Question

I am using Android native action bar. I would like to add my own drawable resource as the background of the action bar. So, I made a theme like following:

res/values/themes.xml :

<style name="Theme.MyStyle" parent="android:style/Theme.Holo.Light">
    <item name="android:background">@drawable/my_bg</item>
</style>

Then, in AndroidManifest.xml file I add this style to my application:

<application
        android:debuggable="true"
        android:icon="@drawable/ic_launcher"
        android:label="@string/app_name"

        android:theme="@style/Theme.MyStyle"
        >
   <activity ...>
   <activity .../>
   ...

</application>

BUT, the background drawable is applied NOT ONLY to action bar BUT ALSO to all fragments’ content. why?

My 2nd question is, how to customize the overflow icon and the left-most “up” button on action bar??

Answer 1

try

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
    <!-- the theme applied to the application or activity -->
    <style name="Theme.MyStyle" parent="@android:style/Theme.Holo">
        <item name="android:actionBarStyle">@style/MyActionBar</item>
        <!-- other activity and action bar styles here -->
    </style>

    <!-- style for the action bar backgrounds -->
    <style name="MyActionBar" parent="@android:style/Widget.Holo.ActionBar">
        <item name="android:background">@drawable/ab_background</item>
        <item name="android:backgroundStacked">@drawable/ab_background</item>
        <item name="android:backgroundSplit">@drawable/ab_split_background</item>
    </style>
</resources>

customize the logo using setDisplayUseLogoEnabled(boolean)

More info