How to _really_ programmatically change primary an

Question

First of all, this question asks a very similar question. However, my question has a subtle difference.

What I'd like to know is whether it is possible to programmatically change the colorPrimary attribute of a theme to an arbitrary color?

So for example, we have:

<style name="AppTheme" parent="android:Theme.Material.Light">
    <item name="android:colorPrimary">#ff0000</item>
    <item name="android:colorAccent">#ff0000</item>
</style>

At runtime, the user decides he wants to use #ccffff as a primary color. Ofcourse there's no way I can create themes for all possible colors.

I don't mind if I have to do hacky stuff, like relying on Android's private internals, as long as it works using the public SDK.

My goal is to eventually have the ActionBar and all widgets like a CheckBox to use this primary color.

Answer 1

I've created some solution to make any-color themes, maybe this can be useful for somebody. API 9+

1. first create "res/values-v9/" and put there this file: styles.xml and regular "res/values" folder will be used with your styles.

2. put this code in your res/values/styles.xml:

<resources>
    <style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light">
        <item name="colorPrimary">#000</item>
        <item name="colorPrimaryDark">#000</item>
        <item name="colorAccent">#000</item>
        <item name="android:windowAnimationStyle">@style/WindowAnimationTransition</item>
    </style>

    <style name="AppThemeDarkActionBar" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar">
        <item name="colorPrimary">#000</item>
        <item name="colorPrimaryDark">#000</item>
        <item name="colorAccent">#000</item>
        <item name="android:windowAnimationStyle">@style/WindowAnimationTransition</item>
    </style>

    <style name="WindowAnimationTransition">
        <item name="android:windowEnterAnimation">@android:anim/fade_in</item>
        <item name="android:windowExitAnimation">@android:anim/fade_out</item>
    </style>
</resources>

3. in to AndroidManifest:

<application android:theme="@style/AppThemeDarkActionBar">

4. create a new class with name "ThemeColors.java"

public class ThemeColors {

    private static final String NAME = "ThemeColors", KEY = "color";

    @ColorInt
    public int color;

    public ThemeColors(Context context) {
        SharedPreferences sharedPreferences = context.getSharedPreferences(NAME, Context.MODE_PRIVATE);
        String stringColor = sharedPreferences.getString(KEY, "004bff");
        color = Color.parseColor("#" + stringColor);

        if (isLightActionBar()) context.setTheme(R.style.AppTheme);
        context.setTheme(context.getResources().getIdentifier("T_" + stringColor, "style", context.getPackageName()));
    }

    public static void setNewThemeColor(Activity activity, int red, int green, int blue) {
        int colorStep = 15;
        red = Math.round(red / colorStep) * colorStep;
        green = Math.round(green / colorStep) * colorStep;
        blue = Math.round(blue / colorStep) * colorStep;

        String stringColor = Integer.toHexString(Color.rgb(red, green, blue)).substring(2);
        SharedPreferences.Editor editor = activity.getSharedPreferences(NAME, Context.MODE_PRIVATE).edit();
        editor.putString(KEY, stringColor);
        editor.apply();

        if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.HONEYCOMB) activity.recreate();
        else {
            Intent i = activity.getPackageManager().getLaunchIntentForPackage(activity.getPackageName());
            i.addFlags(Intent.FLAG_ACTIVITY_CLEAR_TOP);
            activity.startActivity(i);
        }
    }

    private boolean isLightActionBar() {// Checking if title text color will be black
        int rgb = (Color.red(color) + Color.green(color) + Color.blue(color)) / 3;
        return rgb > 210;
    }
}

5. and before calling setContentView(R.layout.activity_main), just add:

new ThemeColors(this);

to change color replace Random with your RGB:

    findViewById(R.id.button).setOnClickListener(new View.OnClickListener() {
        @Override
        public void onClick(View v) {
            int red= new Random().nextInt(255);
            int green= new Random().nextInt(255);
            int blue= new Random().nextInt(255);
            ThemeColors.setNewThemeColor(MainActivity.this, red, green, blue);
        }
    });

Answer 2

USE A TOOLBAR

You can set a custom toolbar item color dynamically by creating a custom toolbar class:

package view;

import android.app.Activity;
import android.content.Context;
import android.graphics.ColorFilter;
import android.graphics.PorterDuff;
import android.graphics.PorterDuffColorFilter;
import android.support.v7.internal.view.menu.ActionMenuItemView;
import android.support.v7.widget.ActionMenuView;
import android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar;
import android.util.AttributeSet;
import android.util.Log;
import android.view.View;
import android.view.ViewGroup;
import android.widget.AutoCompleteTextView;
import android.widget.EditText;
import android.widget.ImageButton;
import android.widget.ImageView;
import android.widget.TextView;

public class CustomToolbar extends Toolbar{

    public CustomToolbar(Context context, AttributeSet attrs, int defStyleAttr) {
        super(context, attrs, defStyleAttr);
        // TODO Auto-generated constructor stub
    }

    public CustomToolbar(Context context, AttributeSet attrs) {
        super(context, attrs);
        // TODO Auto-generated constructor stub
    }

    public CustomToolbar(Context context) {
        super(context);
        // TODO Auto-generated constructor stub
        ctxt = context;
    }

    int itemColor;
    Context ctxt;

    @Override 
    protected void onLayout(boolean changed, int l, int t, int r, int b) {
        Log.d("LL", "onLayout");
        super.onLayout(changed, l, t, r, b);
        colorizeToolbar(this, itemColor, (Activity) ctxt);
    } 

    public void setItemColor(int color){
        itemColor = color;
        colorizeToolbar(this, itemColor, (Activity) ctxt);
    }



    /**
     * Use this method to colorize toolbar icons to the desired target color
     * @param toolbarView toolbar view being colored
     * @param toolbarIconsColor the target color of toolbar icons
     * @param activity reference to activity needed to register observers
     */
    public static void colorizeToolbar(Toolbar toolbarView, int toolbarIconsColor, Activity activity) {
        final PorterDuffColorFilter colorFilter
                = new PorterDuffColorFilter(toolbarIconsColor, PorterDuff.Mode.SRC_IN);

        for(int i = 0; i < toolbarView.getChildCount(); i++) {
            final View v = toolbarView.getChildAt(i);

            doColorizing(v, colorFilter, toolbarIconsColor);
        }

      //Step 3: Changing the color of title and subtitle.
        toolbarView.setTitleTextColor(toolbarIconsColor);
        toolbarView.setSubtitleTextColor(toolbarIconsColor);
    }

    public static void doColorizing(View v, final ColorFilter colorFilter, int toolbarIconsColor){
        if(v instanceof ImageButton) {
            ((ImageButton)v).getDrawable().setAlpha(255);
            ((ImageButton)v).getDrawable().setColorFilter(colorFilter);
        }

        if(v instanceof ImageView) {
            ((ImageView)v).getDrawable().setAlpha(255);
            ((ImageView)v).getDrawable().setColorFilter(colorFilter);
        }

        if(v instanceof AutoCompleteTextView) {
            ((AutoCompleteTextView)v).setTextColor(toolbarIconsColor);
        }

        if(v instanceof TextView) {
            ((TextView)v).setTextColor(toolbarIconsColor);
        }

        if(v instanceof EditText) {
            ((EditText)v).setTextColor(toolbarIconsColor);
        }

        if (v instanceof ViewGroup){
            for (int lli =0; lli< ((ViewGroup)v).getChildCount(); lli ++){
                doColorizing(((ViewGroup)v).getChildAt(lli), colorFilter, toolbarIconsColor);
            }
        }

        if(v instanceof ActionMenuView) {
            for(int j = 0; j < ((ActionMenuView)v).getChildCount(); j++) {

                //Step 2: Changing the color of any ActionMenuViews - icons that
                //are not back button, nor text, nor overflow menu icon.
                final View innerView = ((ActionMenuView)v).getChildAt(j);

                if(innerView instanceof ActionMenuItemView) {
                    int drawablesCount = ((ActionMenuItemView)innerView).getCompoundDrawables().length;
                    for(int k = 0; k < drawablesCount; k++) {
                        if(((ActionMenuItemView)innerView).getCompoundDrawables()[k] != null) {
                            final int finalK = k;

                            //Important to set the color filter in seperate thread, 
                            //by adding it to the message queue
                            //Won't work otherwise. 
                            //Works fine for my case but needs more testing

                            ((ActionMenuItemView) innerView).getCompoundDrawables()[finalK].setColorFilter(colorFilter);

//                              innerView.post(new Runnable() {
//                                  @Override
//                                  public void run() {
//                                      ((ActionMenuItemView) innerView).getCompoundDrawables()[finalK].setColorFilter(colorFilter);
//                                  }
//                              });
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }



}

then refer to it in your layout file. Now you can set a custom color using

toolbar.setItemColor(Color.Red);

Sources:

I found the information to do this here: How to dynamicaly change Android Toolbar icons color

and then I edited it, improved upon it, and posted it here: GitHub:AndroidDynamicToolbarItemColor