Using "android:textAppearance" on TextView/EditText fails, but "style" works

Question

This is a sample TextView in XML, which will properly apply the style TextContactContactName to the TextView.

<TextView
        android:id="@+id/name"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:layout_toRightOf="@id/photo"
        android:layout_alignTop="@id/photo"
        android:paddingLeft="10dp"
        android:text="First Last"
        style="@style/TextContactContactName"
        />

Now, I have some other things to set on this element, which are not text related. As such I tried to move the TextContactContactName and apply it via "android:textAppearance"

<TextView
    android:id="@+id/name"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_toRightOf="@id/photo"
    android:layout_alignTop="@id/photo"
    android:paddingLeft="10dp"
    android:text="First Last"
    android:textAppearance=@style/TextContactContactName"
    />

Unluckily, the text formatting is not being applied.

This is how the style (stored in res/values/styles-text.xml) looks like:

<style name="TextContactContactName">
    <item name="android:textSize">24sp</item>
    <item name="android:textColor">#333333</item>
    <item name="android:shadowColor">#ffffff</item>
    <item name="android:shadowDx">0</item>
    <item name="android:shadowDy">1</item>
    <item name="android:shadowRadius">1</item>
</style>

Am I using the textAppearance tag wrong?

I tested on Android 2.2 - HTC Desire.

Answer 1

Ok, looks like my fault. I had made a quick test:

<TextView
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:text="Text styled using 'style'."
        style="@style/UiTestTextView"
        />
<TextView
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:text="Text styled using 'textAppearance'."
        android:textAppearance="@style/UiTestTextView"
        />

and the styles-text.xml:

<style name="UiTestTextView">
    <item name="android:textColor">#ff0000</item>
    <item name="android:textSize">16sp</item>

    <item name="android:shadowColor">#ffffff</item>
    <item name="android:shadowDx">1</item>
    <item name="android:shadowDy">2</item>
    <item name="android:shadowRadius">3</item>
</style>

The key thing is to remember that shadow* elements are not text properties. And as such will not be applied via textAppearance.

I'm going to ask on the Android Developers Mailing list if this is desired behavior.

Answer 2

I filed a bug report on this issue. I think I got the standard reply "the shadow is not considered part of the text appearance".

http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?can=2&start=0&num=100&q=&colspec=ID%20Type%20Status%20Owner%20Summary%20Stars&groupby=&sort=&id=35887