AppCompat Actionbar styling

Question

I\'m currently trying to use AppCompat instead of ActionbarSherlock. On Android 4+ devices I don\'t run into any problems, as the normal Actionbar and Holo theme are used.

Answer 1

You have to create your own style with the image you want to put on background. In your style.xml, you should create something similar to this:

values/styles.xml

    <style name="Theme.MyAppTheme" parent="@style/Theme.AppCompat.Light">
        <item name="actionBarStyle">@style/ActionBarTabStyle.MyAppTheme</item>
    </style>

    <style name="ActionBar.Solid.MyAppTheme" parent="@style/Widget.AppCompat.Light.ActionBar.Solid">
        <item name="background">@drawable/your_background_image</item>
    </style>

values-v14/styles.xml

    <style name="Theme.MyAppTheme" parent="@style/Theme.AppCompat.Light">
        <item name="android:actionBarStyle">@style/ActionBarTabStyle.MyAppTheme</item>
    </style>

    <style name="ActionBar.Solid.MyAppTheme" parent="@style/Widget.AppCompat.Light.ActionBar.Solid">
        <item name="android:background">@drawable/your_background_image</item>
    </style>

and you can use this 9-patch image :

Answer 2

I use this code:

<resources>

<style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light">
    <item name="actionBarStyle">@style/ActionBarTheme</item>
</style>

<style name="ActionBarTheme" parent="@style/Widget.AppCompat.Light.ActionBar.Solid">
    <item name="background">@color/red_action_bar</item>
</style>

</resources>

I hope this code is of great help.

Answer 3

To show custom icon & color in AppCompatActivity we can paste this code:

values/styles.xml

<resources>

 <style name="Theme.MyAppTheme" parent="@style/Theme.AppCompat">
    <item name="actionBarStyle">@style/ActionBar.Solid.MyAppTheme</item>
    <item name="icon">@drawable/ic_launcher</item>
</style>

<style name="ActionBar.Solid.MyAppTheme" parent="@style/Widget.AppCompat.Light.ActionBar.Solid">
    <item name="background">@color/white</item>
</style>

values-v14/styles.xml

<resources>

<style name="Theme.MyAppTheme" parent="@style/Theme.AppCompat.Light">
    <item name="android:actionBarStyle">@style/ActionBar.Solid.MyAppTheme</item>
       <item name="icon">@drawable/ic_launcher</item>
</style>

<style name="ActionBar.Solid.MyAppTheme" parent="@style/Widget.AppCompat.Light.ActionBar.Solid">
    <item name="android:background">@color/app_titile_bar_color</item>
</style>

You can use your custom background picture as well from @drawable/your_pic.png

To show app icon & Text you also paste this to your activity.

        // set action Bar icon & Text
    ActionBar mActionBar = getSupportActionBar();
    mActionBar.setDisplayOptions(ActionBar.DISPLAY_SHOW_TITLE
            | ActionBar.DISPLAY_SHOW_CUSTOM | ActionBar.DISPLAY_SHOW_HOME);

Answer 4

You have to override the theme of the action bar