problems comes from the fact that the parent of Sherlock.__Theme.DarkActionBar is Theme.Sherlock.Light. This is not valid for the dark action bar. Taking the line from Theme.Holo should do the trick.

In my research I haven't found a way to change the text color, but you can at least handle hardkey menus gracefully.
This link provided me with a passable solution to the problem:
https://github.com/jgilfelt/android-actionbarstylegenerator/issues/30
Commenting out the "android:panelBackground" item from my generated theme allowed the text to at least be visible on hardkey menus, even if it doesn't perfectly match the theme.
You could also try replacing the "menu_hardkey_panel_whatever.9.png" drawable with something that will work for your theme and the black text.

For me this solves the problem, try this instead:
<style name="MyTheme" parent="Theme.Sherlock.Light.DarkActionBar">
...
<item name="actionBarWidgetTheme">#null</item>
<item name="android:actionBarWidgetTheme">#null</item>
...
</style>

I found the solution, use:
getSupportActionBarContext()
e.g.
ArrayAdapter<CharSequence> list =
ArrayAdapter.createFromResource(getSupportActionBarContext(), R.array.navigation, layout.simple_spinner_item);
list.setDropDownViewResource(layout.simple_spinner_dropdown_item);
getSupportActionBar().setNavigationMode(ActionBar.NAVIGATION_MODE_LIST);
getSupportActionBar().setListNavigationCallbacks(list, this);

I think that due to the fact that Theme.Sherlock.Light.DarkActionBar don't style its contents right is due to the actionWidgetTheme attribute is used with a ContextThemeWrapper for inflating the action bar views (Jake Wharton's own words), thus something like the following (not tested) will be needed to fulfill your needs, though breaking your need of not using Theme.Sherlock as parent in one way:
<style name="MyColorTheme" parent="Theme.Sherlock">
<item name="android:actionMenuTextColor">#android:color/white</item>
<item name="actionMenuTextColor">#android:color/white</item>
</style>
<style name="YourMainTheme" parent="Theme.Sherlock.Light.DarkActionBar">
<item name="android:actionMenuTextAppearance">#style/MyColorTheme</item>
<item name="actionMenuTextAppearance">#style/MyColorTheme</item>
</style>
Might work or not work. That's the question :)

Changing the action bar overflow icon to the dark version

In my application I am using my own theme based on the Theme.Holo.Light
However I have customised the actionBarStyle, setting the background drawable to a blue gradient to fit with my app's style.
However, with the Halo light theme, the action bar text is dark, & the default icons, such as the Up Nav arrow and the menu icon are dark, these don't go on my blue gradient.
As you can see from my XML below, I have managed to correct the title text colour but I can't find the attribute I need to override for the icons.
How can I change tell the theme to effectively use the icons on the ActionBar from Theme.Halo
instead of those Theme.Halo.Light but making the rest of my application remain using Theme.Halo.Light
Here's my current XML
<style name="MyLightTheme" parent="android:Theme.Holo.Light">
<item name="android:actionBarStyle">#style/MyActionBar</item>
</style>
<style name="MyActionBar" parent="android:style/Widget.Holo.ActionBar">
<item name="android:background">#drawable/blue_gradient_light</item>
<item name="android:titleTextStyle">#style/Theme.ActionBar.TitleTextStyle</item>
</style>
<style name="Theme.ActionBar.TitleTextStyle" parent="android:style/TextAppearance.Holo.Widget.ActionBar.Title">
<item name="android:textColor">#color/solid_white</item>
</style>
Thanks for your help

Use Theme.Holo.Light.DarkActionBar as your base if you want to do this. It will take care of these details.