Common styles for v10 and v11+?

Question

I'm using the v7 support library in order to have an ActionBar on API Level 10+ (that's Android 2.3.3+). Now, I want to customize the look a bit, so I added an application theme. Excerpt of my values/styles.xml:

<style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light">
    <item name="actionBarStyle">@style/ActionBarStyle</item>
</style>

<style name="ActionBarStyle" parent="@style/Widget.AppCompat.ActionBar">
    <item name="background">@drawable/bg_actionbar</item>
</style>

This works fine on Android 2.3.3, where the compat stuff is used. However, on Android 4.3 on an N4 (or an emulator), the styles are not applied. If I change the styles.xml file to:

<style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light">
    <item name="android:actionBarStyle">@style/ActionBarStyle</item>
</style>

<style name="ActionBarStyle" parent="@style/Widget.AppCompat.ActionBar">
    <item name="android:background">@drawable/bg_actionbar</item>
</style>

(notice the added android: prefix) it works on 4.3, but doesn't on 2.3 (styles not applied).

Is there any way I can get around this without specifying each <item> twice, once with the prefix and once without?

Answer 1

There is a perfect example on the google docs site:

http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/ui/actionbar.html#StyleExample

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
    <!-- the theme applied to the application or activity -->
    <style name="CustomActionBarTheme"
           parent="@style/Theme.AppCompat.Light">
        <item name="android:actionBarStyle">@style/MyActionBar</item>
        <item name="android:actionBarTabTextStyle">@style/TabTextStyle</item>
        <item name="android:actionMenuTextColor">@color/actionbar_text</item>

        <!-- Support library compatibility -->
        <item name="actionBarStyle">@style/MyActionBar</item>
        <item name="actionBarTabTextStyle">@style/TabTextStyle</item>
        <item name="actionMenuTextColor">@color/actionbar_text</item>
    </style>

    <!-- general styles for the action bar -->
    <style name="MyActionBar"
           parent="@style/Widget.AppCompat.ActionBar">
        <item name="android:titleTextStyle">@style/TitleTextStyle</item>
        <item name="android:background">@drawable/actionbar_background</item>
        <item name="android:backgroundStacked">@drawable/actionbar_background</item>
        <item name="android:backgroundSplit">@drawable/actionbar_background</item>

        <!-- Support library compatibility -->
        <item name="titleTextStyle">@style/TitleTextStyle</item>
        <item name="background">@drawable/actionbar_background</item>
        <item name="backgroundStacked">@drawable/actionbar_background</item>
        <item name="backgroundSplit">@drawable/actionbar_background</item>
    </style>

    <!-- action bar title text -->
    <style name="TitleTextStyle"
           parent="@style/TextAppearance.AppCompat.Widget.ActionBar.Title">
        <item name="android:textColor">@color/actionbar_text</item>
    </style>

    <!-- action bar tab text -->
    <style name="TabTextStyle"
           parent="@style/Widget.AppCompat.ActionBar.TabText">
        <item name="android:textColor">@color/actionbar_text</item>
    </style>
</resources>