How to use setBackground with an Android Widget

Question

I asked a similar question before but I was too vague in my request. The code below draws a nice stylized button. When you click on the button, you can input a number and based on the number, changes the background color using

remoteViews.setInt(R.id.nmcButton, "setBackgroundColor", color);

Unfortunately, when I try to preserve the styling by using

remoteViews.setInt(R.id.nmcButton, "setBackground", color);

the widget won't load. Is there a way around this? Is there a way to preserve the styling while changing the background color?

Here are some of the relevant files

    package test.widget;

    import android.os.Bundle;
    import android.app.PendingIntent;
    import android.appwidget.AppWidgetManager;
    import android.appwidget.AppWidgetProvider;
    import android.content.ComponentName;
    import android.content.Context;
    import android.content.Intent;
    import android.util.Log;
    import android.widget.RemoteViews;
    import android.graphics.Color;

    public class MyWidget extends AppWidgetProvider {

        private final static String TEST_ACTIVITY = "test.widget.action.TEST_ACTIVITY";
        private final static int INTENT_NO_REQUEST = 0; /* no requestCode */
        private final static int INTENT_NO_FLAGS = 0; /* code for no Flags */
        private int count = 9;

        @Override
        public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
            super.onReceive(context, intent);
            Bundle b = intent.getExtras();
            if (b != null) {
                count = b.getInt("nmcCount");
                callOnUpdate(context);
            }
        }

        private void callOnUpdate(Context context) {
            AppWidgetManager appWidgetManager = AppWidgetManager
                    .getInstance(context);
            ComponentName thisAppWidget = new ComponentName(
                    context.getPackageName(), MyWidget.class.getName());
            int[] appWidgetIds = appWidgetManager.getAppWidgetIds(thisAppWidget);
            onUpdate(context, appWidgetManager, appWidgetIds);
        }

        @Override
        public void onUpdate(Context context, AppWidgetManager appWidgetManager,
                int[] appWidgetIds) {
            super.onUpdate(context, appWidgetManager, appWidgetIds);
            buildUpdate(context, appWidgetManager, appWidgetIds);
        }

        private void buildUpdate(Context context,
                AppWidgetManager appWidgetManager, int[] appWidgetIds) {
            final int N = appWidgetIds.length;
            for (int i = 0; i < N; i++) {
                int appWidgetId = appWidgetIds[i];

                RemoteViews remoteViews = new RemoteViews(context.getPackageName(),
                        R.layout.widget);

                Intent intent = new Intent(TEST_ACTIVITY);
                PendingIntent pendingIntent = PendingIntent.getActivity(context,
                        INTENT_NO_REQUEST, intent, INTENT_NO_FLAGS);
                remoteViews.setOnClickPendingIntent(R.id.nmcButton, pendingIntent);
                remoteViews.setTextViewText(R.id.nmcButton, String.valueOf(count));

                // the code below works, but the button does not have nice styling
                // int color = (count >= 5) ? Color.GREEN : Color.RED;
                // remoteViews.setInt(R.id.nmcButton, "setBackgroundColor", color);

                // this code doesn't work, you get "problem loading widget"
                int color = (count >= 5) ? R.drawable.btn_green
                        : R.drawable.btn_red;
                remoteViews.setInt(R.id.nmcButton, "setBackground", color);

                appWidgetManager.updateAppWidget(appWidgetId, remoteViews);
            }
        }
    }

btn_red.xml

    <?xml version="2.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
    <selector xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">

        <item android:state_pressed="true"><shape>
       <solid android:color="#ef4444" />

       <stroke android:width="1dp" android:color="#992f2f" />

       <corners android:radius="3dp" />

       <padding android:bottom="10dp" android:left="10dp" android:right="10dp" android:top="10dp" />
    </shape></item>
        <item><shape>
       <gradient android:angle="270" android:endColor="#992f2f" android:startColor="#ef4444" />

       <stroke android:width="1dp" android:color="#992f2f" />

       <corners android:radius="3dp" />

       <padding android:bottom="11dp" android:left="10dp" android:right="10dp" android:top="10dp" />
    </shape></item>

    </selector>

styles.xml

    <resources>
        <style name="ButtonText">
            <item name="android:layout_width">wrap_content</item>
            <item name="android:layout_height">wrap_content</item>
            <item name="android:gravity">center</item>
            <item name="android:layout_margin">1dp</item>
            <item name="android:textSize">10dp</item>
            <item name="android:textStyle">normal</item>
            <item name="android:shadowColor">#000000</item>
            <item name="android:shadowDx">1</item>
            <item name="android:shadowDy">1</item>
            <item name="android:shadowRadius">2</item>
            <item name="android:textColor">#ffffff</item>  
        </style>
        <style name="AppTheme" parent="android:Theme.Light" />
    </resources>

Answer 1

A co-worker had the answer, I should have used:

remoteViews.setInt(R.id.nmcButton, "setBackgroundResource", color);

Instead of:

remoteViews.setInt(R.id.nmcButton, "setBackground", color);

Answer 2

I tried this but that didn't work for me.

If you want to set a color in your widget you should do this:

remoteViews.setInt(R.id.nmcButton, "setBackgroundColor", color);