use phone wallpaper as app background - Theme.Wall

Question

I wanted to use Theme.Wallpaper in my app. This theme uses the phones current wallpaper as a background. The problem is it doesn't work on a 4.1 device. I also tried recreating the Theme.Wallpaper in my style resources but again it doesn't work for 4.1 devices. - note that it may not work for lower APIs as well, I only confirmed it working on 2.2.1 and not working on 4.1. I would like to know why it doesn't work and if there is any solution to that.

Answer 1

I have finally found the answer, it's a bit complex:

In a project built for a target above 14 (mine is 17) eclipse automatically creates a "values-v11" and a "values-v14" folders (applyed for phones or AVDs with api version 14 and above or 11 and above). In those folders are style.xml files that contain the "AppBaseTheme" style, This "AppBaseTheme" style replaces the one in the default "values" folder, which is the parent of (or: is extended by) the "AppTheme" style that is applyed by default to the application..

Now, the way I chose to apply the "Theme.Wallpaper" style to my app, was to have my "AppBaseTheme" inherit from it. Understanding this, it became obvious why my app did not have a "Theme.Wallpaper" like behavior on Systems with API 11 and above: I never made the alternative v11 and v14 "AppBaseTheme" extend the "Theme.Wallpaper" or the more suitable "Theme.Holo.Wallpaper" for v11, and "Theme.DeviceDefault.Wallpaper" for v14.

So, if you have troubles with applying styles, I hope you see this...

EDIT: if your reading this, and have troubles with editing the style.xml file in eclipse, try opening this file in any text editor (my favorite is notepad++) and just delete all the comments than reopen it on eclipse. In case you need comments just add them afterwords on your text editor.