Home/ Questions/Q 8732717
In Process

The Archive Base Latest Questions

Editorial Team
  • 0
Asked: 2026-06-13T09:29:17+00:00

I wanted to try out this funny title bar coloring , but it doesn’t

  • 0

I wanted to try out this funny title bar coloring, but it doesn’t work for me as

getWindow().findViewById(android.R.id.title);

returns null. So I had a look at it with Hierarchy Viewer and found out that the view is called id/action_bar instead. But there’s no R.id.action_bar (autocomplete doesn’t offer it and there’s nothing like this is R.java).

So now I’m doubly confused:

  • Is android.R.id.title sort of obsolete now (I’m using version 16 in my emulator)?
  • Where does id/action_bar come from?
  • What’s the recommended and simple practice w.r.t. compatibility?

Should I get ActionBarSherlock? I originally just wanted to change the title bar color… not fool around with it a lot.

Share

Leave an answer

You must login to add an answer.

Need An Account,

1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    I would recommend using ActionBarSherlock if you’re looking for compatibility with Android versions before API level 14 / Android 4.0.

    Changing the background of the ActionBar is straightforward and is most easily done via styles. See the “Background” section of http://android-developers.blogspot.com/2011/04/customizing-action-bar.html

    You can also change it via code. Put this in your onCreate():

    GradientDrawable gradientDrawable = new GradientDrawable(GradientDrawable.Orientation.TOP_BOTTOM, new int[] {Color.RED, Color.GREEN});
getActionBar().setBackgroundDrawable(gradientDrawable);

    Here is a screenshot of this code in action:

    enter image description here

    • 0