How to change the background color of Action Bar's Option Menu in Android 4.2?

Question

I'd like to change the background color of the option (overflow) menu in Android 4.2. I have tried all the methods but it is still showing the default color set by the theme. I used the following code & XML configs.

MainActivity.java

public class MainActivity extends Activity {  @SuppressLint("NewApi") @Override protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {     super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);     setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);      getActionBar().setIcon(R.drawable.ic_launcher);          getActionBar().setTitle("Sample Menu");     getActionBar().setBackgroundDrawable(new                 ColorDrawable(Color.parseColor("#33B5E5")));       int titleId = Resources.getSystem().getIdentifier("action_bar_title", "id", "android");     TextView titleText = (TextView)findViewById(titleId);     titleText.setTextColor(Color.parseColor("#ffffff"));  }  @Override public boolean onCreateOptionsMenu(Menu menu) {     // Inflate the menu; this adds items to the action bar if it is present.     getMenuInflater().inflate(R.menu.main, menu);     setMenuBackground();     return true; }  protected void setMenuBackground(){                          // Log.d(TAG, "Enterting setMenuBackGround");       getLayoutInflater().setFactory( new Factory() {           @Override         public View onCreateView(String name, Context context,                 AttributeSet attrs) {             if ( name.equalsIgnoreCase( "com.android.internal.view.menu.IconMenuItemView" ) ) {                 try { // Ask our inflater to create the view                       LayoutInflater f = getLayoutInflater();                       final View view = f.createView( name, null, attrs );                       /* The background gets refreshed each time a new item is added the options menu.                       * So each time Android applies the default background we need to set our own                       * background. This is done using a thread giving the background change as runnable                      * object */                     new Handler().post( new Runnable() {                           public void run () {                               // sets the background color                                view.setBackgroundResource( R.color.menubg);                             // sets the text color                                           ((TextView) view).setTextColor(Color.WHITE);                             // sets the text size                                           ((TextView) view).setTextSize(18);             }                     } );                   return view;             }         catch ( InflateException e ) {}         catch ( ClassNotFoundException e ) {}       }              return null;         }}); }  } 

Menu.xml

<menu xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" >  <item     android:id="@+id/action_settings"     android:icon="@drawable/menu"     android:showAsAction="always"     android:title="@string/action_settings">     <menu>         <item             android:id="@+id/item1"                          android:showAsAction="always"             android:title="@string/item1" />         <item             android:id="@+id/item2"                          android:showAsAction="always"             android:title="@string/item2" />         <item             android:id="@+id/item3"             android:showAsAction="always"             android:title="@string/item3" />         <item             android:id="@+id/item4"             android:showAsAction="always"             android:title="@string/item4" />     </menu> </item>  </menu> 

color.xml

<color name="menubg">#33B5E5</color> 

The above setMenuBackground is not taking any effect:

In the above picture, I want to change the menu background from black to the blue color in the Action Bar. How can I achieve this, and what I did do wrong?

Answer 1

In case people are still visiting for a working solution, here is what worked for me:-- This is for Appcompat support library. This is in continuation to ActionBar styling explained here

Following is the styles.xml file.

<resources>     <!-- Base application theme. -->     <style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light">         <!-- This is the styling for action bar -->         <item name="actionBarStyle">@style/MyActionBar</item>         <!--To change the text styling of options menu items</item>-->         <item name="android:itemTextAppearance">@style/MyActionBar.MenuTextStyle</item>         <!--To change the background of options menu-->         <item name="android:itemBackground">@color/skyBlue</item>     </style>      <style name="MyActionBar" parent="@style/Widget.AppCompat.Light.ActionBar.Solid.Inverse">         <item name="background">@color/red</item>         <item name="titleTextStyle">@style/MyActionBarTitle</item>     </style>      <style name="MyActionBarTitle" parent="@style/TextAppearance.AppCompat.Widget.ActionBar.Title">         <item name="android:textColor">@color/white</item>     </style>      <style name="MyActionBar.MenuTextStyle"         parent="style/TextAppearance.AppCompat.Widget.ActionBar.Title">         <item name="android:textColor">@color/red</item>         <item name="android:textStyle">bold</item>         <item name="android:textSize">25sp</item>     </style> </resources> 

and this is how it looks--MenuItem background color is skyblue and MenuItem text color is pink with textsize as 25sp:--