Error adding custom theme to app

Question

I added the following theme to my app with a background color of white.But I get the following error and I'm not sure where I have gone wrong.

Error: Color types not allowed (at 'android:windowBackground' with value '#FF0000').

<style name="MyTheme" parent="@android:style/Theme.Light"> 
  <item name="android:windowBackground">#FF0000</item>
 </style>

And referenced the theme in mymanifest:

<activity
        android:name=".MyActivity"
        android:theme="@style/MyTheme" />

Any ideas or suggestions? Thanks

Answer 1

According to the Android Styles and Themes page, you have to use a separate color resource to set the color.

(Note that the color needs to supplied as a separate resource here because the android:windowBackground attribute only supports a reference to another resource; unlike android:colorBackground, it can not be given a color literal.)

For example

<item name="android:windowBackground">@color/custom_theme_color</item>