We Keep Coding

android:headerBackground having no effect

I'm currently working on creating a custom theme for a datePicker and I'm having some difficulty with setting the headerBackground and the circle around the selected date separately. I've set my theme up like this:
<style name="State0DatePickerTheme" parent="AppTheme">
<item name="colorAccent">#color/state0Dark</item>
<item name="android:headerBackground">#color/state0Primary</item>
</style>
App theme looks like this:
<style name="AppTheme" parent="State0BaseTheme">
<item name="colorPrimary">#color/state0Primary</item>
<item name="colorPrimaryDark">#color/state0Dark</item>
<item name="android:statusBarColor">#color/state0Primary</item>
<item name="android:colorControlNormal">#color/colorAccent</item>
<item name="android:background">#color/state0Primary</item>
<item name="android:textColorPrimary">#color/colorAccent</item>
</style>
And last but not least, State0BaseTheme looks like this:
<style name="State0BaseTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.NoActionBar">
<item name="colorPrimary">#color/state0Primary</item>
<item name="colorPrimaryDark">#color/state0Dark</item>
<item name="colorAccent">#color/colorAccent</item>
<item name="android:statusBarColor">#color/state0Primary</item>
<item name="android:colorControlNormal">#color/colorAccent</item>
<item name="android:background">#color/state0Primary</item>
<item name="android:textColorPrimary">#color/colorAccent</item>
</style>
I had thought that overriding colorAccent, and setting headerBackground would work just fine, but I guess not? Here's what it looks like with all these styles:
If I set android:headerBackground in the xml of the datePicker, everything works great. However, I want to be able to change the theme for all screens of the app based on user input. Thoughts as to why this isn't working?

I read the link posted by #DasserBasyouni and found that making the parent of my datePickerTheme #android:style/Widget.Material.Light.DatePicker and setting android:datePickerStyle to #style/State0DatePickerTheme in State0BaseTheme worked perfectly

How to make alert dialog match theme color?

So in the app I am making, I have both a dark and light theme. The light theme works fine, but the alert dialogs I have still show the background the same as the light theme. Since it is dark, the text changes to light and the user can't see anything. Is there a certain attribute I need to change?
Here is the styles.xml:
<style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar">
<!-- Customize your theme here. -->
<item name="colorPrimary">#E53935</item>
<item name="colorPrimaryDark">#C62828</item>
<item name="android:navigationBarColor">#E53935</item>
<item name="android:colorAccent">#1565C0</item>
<item name="android:colorForeground">#color/foreground_material_light</item>
<item name="android:colorBackground">#color/background_material_light</item>
<!-- Other attributes -->
</style>
<style name="Dark" parent="#style/AppTheme" >
<item name="android:colorForeground">#color/foreground_material_dark</item>
<item name="android:colorPrimary">#color/primary_material_dark</item>
<item name="android:colorPrimaryDark">#color/primary_dark_material_dark</item>
<item name="android:colorAccent">#color/accent_material_dark</item>
<item name="android:navigationBarColor">#color/primary_material_dark</item>
<item name="android:colorBackground">#color/background_material_dark</item>
<item name="android:textColorPrimary">#android:color/primary_text_dark</item>
<item name="android:textColorPrimaryInverse">#android:color/primary_text_light</item>
<item name="android:textColorSecondary">#android:color/secondary_text_dark</item>
<item name="android:textColorSecondaryInverse">#android:color/secondary_text_light</item>
<item name="android:textColorTertiary">#android:color/tertiary_text_dark</item>
</style>
Here is what it shows up as:

Solved: You need to create your own xml like this:
<item name="alertDialogTheme">#style/DarkAlertDialog</item>
With this being your custom dialog:
<style name="DarkAlertDialog" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Dialog">
<item name="background">#color/background_material_dark</item>
</style>

Use the parent AppCompat and then use colorPrimary and colorAccent properties (without an Android prefix) to theme things.
Right now the styles are coming from a dialog subtheme and not being affected by these style definitions.

Set a custom for actiobar using Android Studios

I've tride to set another color for my actiobar quite a while now.
I've search on google and tried multiple solutions. but non of them have worked out for me.
The code i got now is:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
<style name="AppTheme"
parent="#android:style/Theme.Holo.Light.DarkActionBar">
<item name="android:actionBarStyle">#style/MyActionBar</item>
</style>
<style name="MyActionBar"
parent="#android:style/Widget.Holo.Light.ActionBar.Solid.Inverse">
<item name="android:background">#cac09f</item>
</style>
</resources>
This causes my app to crash and displays this:
Caused by: java.lang.IllegalStateException: You need to use a Theme.AppCompat theme (or descendant) with this activity.
I then tried to set the theme to "Theme.Appcompat" but this wont change the color of the actionbar.
Does anyone know a solution for this?
I run this on a phone running android 4.4.4.
My project is for API 16 and higher (4.1)

You're using an activity from the support package (AppCompatActivity), it can only use compatibility themes (Theme.AppCompat).
The reason why setting a custom action bar background didn't work, is because you also need to use compatibility attributes:
<style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat">
<item name="android:actionBarStyle">#style/MyActionBar</item>
<item name="actionBarStyle">#style/MyActionBar</item>
</style>
<style name="MyActionBar" parent="#style/Widget.AppCompat.Light.ActionBar.Solid.Inverse">
<item name="android:background">#color/my_red</item>
<item name="background">#color/my_red</item>
</style>
<color name="my_red">#cac09f</color>

guy I think that would be better you to use a toobar, because it is easier of work.
use this code in your xml:
<android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar
android:id="#+id/tbMain"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
app:theme="#style/style_toobar"
android:layout_height="?attr/actionBarSize"
/>
in the style.xml use this:
<style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.NoActionBar">
<item name="colorPrimary">#color/colorPrimary</item>
<item name="colorPrimaryDark">#color/colorPrimaryDark</item>
<item name="colorAccent">#color/colorPrimary</item>
</style>
<style name="style_toobar" parent="Theme.AppCompat">
<item name="popupTheme">#style/Theme.AppCompat.Light</item>
<item name="colorControlNormal">#color/colorAccent</item>
</style>
in the activity use:
Toobar tbMain = (Toobar)findViewById(R.id.tbMain);
setSupportActionBar(tbMain);

Android EditTextPreference style

In my app in setings I use EditTextPreference , and on android API uder 11 edittext field has black background and black text color.
How can I chenge EditTextPreferences background color ?
I tried:
in theme :
<item name="android:editTextPreferenceStyle">#style/EditTextAppTheme</item>
in style:
<style name="EditTextAppTheme" parent="android:Widget.EditText">
<item name="android:background">#drawable/edit_text_holo_light</item>
<item name="android:textColor">#000000</item>
</style>
If I set style to :
<style name="EditTextPreferences" parent="android:Preference.DeviceDefault.DialogPreference.EditTextPreference">
<item name="android:background">#drawable/edit_text_holo_light</item>
<item name="android:textColor">#FF0000</item>
</style>
And theme to :
<item name="android:editTextPreferenceStyle">#style/EditTextPreferences</item>
I got error:
error: Error retrieving parent for item: No resource found that matches the given name 'android:Preference.DeviceDefault.DialogPreference.EditTextPreference'.

I have been trying to figure this out as well for the past couple of days. I've found that all the EditTextPrefence extends is AlertDialog and EditText. So if you can style both of those in your theme, you will find the result you are looking for in a EditTextPreference. Here's what I'm working with:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
<style name="LightTheme" parent="android:Theme.Light">
<item name="android:windowNoTitle">true</item>
<item name="android:background">#color/greyscale2</item>
<item name="android:textColor">#color/greyscale16</item>
<item name="android:textViewStyle">#style/LightTextView</item>
<item name="android:buttonStyle">#style/LightButton</item>
<item name="android:editTextStyle">#style/LightEditText</item>
<item name="android:alertDialogTheme">#style/LightDialog</item>
<item name="android:dialogPreferenceStyle">#style/LightDialog</item>
<item name="android:colorBackground">#color/greyscale2</item>
<item name="android:colorBackgroundCacheHint">#color/greyscale1</item>
</style>
<!-- TextView -->
<style name="LightTextView" parent="android:Widget.TextView">
<item name="android:textColor">#color/greyscale16</item>
<item name="android:background">#android:color/transparent</item>
</style>
<!-- Button -->
<style name="LightButton" parent="android:Widget.Button">
<item name="android:textColor">#color/greyscale16</item>
<item name="android:background">#drawable/light_button_background</item>
<item name="android:gravity">center_vertical|center_horizontal</item>
</style>
<style name="LightCheckBox" parent="android:Widget.CompoundButton.CheckBox">
<item name="android:background">#color/greyscale2</item>
</style>
<style name="LightEditText" parent="android:style/Widget.EditText">
<item name="android:background">#color/greyscale1</item>
<item name="android:editTextBackground">#color/greyscale2</item>
<item name="android:textColor">#color/greyscale16</item>
<item name="android:button">#style/DarkButton</item>
<item name="android:inputType">number</item>
</style>
<style name="LightDialog" parent="#android:style/Theme.Dialog">
<item name="android:background">#color/greyscale2</item>
<item name="android:textColor">#color/greyscale16</item>
<item name="android:textViewStyle">#style/LightTextView</item>
<item name="android:buttonStyle">#style/LightButton</item>
<item name="android:divider">#color/greyscale14</item>
</style>
Notice the
<item name="android:dialogPreferenceStyle">#style/LightDialog</item> attribute in my base theme. I found the styleable resource here, more specifically alertDiaolg here (Note: These can also be found in your SDK directory on your computer)
I hope this at least heads you in the right direction, I have been struggling to figure this out (my first theme in my apps). Happy Coding!

I think the effect you've observed is a bug in the Gingerbread emulator.
After changing the activity's theme and restarting the emulator the EditTextPreference appeared as above.

First extend EditTextPreference and override onPrepareDialogBuilder, inverting background color for versions below Honeycomb:
public class CustomEditTextPreference extends EditTextPreference {
/**
* Prepares the dialog builder to be shown when the preference is clicked.
* Use this to set custom properties on the dialog.
* <p>
* Do not {#link AlertDialog.Builder#create()} or
* {#link AlertDialog.Builder#show()}.
*/
#Override
protected void onPrepareDialogBuilder(AlertDialog.Builder builder) {
builder.setInverseBackgroundForced(Build.VERSION.SDK_INT < Build.VERSION_CODES.HONEYCOMB);
}
}
Then replace in your preferences.xml all
<EditTextPreference ... />
with
<your.package.CustomEditTextPreference ... />

I had this exact issue when I switched to the API v21 AppCompat (I think - it previously used to work just fine at least).
My solution was to define the style for android:editTextStyle explicitly in my theme - here is my complete styles.xml:
<resources xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
<!--
Base application theme, dependent on API level. This theme is replaced
by AppBaseTheme from res/values-vXX/styles.xml on newer devices.
-->
<style name="AppBaseTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light">
<!--
Theme customizations available in newer API levels can go in
res/values-vXX/styles.xml, while customizations related to
backward-compatibility can go here.
-->
<item name="android:editTextStyle">#android:style/Widget.EditText</item>
</style>
<!-- Application theme. -->
<style name="AppTheme" parent="AppBaseTheme">
<!-- All customizations that are NOT specific to a particular API-level can go here. -->
</style>
</resources>
The result is an editText that looks the same as in #Jesse Webb's screenshot.

Customizing styles

To customize a standard style, I use the following XML file :
<resources xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
<style name="AppTheme" parent="android:Theme.Holo.Light">
<item name="windowNoTitle">true</item>
</style>
</resources>
The problem is that Eclipse tells me that the "windowNoTitle" attribute doesnot exist, but I have cut & pasted it from the example shown in the official web site for styles and themes indicated in the Android dev doc.
How can I modify this standard code to have no title bar?

May be you need to add android: prefix before attriibute name, also you need use valid syntax for the link to parent theme ike this:
<resources xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
<style name="AppTheme" parent="#android:style/Theme.Holo.Light">
<item name="android:windowNoTitle">true</item>
</style>
</resources>

You could just add .NoTitleBar at the end so you don't need extra style item.
<style name="AppTheme" parent="android:Theme.Holo.Light.NoTitleBar" />

I used this for fullscreen: <style name="FullscreenTheme" parent="android:Theme.NoTitleBar">
<item name="android:windowContentOverlay">#null</item>
</style>
And it doesn't have Title Bar. Hopefully this helps.