Navigation Drawer semi-transparent over status bar not working

Question

I am working on Android project and I am implementing the Navigation Drawer. I am reading through the new Material Design Spec and the Material Design Checklist.
The spec says that the slide out pane should float above everything else including the status bar and be semi-transparent over the status bar.

My navigation panel is over the status bar but its not got any transparency. I've followed the code from this SO post as suggested in the Google developers blog spot, link above How do I use DrawerLayout to display over the ActionBar/Toolbar and under the status bar?.

Below is my XML layout

<android.support.v4.widget.DrawerLayout     xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"     android:id="@+id/my_drawer_layout"     android:layout_width="match_parent"     android:layout_height="match_parent"     android:fitsSystemWindows="true">     <LinearLayout         android:layout_width="match_parent"         android:layout_height="match_parent"         android:orientation="vertical">         <android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar             android:id="@+id/my_awesome_toolbar"             android:layout_height="wrap_content"             android:layout_width="match_parent"             android:minHeight="?attr/actionBarSize"             android:background="@color/appPrimaryColour" />     </LinearLayout>     <LinearLayout android:id="@+id/linearLayout"         android:layout_width="304dp"         android:layout_height="match_parent"         android:layout_gravity="left|start"         android:fitsSystemWindows="true"         android:background="#ffffff">         <ListView android:id="@+id/left_drawer"             android:layout_width="match_parent"             android:layout_height="match_parent"             android:choiceMode="singleChoice"></ListView>     </LinearLayout> </android.support.v4.widget.DrawerLayout> 

Below is my apps theme

<style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.NoActionBar">         <item name="colorPrimary">@color/appPrimaryColour</item>         <item name="colorPrimaryDark">@color/appPrimaryColourDark</item>         <item name="colorAccent">@color/appPrimaryColour</item>         <item name="windowActionBar">false</item>         <item name="windowActionModeOverlay">true</item>      </style> 

Below is my apps v21 theme

<style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.NoActionBar">     <item name="colorPrimary">@color/appPrimaryColour</item>     <item name="colorPrimaryDark">@color/appPrimaryColourDark</item>     <item name="colorAccent">@color/appPrimaryColour</item>     <item name="windowActionBar">false</item>     <item name="windowActionModeOverlay">true</item>     <item name="android:windowDrawsSystemBarBackgrounds">true</item>     <item name="android:statusBarColor">@android:color/transparent</item> </style> 

Below is my onCreate method

protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {     super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);     setContentView(R.layout.activity_main);      Toolbar toolbar = (Toolbar) findViewById(R.id.my_awesome_toolbar);     setSupportActionBar(toolbar);      mDrawerLayout = (DrawerLayout)findViewById(R.id.my_drawer_layout);     mDrawerList = (ListView)findViewById(R.id.left_drawer);      mDrawerLayout.setStatusBarBackgroundColor(         getResources().getColor(R.color.appPrimaryColourDark));      if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.LOLLIPOP)     {         LinearLayout linearLayout =              (LinearLayout)findViewById(R.id.linearLayout);         linearLayout.setElevation(30);     } 

Below is a screenshot of my navigation drawer showing the top isn't semi transparent

Answer 1

Your status bar background is white, the background of your drawer LinearLayout. Why? You are settings fitsSystemWindows="true" for your DrawerLayout and the LinearLayout inside it. This causes your LinearLayout to expand behind the status bar (which is transparent). Thus, making the background for the drawer part of the status bar white.

If you don't want your drawer to extend behind the status bar (want to have a semi-transparent background for the whole status bar), you can do two things:

1) You can simply remove any background value from your LinearLayout and color the background of your content inside it. Or

2) You can remove fitsSystemWindows="true" from your LinearLayout. I think this is a more logical and cleaner approach. You will also avoid having a shadow being cast under the status bar, where your navigation drawer doesn't extend.

If you want your drawer to extend behind the status bar and have a semi-transparent, status bar sized overlay, you can use a ScrimInsetFrameLayout as a container for your drawer content (ListView) and set the status bar background using app:insetForeground="#4000". Of course, you can change #4000 to anything you want. Don't forget to keep fitsSystemWindows="true" here!

Or if you don't want to overlay your content and only display a solid color, you can just set the background of your LinearLayout to anything you want. Don't forget to set the background of your content separately though!

EDIT: You no longer need to deal with any of this. Please see Design Support Library for a times easier Navigation Drawer/View implementation.

Answer 2

All you need to do is to use some semi-transparent color for status bar. Add these lines to your v21 theme:

<item name="android:windowDrawsSystemBarBackgrounds">true</item> <item name="android:statusBarColor">@color/desired_color</item> 

Don't forget that the color (resource) must always be in the format of #AARRGGBB. This means that the color will also include the alpha value.