How to make style="?attr/actionButtonStyle" workable for rectangle toolbar button

Question

In our previous holo designed app (targetSdkVersion 21, with theme Theme.Sherlock.Light.DarkActionBar), we are using system style attribute attr/actionButtonStyle to define our custom action bar button style.

actionbar_custom_view_done_discard.xml

<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:orientation="horizontal">
    <include layout="@layout/actionbar_discard_button" />
    <View
        android:layout_width="1px"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"
        android:layout_marginTop="12dp"
        android:layout_marginBottom="12dp"
        android:background="?attr/actionBarCustomViewDividerColor" />    
    <include layout="@layout/actionbar_done_button" />
</LinearLayout>

actionbar_done_button.xml

<FrameLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    style="?attr/actionButtonStyle"
    android:id="@+id/actionbar_done"
    android:layout_width="0dp"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:layout_weight="1">

    <TextView style="?attr/actionBarTabTextStyle"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_gravity="center"
        android:paddingRight="20dp"
        android:drawableLeft="?attr/actionBarDoneIcon"
        android:drawablePadding="8dp"
        android:gravity="center_vertical"
        android:text="@string/save" />
</FrameLayout>

StockAlertFragmentActivity.java

public class StockAlertFragmentActivity extends SherlockFragmentActivity {
    @Override
    public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

        // Inflate a "Done/Discard" custom action bar view.
        LayoutInflater inflater = (LayoutInflater) this.getSupportActionBar().getThemedContext()
                .getSystemService(LAYOUT_INFLATER_SERVICE);
        final View customActionBarView = inflater.inflate(
                R.layout.actionbar_custom_view_done_discard, null);

The outcome is as following, when we tap on the SAVE button.

However, after migrating our app to material designed app (targetSdkVersion 23, theme Theme.AppCompat.Light.NoActionBar), system attribute attr/actionButtonStyle no longer work well with rectangle button.

Instead, it draws a round overlay on the top of rectangle button.

toolbar_with_save_discard.xml

<android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    android:id="@+id/toolbar"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:minHeight="?attr/actionBarSize"
    android:background="?attr/colorPrimary"
    android:elevation="4dp"
    android:contentInsetLeft="0dp"
    android:contentInsetStart="0dp"
    app:contentInsetLeft="0dp"
    app:contentInsetStart="0dp"
    android:contentInsetRight="0dp"
    android:contentInsetEnd="0dp"
    app:contentInsetRight="0dp"
    app:contentInsetEnd="0dp"
    app:theme="@style/ThemeOverlay.AppCompat.Dark.ActionBar"
    app:popupTheme="@style/ThemeOverlay.AppCompat.Light" >

    <!-- android:elevation="4dp" is used due to http://www.google.com/design/spec/what-is-material/elevation-shadows.html#elevation-shadows-elevation-android- -->

    <LinearLayout
        android:id="@+id/buttons_linear_layout"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="?attr/actionBarSize"
        android:orientation="horizontal">
        <include layout="@layout/toolbar_discard_button" />
        <View
            android:layout_width="1px"
            android:layout_height="match_parent"
            android:layout_marginTop="12dp"
            android:layout_marginBottom="12dp"
            android:background="?attr/toolbarCustomViewDividerColor" />
        <include layout="@layout/toolbar_save_button" />
    </LinearLayout>

</android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar>

toolbar_save_button.xml

<FrameLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    style="?attr/actionButtonStyle"
    android:id="@+id/toolbar_save"
    android:layout_width="0dp"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:layout_weight="1">

    <TextView style="?attr/actionBarTabTextStyle"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_gravity="center"
        android:paddingRight="20dp"
        android:drawableLeft="?attr/toolbarDoneIcon"
        android:drawablePadding="8dp"
        android:gravity="center_vertical"
        android:text="@string/save" />
</FrameLayout>

I like to have the overlay drawn on the entire rectangle SAVE button.

I think most probably I can solve this, by avoiding from using style="?attr/actionButtonStyle", and supplying my very own defined selector.

However, I prefer not to do so. I prefer to use system provided style, for less maintenance headache.

---

How can I make style="?attr/actionButtonStyle" workable for rectangle toolbar button?

Or, Is there any other system style attribute, which will work well with rectangle toolbar button? At the same time, having ripple effect.

---

Answer 1

Attribute at play here is: actionButtonStyle which you set on your wrapping FrameLayout. On v23, it points to:

<style name="Widget.Material.ActionButton">
    <item name="background">?attr/actionBarItemBackground</item>
    <item name="paddingStart">12dp</item>
    <item name="paddingEnd">12dp</item>
    <item name="minWidth">@dimen/action_button_min_width_material</item>
    <item name="minHeight">@dimen/action_button_min_height_material</item>
    <item name="gravity">center</item>
    <item name="scaleType">center</item>
    <item name="maxLines">2</item>
</style> 

The background is set to actionBarItemBackground which in turn points to this RippleDrawable:

<ripple xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:color="?attr/colorControlHighlight"
    android:radius="20dp" />

The radius value is what you don't want.

To fix this, override actionBarItemBackground under your app's theme:

<style name="AppTheme" parent="....">
    ....
    <item name="actionBarItemBackground">@drawable/custom_action_bar_item_bg</item>
    <item name="android:actionBarItemBackground">@drawable/custom_action_bar_item_bg</item>
</style>

The drawable custom_action_bar_item_bg would be defined as:

res/drawable/custom_action_bar_item_bg.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<selector xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <item android:state_pressed="true">
        <color android:color="#...."/>
    </item>
    <item>
        <color android:color="@android:color/transparent"/>
    </item>
</selector>

res/drawable-v21/custom_action_bar_item_bg.xml

<ripple xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:color="?attr/colorControlHighlight">
    <item android:id="@id/mask">
        <color android:color="@android:color/white" />
    </item>
</ripple>

The mask is what will give you the rectangle in case of API version > 21.

---

The downside: all items that use actionBarItemBackground will be affected (unless if that's okay). To fix this, you can create a separate theme to set on your FrameLayout wrapper. For example, this is your app's main theme:

<style name="AppTheme" parent="....">
    ....
    ....
</style>

Create another theme that inherits from AppTheme:

<style name="SelectiveActionBarButtonTheme" parent="AppTheme">
    <item name="actionBarItemBackground">@drawable/custom_action_bar_item_bg</item>
    <item name="android:actionBarItemBackground">@drawable/custom_action_bar_item_bg</item>
</style>

To use this, override android:theme on your wrapper FrameLayout:

<FrameLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    style="?attr/actionButtonStyle"
    android:id="@+id/toolbar_save"
    android:layout_width="0dp"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:layout_weight="1"
    android:theme="@style/SelectiveActionBarButtonTheme">

    ....
    ....
</FrameLayout>

And of course, the simplest approach would be to set FrameLayout's android:background to ?attr/selectableItemBackground, and be done with it.