How to align title at center of ActionBar in default theme(Theme.Holo.Light)

Question

I searched a lot but can not find a way, How can I set then title at center of ActionBar instead of left aligned. I used below code to set the title at center :

Answer 1

solution is based on these things:

• you need to use your own class that extends Toolbar (support.v7.widget.toolbar)
• you need to override one method Toolbar#addView

what does it do:

when first time toolbar is executing #setTitle, it creates AppCompatTextView and uses it to display title text.

when the AppCompatTextView is created, toolbar (as ViewGroup), adds it into it's own hierarchy with #addView method.

also, while trying to find solution i noticed that the textview has layout width set to "wrap_content", so i decided to make it "match_parent" and assign textalignment to "center".

MyToolbar.kt, skipping unrelated stuff (constructors/imports):

class MyToolbar : Toolbar {

  override fun addView(child: View, params: ViewGroup.LayoutParams) {
    if (child is TextView) {
        params.width = ViewGroup.LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT
        child.textAlignment= View.TEXT_ALIGNMENT_CENTER
    }
    super.addView(child, params)
  }
}

possible "side effects" - this will apply to "subtitle" too

Answer 2

if You are Using Toolbar the just Add

android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal"

Under the Toolbar Just like this snippet

 <android.support.design.widget.AppBarLayout
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:theme="@style/AppTheme.AppBarOverlay">

    <android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar
        android:id="@+id/toolbar"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="?attr/actionBarSize"
        android:background="@color/colorPrimary"
        app:popupTheme="@style/AppTheme.PopupOverlay">

        <TextView
            android:id="@+id/tvTitle"
            android:layout_width="wrap_content"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:layout_gravity="center_horizontal"    //Important 
            android:textColor="@color/whitecolor"
            android:textSize="20sp"
            android:textStyle="bold" />
    </android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar>

</android.support.design.widget.AppBarLayout>

Answer 3

Java code: write this in onCreate()
getSupportActionBar().setDisplayShowCustomEnabled(true); getSupportActionBar().setCustomView(R.layout.action_bar);

and for you custom view, simply use FrameLayout, east peasy!
android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar is another option

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<FrameLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent">

    <TextView
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_gravity="left|center_vertical"
        android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceLarge"
        android:text="@string/app_name"
        android:textColor="@color/black"
        android:id="@+id/textView" />
</FrameLayout>

Answer 4

You can create a custom layout and apply it to the actionBar.

To do so, follow those 2 simple steps:

1. Java Code

   getSupportActionBar().setDisplayOptions(ActionBar.DISPLAY_SHOW_CUSTOM);
   getSupportActionBar().setCustomView(R.layout.actionbar);
   

Where R.layout.actionbar is the following layout.

2. XML

   <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
   <LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
       android:layout_width="match_parent"
       android:layout_height="wrap_content"
       android:layout_gravity="center"
       android:orientation="vertical">
   
   <TextView
       android:layout_width="wrap_content"
       android:layout_height="wrap_content"
       android:layout_gravity="center"
       android:id="@+id/action_bar_title"
       android:text="YOUR ACTIVITY TITLE"
       android:textColor="#ffffff"
       android:textSize="24sp" />
   </LinearLayout>
   

It can be as complex as you want. Try it out!

EDIT:

To set the background you can use the property android:background in the container layout (LinearLayout in that case). You may need to set the layout height android:layout_height to match_parent instead of wrap_content.

Moreover, you can also add a LOGO / ICON to it. To do so, simply add an ImageView inside your layout, and set layout orientation property android:orientation to horizontal (or simply use a RelativeLayout and manage it by yourself).

To change the title of above custom action bar dynamically, do this:

TextView title=(TextView)findViewById(getResources().getIdentifier("action_bar_title", "id", getPackageName()));
title.setText("Your Text Here");

Answer 5

This actually works:

 getActionBar().setDisplayOptions(ActionBar.DISPLAY_SHOW_CUSTOM);
 getActionBar().setCustomView(R.layout.custom_actionbar);
  ActionBar.LayoutParams p = new ActionBar.LayoutParams(ViewGroup.LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT, ViewGroup.LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT);
        p.gravity = Gravity.CENTER;

You have to define custom_actionbar.xml layout which is as per your requirement e.g. :

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="50dp"
    android:background="#2e2e2e"
    android:orientation="vertical"
    android:gravity="center"
    android:layout_gravity="center">

    <ImageView
        android:id="@+id/imageView1"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:src="@drawable/top_banner"
        android:layout_gravity="center"
        />
</LinearLayout>

Answer 6

After two days of going through the web, this is what I came up with in Kotlin. Tested and works on my app

  private fun setupActionBar() {
    supportActionBar?.apply {
        displayOptions = ActionBar.DISPLAY_SHOW_CUSTOM
        displayOptions = ActionBar.DISPLAY_SHOW_TITLE
        setDisplayShowCustomEnabled(true)
        title = ""


        val titleTextView = AppCompatTextView(this@MainActivity)
        titleTextView.text = getText(R.string.app_name)
        titleTextView.setSingleLine()
        titleTextView.textSize = 24f
        titleTextView.setTextColor(ContextCompat.getColor(this@MainActivity, R.color.appWhite))

        val layoutParams = ActionBar.LayoutParams(
            ActionBar.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT,
            ActionBar.LayoutParams.WRAP_CONTENT
        )
        layoutParams.gravity = Gravity.CENTER
        setCustomView(titleTextView, layoutParams)

        setBackgroundDrawable(
            ColorDrawable(
                ContextCompat.getColor(
                    this@MainActivity,
                    R.color.appDarkBlue
                )
            )
        )

    }
}