Question

I have an overall application that is comprised of several separate apps. I would like to display a common image behind these apps, but have the backgrounds control centralized.

My question is: Is there a pattern/technique for displaying an image (or any other UI) behind a group of common applications? I am aware of wallpaper services; however I don’t believe this is the correct approach.

Answer 1

I would probably:

1. Give all of my root layouts an id of root (android:id="@+id/root")
2. If possible, have all my activities inherit from a single source in a Library project, which sets the root background at create time, otherwise just have them each set the background of root as retrieved from 3.
3. Create a system service (probably as a separate app) that retains and returns the current background, and talk to it through AIDL to get your image to set at runtime