Tinting Checkbox on pre v21

Question

So, I want to apply tint to AppCompat Checkbox.

Everything works fine on Lollipop:

android:buttonTint="@color/purple_FF4081"

or this way:

android:theme="@style/Theme.MyTheme.PurpleAccent"

But setting any of this params do not change anything on pre-Lollipop. Works only if I set colorAccent for the app theme. But I don't want all widgets to change their look, just one checkbox. Is there any way to do this without setting colored drawables?

Answer 1

Quick fyi that this has all changed now after the introduction of the AppCompatActivity and the new support libraries, for reference (outlined beautifully here) a checkbox can be tinted by using the theme atttribute and setting the colorControlNormal and colorControlActivated:

styles.xml

<style name="MyCheckBox" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light">  
<item name="colorControlNormal">@color/indigo</item>
<item name="colorControlActivated">@color/pink</item>
</style> 

layout xml:

<CheckBox  
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:checked="true"
        android:text="Check Box"
        android:theme="@style/MyCheckBox"/>

Answer 2

You can color directly in the xml. Use buttonTint for the box: (as of API level 23)

<CheckBox
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:buttonTint="@color/CHECK_COLOR" />

You can also do this using appCompatCheckbox v7 for older APIs:

<android.support.v7.widget.AppCompatCheckBox 
    android:layout_width="wrap_content" 
    android:layout_height="wrap_content" 
    app:buttonTint="@color/COLOR_HERE" />

Answer 3

I needed to do it programmatically, after digging for a little while I finally found this solution (tested on Kitkat & Marshmallow), I'll just post it in case it helps someone:

public static void setAppCompatCheckBoxColors(final AppCompatCheckBox _checkbox, final int _uncheckedColor, final int _checkedColor) {
    int[][] states = new int[][]{new int[]{-android.R.attr.state_checked}, new int[]{android.R.attr.state_checked}};
    int[] colors = new int[]{_uncheckedColor, _checkedColor};
    _checkbox.setSupportButtonTintList(new ColorStateList(states, colors));
}