Change line color in tabs - ActionBarSherlock

Question

I'm using ActionBarSherlock to make my app compatible with older devices. The implementation was easy, but now i need to style the default Holo blue line that you see under the tabs to a red line.

I've been reading a few topics (topic 1, topic 2) here on SO and also the ABS doc (link), but i can't get it to work.

This is what i have so far.

In my AndroidManifest.xml i added this line to the application tag.

<application
    android:icon="@drawable/ic_launcher"
    android:label="@string/app_name"
    android:theme="@style/Theme.Sherlock" > <!-- SET THE DEFAULT THEME -->

Then in res/values/styles.xml i have:

<resources>
    <style name="AppTheme" parent="android:Theme.Light" />

    <style name="Theme.MyTheme" parent="Theme.Sherlock">
        <item name="actionBarStyle">@style/Widget.MyTheme.ActionBar</item>
        <item name="android:actionBarStyle">@style/Widget.MyTheme.ActionBar</item>
    </style>

    <style name="Widget.MyTheme.ActionBar" parent="Widget.Sherlock.ActionBar">
        <item name="android:background">#ff000000</item>
        <item name="background">#ff000000</item>
    </style>
</resources>

But when i run my app, then i still see the default blue line color.

What am i doing wrong?

---

EDIT

Read this if you want to fully style your ActionBarSherlock!

I found an answer here on SO which gave the following link: http://jgilfelt.github.com/android-actionbarstylegenerator

It's an easy generator which generates all the needed files for a fully customized ABS! All you have to do is copy the generated files into the appropiate folders and you're set!

Don't forget to enable the style (you'll have to enter a style name in the generator) in your AndroidManifest. For that, see the answer below.

Answer 1

A few things:

You don't really need <style name="AppTheme" parent="android:Theme.Light" /> anymore unless you want to change it to inherit Theme.Sherlock and use it for your app theme. If you decide to do this you will have to use Theme.MyTheme for activities.

Either way, to fix the problem you want to change

<application
    android:icon="@drawable/ic_launcher"
    android:label="@string/app_name"
    android:theme="@style/Theme.Sherlock" >

to

<application
    android:icon="@drawable/ic_launcher"
    android:label="@string/app_name"
    android:theme="@style/Theme.MyTheme" >

OR you can apply the theme directly to your activities:

 <activity 
    android:name="com.awesome.package.activity.SomeActivity"
    android:theme="@style/Theme.MyTheme"/>

Side note, I recommend this excellent actionbar theme generator

Answer 2

Set in your manifest file theme as follows:

<application
    android:icon="@drawable/ic_launcher"
    android:label="@string/app_name"
    android:theme="@style/Theme.MyTheme" >

It will preserve all Sherlock themes and will add your custom styles.