Android actionbar customization does not change color

Question

I am trying to customize the action bar in my android application. The following is in my styles.xml:

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

<style name="MyActionBar" parent="Widget.AppCompat.Light.ActionBar">
    <item name="backgroundColor">#000000</item>
</style>

And I have

    <activity android:name=".MainActivity"
              android:theme="@style/MyTheme">

in my AndroidManifest.xml.

My expectation is that this should turn the action bar black. However, this does not happen, the action bar stays white. I would be very happy for any pointers to why my expectation does not match reality. I am happy to provide more details if needed.

Answer 1

If you are using an ActionBar you can use the actionBarStyle attribute in your app theme:

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

  <style name="MyActionBar" parent="@style/Widget.AppCompat.Light.ActionBar.Solid">
       <item name="background">#000000</item>
  </style>

You can also use the actionBarTheme attribute:

  <style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar">
     <item name="actionBarTheme">@style/ThemeOverlay.ActionBar</item>
  </style>


  <style name="ThemeOverlay.ActionBar" parent="">
        <item name="colorPrimary">#000000</item>
  </style>