Develop Reference

How to change CAB style in Android?

I'm trying to change the Contextual Action Bar style using this snippet
<style name="AppTheme.Reader" parent="AppTheme">
<item name="android:actionModeStyle">#style/AppTheme.ActionMode</item>
<item name="actionModeStyle">#style/AppTheme.ActionMode</item>
</style>
<style name="AppTheme.ActionMode" parent="Widget.AppCompat.ActionMode">
<item name="background">#color/white</item>
<item name="titleTextStyle">#style/AppTheme.ActionMode.Title</item>
<item name="subtitleTextStyle">#style/TextAppearance.AppCompat.Widget.ActionMode.Subtitle</item>
</style>
And setting the theme in the right activity
android:theme="#style/AppTheme.Reader"
Then I've used a
TextView.setCustomSelectionActionModeCallback()
To intercept the selected text, but when it comes up the CAB it has the default style and seems that my custom hasn't been applied.
Where am I wrong?

Try to use the latest support lib (as of now: v23.4.0). Depends where your parent "AppTheme" inherits from, it may or may not work but if you try to inherit from the "AppCompat" theme the following should work and once you see the white background you can fill in the rest of the attributes:
<style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat">
<item name="actionModeStyle">#style/ActionModeTheme</item>
</style>
<style name="ActionModeTheme" parent="#style/Widget.AppCompat.ActionMode">
<item name="background">#color/white</item>
</style>
Of course assuming <color name="white">#fff</color> is defined in colors.xml

Android - Change text colour of the bottom button bar

I'm modifying downloads (for 4.3 Jellybean) and I can't change the colour of the text on the bottom button from black to white. Is it possible to change the text colour without giving the button its own style by adding an item in the app theme? Here is my Styles.xml:
<style name="DownloadListTheme" parent="#android:style/Theme.DeviceDefault.Light.DialogWhenLarge">
<item name="android:textAlignment">viewStart</item>
<item name="android:layoutDirection">locale</item>
<item name="android:actionBarStyle">#android:style/Widget.DeviceDefault.Light.ActionBar.Solid.Inverse</item>
<item name="com.sonyericsson.uxp:extendedLookAndFeel">true</item>
<item name="android:textColor">#android:color/white</item>
</style>

Yes, you can accomplish this pretty easily, just override your theme in styles.xml like this:
<style name="MyButtonStyle"
parent="#android:style/Theme.DeviceDefault.Light.DialogWhenLarge">
<item name="android:textColor">#android:color/white</item>
</style>
For more information, see the documentation.

Custom theme and sherlockActionBar

I am doing a personal theme to use holo widget in 2.3 android.
I did this:
<resources xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
<style name="AppThemes" parent="#style/Theme.Sherlock">
<item name="android:editTextStyle">#style/EditTextAppTheme</item>
<item name="android:checkboxStyle">#style/CheckBoxAppTheme</item>
<item name="android:radioButtonStyle">#style/RadioButtonAppTheme</item>
<item name="android:buttonStyle">#style/ButtonAppTheme</item>
<item name="android:imageButtonStyle">#style/ImageButtonAppTheme</item>
<item name="android:spinnerStyle">#style/SpinnerAppTheme</item>
<item name="android:dropDownSpinnerStyle">#style/SpinnerAppTheme.DropDown</item>
<item name="android:spinnerDropDownItemStyle">#style/SpinnerDropDownItemAppTheme</item>
</style>
</resources>
the problem is that widgets don't take the correct style but take the default style. I tried to force assign the #style/EditTextAppTheme at an edittext and it worked.. so the problem is that the theme don't apply.
any idea?
update: the theme apply and work good..the solo problem is some edittext inside a dialog that show with the standard theme

To get the holo theme style in an App for API 10 and below, you can use HoloEverywhere. It's well integrated with ActionBarSherlock. ActionBarSherlock is included as a subproject. https://github.com/ChristopheVersieux/HoloEverywhere

If you want to use a customized Theme you have to set these style attributes in your Application theme. Then apply this theme to the whole App or to a single Activity by defining it in the manifest or setting it programmaticaly in the onCreate() method.
For example(for ABS):
<style name="Theme.myStyle" parent="Theme.Sherlock">
<item name="android:editTextStyle">#style/EditTextAppTheme</item>
<item name="android:checkboxStyle">#style/CheckBoxAppTheme</item>
<item name="android:radioButtonStyle">#style/RadioButtonAppTheme</item>
<item name="android:buttonStyle">#style/ButtonAppTheme</item>
<item name="android:imageButtonStyle">#style/ImageButtonAppTheme</item>
<item name="android:spinnerStyle">#style/SpinnerAppTheme</item>
<item name="android:dropDownSpinnerStyle">#style/SpinnerAppTheme.DropDown</item>
<item name="android:spinnerDropDownItemStyle">#style/SpinnerDropDownItemAppTheme</item>
</style>
And then set this theme to your Application or your Activity in the Manifest with:
android:theme="#style/Theme.myStyle"
or programmatically:
setTheme(R.style.Theme.myStyle);

Custom style is interfering with platform dialogs

I've created a custom theme for my app, and it looks great! However, I've noticed that some default platform dialogs, such as the context menu when long-pressing an EditText doesn't show correctly.
On the left, a context menu through my app. On the right, a standard context menu through a platform app.
Here's my style.xml:
<resources xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
<style name="Theme.Styled" parent="Theme.Sherlock">
<!-- ... various app styles ... -->
<item name="android:alertDialogStyle">#style/DialogHolo</item>
<item name="android:dialogTheme">#style/DialogHolo</item>
</style>
<style name="DialogHolo" parent="android:style/Theme.Dialog">
<item name="android:fullDark">#drawable/bg_dialog_full</item>
<item name="android:topDark">#drawable/bg_dialog_top</item>
<item name="android:centerDark">#drawable/bg_dialog_middle</item>
<item name="android:bottomDark">#drawable/bg_dialog_bottom</item>
<item name="android:fullBright">#drawable/bg_dialog_full</item>
<item name="android:centerBright">#drawable/bg_dialog_middle</item>
<item name="android:bottomBright">#drawable/bg_dialog_bottom</item>
<item name="android:bottomMedium">#drawable/bg_dialog_bottom</item>
<item name="android:centerMedium">#drawable/bg_dialog_middle</item>
<item name="android:textColor">#ffe6e7e8</item>
</style>
</resources>
Is it possible to either have these dialogs use the default style or get the text to appear in the desired text color?

I never found an elegant solution for this, and instead simply provided a theme defined separately in my style.xml when displaying a custom dialog.

Styling ActionBar dropdown menu

I'm using a custom theme that inherits from DarkActionBar and I want to customize dropdown menu to be white like when using Light Holo theme.
I've been able to change the background to white using:
<style name="MyTheme" parent="#style/Theme.Light.DarkActionBar">
<item name="android:actionDropDownStyle">#style/MyDropDownNav</item>
</style>
<style name="MyDropDownNav">
<item name="android:background">#drawable/spinner_background_white</item>
<item name="android:popupBackground">#drawable/menu_dropdown_panel_whyite</item>
<item name="android:dropDownSelector">#drawable/selectable_background_white</item>
</style>
But I haven't any clue of how to change the text color to black. Because after setting white drawable the problem is that text isn't visible because is white on white background.

I answer myself after some investigation.
In addition to question's styling you need to:
Customize android:spinnerDropDownItemStyle for actionBarWidgetTheme changing it's text appearance.
Also don't forget that dropdown list is managed by the adapter you use. Then if you used the standard one (simple_dropdown_item_1line) there's no problem. But if you used a custom one like me (to be able to add an icon) don't forget to apply style="?attr/spinnerDropDownItemStyle" in your layout TextView.
Then final custom style is:
<resources xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
<style name="Theme.myapp" parent="#style/Theme.Light.DarkActionBar">
<item name="android:actionDropDownStyle">#style/myapp_DropDownNav</item>
<item name="android:actionBarWidgetTheme">#style/myapp.actionBarWidgetTheme</item>
</style>
<style name="myapp.actionBarWidgetTheme" parent="#style/Theme.">
<item name="android:spinnerDropDownItemStyle">#style/myapp.Widget.DropDownItem.Spinner</item>
</style>
<style name="myapp_DropDownNav" parent="#style/Widget.Spinner.DropDown.ActionBar">
<item name="background">#drawable/spinner_background_ab_myapp</item>
<item name="android:background">#drawable/spinner_background_ab_myapp</item>
<item name="android:popupBackground">#drawable/menu_dropdown_panel_myapp</item>
<item name="android:dropDownSelector">#drawable/selectable_background_myapp</item>
</style>
<style name="myapp.Widget.DropDownItem.Spinner" parent="Widget.DropDownItem.Spinner">
<item name="android:textAppearance">#style/myapp.TextAppearance.Widget.DropDownItem</item>
</style>
<style name="myapp.TextAppearance.Widget.DropDownItem" parent="TextAppearance.Widget.DropDownItem">
<item name="android:textColor">#color/black</item>
</style>
Where drawables in myapp_DropDownNav are white background ones that you can generate with ActionBar Style generator in Android Asset Studio

Try setting itemTextAppearance. That should achieve what you want.

I have stumbled on what may be the simplest way to do this. I was working with the AppCompat library.
<style name="ApplicationTheme" parent="#style/Theme.AppCompat">
<item name="android:actionBarWidgetTheme">#style/Theme.AppCompat.Light</item>
<item name="actionBarWidgetTheme">#style/Theme.AppCompat.Light</item>
</style>

My advice is to simply inherit from the Sherlock.Light theme and change the applicable fields to the Dark values. For my app, we wanted a white "up" icon, and white text for the action labels. I don't provide dark versions of my actionbar icons, so they are all white anyway. So after several hours messing around with it and following different people's suggestions, I finally found what I was looking for in the ABS themes file.
I inherit from Sherlock.Light (well, technically HoloEverywhereLight.Sherlock but...) and change:
<item name="android:actionMenuTextColor">#color/White</item>
<item name="actionMenuTextColor">#color/White</item>
<item name="android:homeAsUpIndicator">#drawable/abs__ic_ab_back_holo_dark</item>
<item name="homeAsUpIndicator">#drawable/abs__ic_ab_back_holo_dark</item>
<item name="android:dividerVertical">#drawable/abs__list_divider_holo_dark</item>
<item name="dividerVertical">#drawable/abs__list_divider_holo_dark</item>
That's it. It's way simpler and easier than trying to extend classes, restyle things in code, etc.