Question

I have a very simple ListActivity in my application using HoloLight theme. My ListView is being populated but the text is only visible when an item is highlighted. How do I fix this and why does it happen?

Edit : To clarify. Rather than fixing this locally in each list view I want to find a global solution.

Answer 1

There were several good answers. But, most of them included writing a new adapter which is unnecessary work. The most important thing is that you should have the color desired set in your xml. I wrote a new layout with the source for simple_list_item_2 and added a line to change text color. Tested and it works.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!--
/*
 * Copyright (C) 2006-2007 Google Inc.
 *
 * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
 * You may obtain a copy of the License at
 *
 *     http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 *
 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
 * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 * limitations under the License.
 */
-->

<TwoLineListItem xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:minHeight="?android:attr/listPreferredItemHeight"
    android:mode="twoLine"
    android:paddingBottom="2dip"
    android:paddingTop="2dip" >

    <TextView
        android:id="@android:id/text1"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_marginLeft="6dip"
        android:layout_marginTop="6dip"
        android:textColor="?android:attr/textColorPrimaryInverseDisableOnly"
        android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceLarge" />

    <TextView
        android:id="@android:id/text2"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_alignLeft="@android:id/text1"
        android:layout_below="@android:id/text1"
        android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceSmall" />

</TwoLineListItem>