How can I fix the Spinner style for Android 4.x placed on top of the Toolbar

Question

According to Android documentation, Material Design style is supported for Spinner widget.

So I decided to use it in my app placing it on top of the Toolbar.

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Answer 1

I spent two days on this problem, but now after reading many answers, I can post my solution. I've implemented two custom layouts for the spinner item and popup. Setting this attribute for spinner: android:background="?android:selectableItemBackground" the default spinner black arrow is hidden and we can use what we prefer. I used the method setDropDownVerticalOffset(int) to manage the popup position on pre Lollipop Android versions.

My app global theme is

Now, the activity layout that contains the toolbar and the spinner:

activity_main.xml

custom_spinner_toolbar.xml

custom_spinner_dropdown_item.xml

SpinnerAdapter.java

public class SpinnerAdapter extends BaseAdapter
{
   private Context mContext;
   private List mValuesList;

   public SpinnerAdapter(Context mContext, List mValuesList)
   {
       this.mContext = mContext;
       this.mValuesList = mValuesList;
   }

   @Override
   public int getCount() 
   {
       return mValuesList.size();
   }

   @Override
   public Object getItem(int position) 
   {
       return mValuesList.get(position);
   }

   @Override
   public long getItemId(int position) {
       // TODO Auto-generated method stub
       return 0;
   }

   @Override
   public View getDropDownView(int position, View view, ViewGroup parent) 
   {
      if (view == null || !view.getTag().toString().equals("DROPDOWN")) 
      {
         LayoutInflater inflater = LayoutInflater.from(mContext);
         view = inflater.inflate(R.layout.custom_spinner_dropdown_item, parent, false);
         view.setTag("DROPDOWN");
      }

      TextView textView = (TextView) view.findViewById(R.id.spinner_item_text);
      textView.setText(getTitle(position));

      return view;
  }

  @Override
  public View getView(int position, View view, ViewGroup parent) 
  { 
      if (view == null || !view.getTag().toString().equals("NON_DROPDOWN")) 
      {
         LayoutInflater inflater = LayoutInflater.from(mContext);
         view = inflater.inflate(R.layout.custom_spinner_toolbar, parent, false);
         view.setTag("NON_DROPDOWN");
      }

      TextView textView = (TextView) view.findViewById(R.id.spinner_item_text);
      textView.setText(getTitle(position));
      return view;
   }

   private String getTitle(int position) 
   {
      return position >= 0 && position < mValuesList.size() ?   mValuesList.get(position) : "";
   }
}

Finally, the relevant part of activity source code:

@Override
protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) 
{
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);

    mToolbar = (Toolbar) findViewById(R.id.toolbar);
    setSupportActionBar(mToolbar);

    final ActionBar actionBar = getSupportActionBar();
    actionBar.setDisplayShowTitleEnabled(false);
    actionBar.setHomeAsUpIndicator(R.drawable.ic_menu);
    actionBar.setDisplayHomeAsUpEnabled(true);

    mSpinner = (Spinner) findViewById(R.id.spinner_rss);

    String[] items = getResources().getStringArray(R.array.spinner_rss_items);
    List spinnerItems = new ArrayList();

    for(int i = 0; i < items.length; i++)
    {
        spinnerItems.add(items[i]);
    }

    SpinnerAdapter adapter = new SpinnerAdapter(actionBar.getThemedContext(), spinnerItems);
    mSpinner.setAdapter(adapter);

    if(Build.VERSION.SDK_INT < Build.VERSION_CODES.LOLLIPOP)
    {
        mSpinner.setDropDownVerticalOffset(-116);
    }
}

These are the results on Lollipop and Kitkat:

Hope it helps! :)