How to change the background color of Action Bar&#

Question

I'd like to change the background color of the option (overflow) menu in Android 4.2. I have tried all the methods but it is still showing the default color set by the theme. I used the following code & XML configs.

MainActivity.java

public class MainActivity extends Activity {

@SuppressLint("NewApi")
@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

    getActionBar().setIcon(R.drawable.ic_launcher);     
    getActionBar().setTitle("Sample Menu");
    getActionBar().setBackgroundDrawable(new 
               ColorDrawable(Color.parseColor("#33B5E5"))); 

    int titleId = Resources.getSystem().getIdentifier("action_bar_title", "id", "android");
    TextView titleText = (TextView)findViewById(titleId);
    titleText.setTextColor(Color.parseColor("#ffffff"));

}

@Override
public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {
    // Inflate the menu; this adds items to the action bar if it is present.
    getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.main, menu);
    setMenuBackground();
    return true;
}

protected void setMenuBackground(){                     
    // Log.d(TAG, "Enterting setMenuBackGround");  
    getLayoutInflater().setFactory( new Factory() { 

        @Override
        public View onCreateView(String name, Context context,
                AttributeSet attrs) {
            if ( name.equalsIgnoreCase( "com.android.internal.view.menu.IconMenuItemView" ) ) {
                try { // Ask our inflater to create the view  
                    LayoutInflater f = getLayoutInflater();  
                    final View view = f.createView( name, null, attrs );  
                    /* The background gets refreshed each time a new item is added the options menu.  
                    * So each time Android applies the default background we need to set our own  
                    * background. This is done using a thread giving the background change as runnable 
                    * object */
                    new Handler().post( new Runnable() {  
                        public void run () {  
                            // sets the background color   
                            view.setBackgroundResource( R.color.menubg);
                            // sets the text color              
                            ((TextView) view).setTextColor(Color.WHITE);
                            // sets the text size              
                            ((TextView) view).setTextSize(18);
            }
                    } );  
                return view;
            }
        catch ( InflateException e ) {}
        catch ( ClassNotFoundException e ) {}  
    } 
            return null;
        }});
}

}

Menu.xml

<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" >

<item
    android:id="@+id/action_settings"
    android:icon="@drawable/menu"
    android:showAsAction="always"
    android:title="@string/action_settings">
    <menu>
        <item
            android:id="@+id/item1"             
            android:showAsAction="always"
            android:title="@string/item1" />
        <item
            android:id="@+id/item2"             
            android:showAsAction="always"
            android:title="@string/item2" />
        <item
            android:id="@+id/item3"
            android:showAsAction="always"
            android:title="@string/item3" />
        <item
            android:id="@+id/item4"
            android:showAsAction="always"
            android:title="@string/item4" />
    </menu>
</item>

</menu>

color.xml

<color name="menubg">#33B5E5</color>

The above setMenuBackground is not taking any effect:

In the above picture, I want to change the menu background from black to the blue color in the Action Bar. How can I achieve this, and what I did do wrong?

Answer 1

You can apply styles and Themes in Overflow MenuItem as per below. OverFlow Menu is ListView so, we can apply theme as per listview.

Apply below code in styles.xml

<style name="AppTheme" parent="@android:style/Theme.Holo.Light">
<item name="android:dropDownListViewStyle">@style/PopupMenuListView</item>
        <item name="android:actionBarWidgetTheme">@style/PopupMenuTextView</item>
        <item name="android:popupMenuStyle">@style/PopupMenu</item>
        <item name="android:listPreferredItemHeightSmall">40dp</item>
</style>

<!-- Change Overflow Menu ListView Divider Property -->
    <style name="PopupMenuListView" parent="@android:style/Widget.Holo.ListView.DropDown">
        <item name="android:divider">@color/app_navigation_divider</item>
        <item name="android:dividerHeight">1sp</item>
        <item name="android:listSelector">@drawable/list_selector</item>
    </style>

    <!-- Change Overflow Menu ListView Text Size and Text Size -->
    <style name="PopupMenuTextView" parent="@android:style/Widget.Holo.Light.TextView">
        <item name="android:textColor">@color/app_white</item>
        <item name="android:textStyle">normal</item>
        <item name="android:textSize">18sp</item>
        <item name="android:drawablePadding">25dp</item>
        <item name="android:drawableRight">@drawable/navigation_arrow_selector</item>
    </style>

    <!-- Change Overflow Menu Background -->
    <style name="PopupMenu" parent="android:Widget.Holo.Light.ListPopupWindow">
        <item name="android:popupBackground">@drawable/menu_overflow_bg</item>
    </style>

Answer 2

I was able to change colour of action overflow by just putting hex value at:

    <!-- The beef: background color for Action Bar overflow menu -->
<style name="MyApp.PopupMenu" parent="android:Widget.Holo.Light.ListPopupWindow">
    <item name="android:popupBackground">HEX VALUE OF COLOR</item>
</style>

Answer 3

My simple trick to change background color and color of the text in Popup Menu / Option Menu

<style name="CustomActionBarTheme"
       parent="@android:style/Theme.Holo">
    <item name="android:popupMenuStyle">@style/MyPopupMenu</item>
    <item name="android:itemTextAppearance">@style/TextAppearance</item>
</style>
<!-- Popup Menu Background Color styles -->
<style name="MyPopupMenu" 
       parent="@android:style/Widget.Holo.ListPopupWindow">
    <item name="android:popupBackground">@color/Your_color_for_background</item> 
</style>
<!-- Popup Menu Text Color styles -->
<style name="TextAppearance">
    <item name="android:textColor">@color/Your_color_for_text</item>
</style>

Answer 4

Add following to your Styles.xml

<style name="Custom_Theme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar">

    <item name="android:itemBackground">@color/white</item>
    <item name="android:textColor">@color/colorPrimaryDark</item>

</style>

Change theme in activity_main.xml only.

android:theme="@style/Custom_Theme"

Answer 5

In case you are working in the latest toolbar in android studio then here is the smallest solution To change the toolbar options menu color, add this to your toolbar element

 app:popupTheme="@style/MyDarkToolbarStyle"

Then in your styles.xml define the popup menu style

<style name="MyDarkToolbarStyle" parent="ThemeOverlay.AppCompat.Light"> <item name="android:colorBackground">@color/mtrl_white_100</item> <item name="android:textColor">@color/mtrl_light_blue_900</item> </style>

Note that you need to use colorBackground not background. The latter would be applied to everything (the menu itself and each menu item), the former applies only to the popup menu.

Answer 6

I'm also struck with this same problem, finally i got simple solution. just added one line to action bar style.

<style name="AppTheme.AppBarOverlay" parent="ThemeOverlay.AppCompat.Dark.ActionBar">
    <item name="android:textColorPrimary">@color/colorAccent</item>
    <item name="android:colorBackground">@color/colorAppWhite</item>
</style>

"android:colorBackground" is enough to change option menu background