Question

I really like the 4.0 ICS Holo Light theme and would like to have it in my app to support <4.0 smartphones.

I found Android layoutlib.jar in platform folder but its 8mb!!! and I really don’t have afford to increase my app with 8mb.
Any tip?

//Pew Labs
PS ive tried https://github.com/ChristopheVersieux/HoloEverywhere but it doesnt support TabVIew which I use

Thanks!

Answer 1

It would be better not to use the Holo theme on unsupported devices. You can do a simple trick to make your app run the Holo theme on 3.x and up, and one of the built in themes on 2.3 and below, like so:

1. In your manifest, use this line for your activity’s theme

   android:theme=”@style/Theme.MyTheme”

2. In your res/values folder put a styles.xml file, containing

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
   <resources>
     <style name="Theme.MyTheme" parent="@android:style/Theme.Black" />
   </resources>
   

3. Create a res/values-v11 folder, and a styles.xml file in that, containing:

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
   <resources>
     <style name="Theme.MyTheme" parent="@android:style/Theme.Holo" />
   </resources>
   

This will make Android use the Holo theme if the app is running on a device that supports it (3.x and up, which is API level 11 and up, hence the “values-v11”). This is the best solution to make your app match the phone’s user interface, and use the Holo theme only wherever it’s supported.