Question

In my android application I want the standard/basic title bar to change color.

To change the text color you have setTitleColor(int color), is there a way to change the background color of the bar?

Answer 1

This thread will get you started with building your own title bar in a xml file and using it in your activities

Edit

Here is a brief summary of the content of the link above – This is just to set the color of the text and the background of the title bar – no resizing, no buttons, just the simpliest sample

res/layout/mytitle.xml – This is the view that will represent the title bar

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<TextView
  xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
  android:id="@+id/myTitle"
  android:text="This is my new title"
  android:layout_width="fill_parent"
  android:layout_height="fill_parent"
  android:textColor="@color/titletextcolor"
   />

res/values/themes.xml – We want to keep the default android theme and just need to change the background color of the title background. So we create a theme that inherits the default theme and set the background style to our own style.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
    <style name="customTheme" parent="android:Theme"> 
        <item name="android:windowTitleBackgroundStyle">@style/WindowTitleBackground</item>   
    </style> 
</resources>

res/values/styles.xml – This is where we set the theme to use the color we want for the title background

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources> 
   <style name="WindowTitleBackground">     
        <item name="android:background">@color/titlebackgroundcolor</item>                   
    </style>
</resources>

res/values/colors.xml – Set here the color you want

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>   
    <color name="titlebackgroundcolor">#3232CD</color>
    <color name="titletextcolor">#FFFF00</color>
</resources>

In the AndroidMANIFEST.xml, set the theme attribute either in the application (for the whole application) or in the activity (only this activity) tags

<activity android:name=".CustomTitleBar" android:theme="@style/customTheme" ...

From the Activity (called CustomTitleBar) :

@Override
public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

        requestWindowFeature(Window.FEATURE_CUSTOM_TITLE);
        setContentView(R.layout.main);
        getWindow().setFeatureInt(Window.FEATURE_CUSTOM_TITLE, R.layout.mytitle);

}