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how to change the actionbar color at runtime in android

I am trying to give a choice to the user to change the actionbar color at runtime but I can able to change the whole theme at runtime except the actionbar. Can anyone help me to change the actionbar color at runtime in android.

You can try this (Hope you are suing Actionbar not Toolbar)
ActionBar bar = getActionBar();
bar.setBackgroundDrawable(new ColorDrawable("COLOR"));
Check this link for more

Custom action bar title without icon when using tabs

I'm trying to set the color of my custom action bar from black to silver. The following images show what my app looks like at the moment. I'm trying to get rid of the black bar on the second image. I'm using the following code:
final ActionBar actionBar = getActionBar();
actionBar.setDisplayShowHomeEnabled(false);
actionBar.setDisplayOptions(ActionBar.DISPLAY_SHOW_CUSTOM | ActionBar.DISPLAY_SHOW_HOME);
actionBar.setCustomView(R.layout.action_bar);
Can anyone help me figure out what's wrong?

I'm trying to get rid of the black bar on the second image
change android:layout_marginLeft="-20dp" to android:layout_marginLeft="0dp"
Update:
this is your icon that you put so remove that:
actionBar.setDisplayHomeAsUpEnabled(false);
actionBar.setHomeButtonEnabled(false);
actionBar.setDisplayShowTitleEnabled(false);
actionBar.setDisplayShowHomeEnabled(false);
actionBar.setDisplayUseLogoEnabled(false);

use this, this will solve ur problem
getActionBar().setDisplayShowCustomEnabled(true);
getActionBar().setCustomView(R.layout.demo);
getActionBar().setDisplayShowHomeEnabled(false);

I forgot that I left this question high and dry as I was in a hurry to finish this project. I ended up fixing the issue by using the AccentFragmentActivity.java. I had put in an issue here on Github. Since others weren't able to replicate this I think there was just some setting off that I couldn't locate, but if anyone runs to this in the future then maybe try using AccentFragmentActivity!

Removing an icon from the Actionbar

I want a custom ActionBar with Tabs that has a graphic background (displaying just one image) and 3 tabs.
I can't remove the icon of the actionbar.I've been through tens of stackoverflow questions about how to remove the icon and title, but nothing worked.
I have a minSdk=14, ViewPager, ActionBar compat7, ActionBarActivity. Would any of these hinder it?
This is the code I have. Some declarations are excessive, I've been trying everything I could.
The best I got is an actionbar with no title, but the icon never goes away.
final ActionBar actionBar = getSupportActionBar();
actionBar.setNavigationMode(ActionBar.NAVIGATION_MODE_TABS);
actionBar.setDisplayShowTitleEnabled(false);
actionBar.setDisplayHomeAsUpEnabled(false);
actionBar.setDisplayUseLogoEnabled(false);
actionBar.setHomeButtonEnabled(false);
actionBar.setDisplayShowHomeEnabled(false); // this hides the icon well but doesn't
// work if you use actionbar tabs (viewpager)
solution below
Thanks

Have you tried for actionBar.setDisplayShowHomeEnabled(false)

The solution is this:
((View)findViewById(android.R.id.home).getParent()).setVisibility(View.GONE);
as seen on: https://github.com/JakeWharton/ActionBarSherlock/issues/327#issuecomment-10593286
Using actionBar.setDisplayShowHomeEnabled(false) hides the icon, but your actionbar ends up being below the viewpager tabs (if you're using any)

Tabs go to top if i set customView of ActionBar on Android

I add tabs and viewpager to my project.
actionBar.setNavigationMode(ActionBar.NAVIGATION_MODE_TABS);
Everything is perfect until i set custom view of actionBar:
actionBar.setDisplayShowTitleEnabled(false);
actionBar.setDisplayShowHomeEnabled(false);
actionBar.setDisplayUseLogoEnabled(false);
actionBar.setDisplayShowCustomEnabled(true);
....
actionBar.setCustomView(vv,layoutParams);
Perfect: ActionBar itself at the top and tabs are below the actionBar.
When i set the custom view, tabs change place and goes to top and actionBar goes to below of tabs.
What am i doing wrong? I want the actionbar stay always at the top of the screen.

You can vote for this bug on Android code:
https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=36191
There are some tricks to avoid this that you can read here: https://github.com/JakeWharton/ActionBarSherlock/issues/327
But the official Google answer is
This is a working as intended UX decision.
(Roman Nurik).

Action Bar remove title and reclaim space

I am trying to remove the title from my action bar and reclaim the space it would otherwise consume for the use of menu items.
I have tried using a custom theme but so far nothing has worked. I have tried changing the text size to 0sp, changing the color to transparent, and setting visibility to gone.
I have also tried this :
ActionBar actionbar = getActionBar();
actionbar.setDisplayShowTitleEnabled(false);
I am targeting sdk 15+ and using the standard Android action bar (i.e. not Sherlock).
Thanks for any suggestions.
Here's what I'm talking about (the area bordered in red I want back):

Did you check out the ActionBar documentation yet? There's a method, setDisplayShowTitleEnabled(boolean) that does what you need.
Simply get a reference to your ActionBar, and call that with false:
ActionBar actionBar = getActionBar();
actionBar.setDisplayShowTitleEnabled(false);