Why is Contextual Action Bar getting different style when calling startSupportActionMode inside onCreate method?

Question

I'm using appcompat-v7:22.2.0 Toolbar widget and trying to show the contextual action bar (cab).

To show this theme problem I wrote 2 methods startSupportActionMode and startSupportActionModeDelay. The first call AppCompatActivity.startSupportActionMode immediately from activity onCreate and the last one wait for a second to call AppCompatActivity.startSupportActionMode.

The result is as follows:

Normal Activity

Calling startSupportActionModeDelay

Calling startSupportActionMode

I found many issues related with the CAB background color or suggesting to style it using actionModeStyle, but this is not what I want.

What I wanted is to get always the same result as calling startSupportActionModeDelay but immediately from onCreate method (without the need of creating a thread, etc - those are here just to illustrate the problem) because I will have to recreate the context action bar after a orientation change, for example.

Here is the code until now:

RecyclerViewActivity.java

import android.os.Bundle;
import android.support.v7.app.ActionBar;
import android.support.v7.app.AppCompatActivity;
import android.support.v7.view.ActionMode;
import android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar;
import android.view.Menu;
import android.view.MenuItem;

public class RecyclerViewActivity extends AppCompatActivity {
    private ActionMode.Callback mActionModeCallback;

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_recycler_view);

        initToolbar();
        initSupportActionMode();

        //calling the method below causes the CAB to get a light theme
        //startSupportActionMode();

        //calling the method below causes the CAB to get a dark theme
        //startSupportActionModeDelay();
    }

    private void initToolbar() {
        Toolbar toolbar = (Toolbar) findViewById(R.id.toolbar);
        setSupportActionBar(toolbar);

        final ActionBar actionBar = getSupportActionBar();

        if (actionBar != null) {
            actionBar.setDisplayHomeAsUpEnabled(true);
            actionBar.setHomeButtonEnabled(true);
        }
    }
    private void initSupportActionMode() {
        mActionModeCallback = new ActionMode.Callback() {
            @Override
            public boolean onCreateActionMode(ActionMode mode, Menu menu) {
                return true;
            }

            @Override
            public boolean onPrepareActionMode(ActionMode mode, Menu menu) {
                return false;
            }

            @Override
            public boolean onActionItemClicked(ActionMode mode, MenuItem item) {
                return false;
            }

            @Override
            public void onDestroyActionMode(ActionMode mode) {
            }
        };
    }

    private void startSupportActionMode() {
        startSupportActionMode(mActionModeCallback);
    }

    private void startSupportActionModeDelay() {
        new Thread(new Runnable() {
            @Override
            public void run() {
                try {
                    Thread.sleep(1000l);
                } catch (InterruptedException e) {
                    e.printStackTrace();
                }
                runOnUiThread(new Runnable() {
                    @Override
                    public void run() {
                        startSupportActionMode(mActionModeCallback);
                    }
                });
            }
        }).start();
    }
}

layout/activity_recycler_view.xml

<android.support.design.widget.CoordinatorLayout
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:fitsSystemWindows="true">

    <android.support.v7.widget.RecyclerView
        android:id="@+id/recycler_view"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:clipToPadding="false"
        android:paddingTop="?attr/actionBarSize"/>

    <android.support.design.widget.AppBarLayout
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content">
        <android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar
            android:id="@+id/toolbar"
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="?attr/actionBarSize"
            android:elevation="4dp"
            android:background="?attr/colorPrimary"
            app:theme="@style/ThemeOverlay.AppCompat.Dark.ActionBar"
            app:popupTheme="@style/ThemeOverlay.AppCompat.Light"
            android:fitsSystemWindows="true">

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

</android.support.design.widget.CoordinatorLayout>

values/styles.xml

<resources>
    <!-- Base application theme. -->
    <style name="AppTheme" parent="BaseTheme" />

    <style name="BaseTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.NoActionBar">
        <item name="colorPrimary">@color/primary</item>
        <item name="colorPrimaryDark">@color/primary_dark</item>
        <item name="colorControlHighlight">@color/accent_translucent</item>
        <item name="colorAccent">@color/accent</item>

        <item name="windowActionModeOverlay">true</item>
    </style>

    <color name="primary">#00BCD4</color>
    <color name="primary_dark">#0097A7</color>
    <color name="accent">#FFEB3B</color>
    <color name="accent_translucent">#80FFEB3B</color>
    <color name="accent_bright">#FFF493</color>
</resources>

Answer 1

In your parent Activity's style add the following items.

<item name="windowActionModeOverlay">true</item>

<item name="android:actionModeBackground">?attr/colorPrimary</item> //remember this is the colour of your parent activity's toolbar
<item name="android:actionModeStyle">@style/ActionMode</item>

and add the following style.

<style name="ActionMode">
    <item name="android:background">?attr/colorPrimary</item>
    <item name="android:height">?attr/actionBarSize</item>
</style>

your CAB simply overwrites the actual action bar.