How can I fix the Spinner style for Android 4.x placed on top of the Toolbar

According to Android documentation, Material Design style is supported for Spinner widget.

So I decided to use it in my app placing it on top of the Toolbar.

layout/activity_base.xml

<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="?attr/colorPrimary"
    android:elevation="5dp"
    app:theme="@style/ThemeOverlay.AppCompat.Dark.ActionBar"
    app:popupTheme="@style/ThemeOverlay.AppCompat.Light">
    <Spinner
        android:id="@+id/spinner"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"/>
 </android.support.v7.widget.Toolbar>

Activity theme

<style name="BaseAppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light.NoActionBar">
    <item name="colorPrimary">@color/omni_primary_color</item>
    <item name="colorPrimaryDark">@color/omni_primary_color_dark</item>
    <item name="colorAccent">@color/omni_accent_color</item>
</style>

BaseActivity.java

public class BaseActivity extends ActionBarActivity {

    @InjectView(R.id.my_awesome_toolbar)
    Toolbar mToolbar;

    @InjectView(R.id.spinner)
    Spinner spinner;

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_base);
        ButterKnife.inject(this);
        //setup toolbar
        setSupportActionBar(mToolbar);
        getSupportActionBar().setDisplayShowTitleEnabled(false);
        mToolbar.setNavigationIcon(R.drawable.ic_action_navigation_menu);
          
        ArrayAdapter<CharSequence> adapter = ArrayAdapter.createFromResource(mToolbar.getContext(),
                R.array.planets_array, R.layout.support_simple_spinner_dropdown_item);
        adapter.setDropDownViewResource(R.layout.support_simple_spinner_dropdown_item);
        spinner.setAdapter(adapter);
    }
}

On Lollipop spinner and dropdown looks fine, although dropdown background color is black comparing to menu dropdown which is white. I guess that app:popupTheme="@style/ThemeOverlay.AppCompat.Light" is not propagated to the spinner.

Android 5.0

Now the big problem is with Android 4.x where dropdown background color is white(popupTheme propagated?) and icon next to the spinner is black.

Android 4.4

How can I set it properly in the XML or implement in the code to make it work on both Android 5 and 4? Ideally, I would like to have both looks like on Android 5 but with white spinner dropdown(like Setting menu dropdown).

Update

I have noticed that setting property colorControlNormal affects spinner's filter icon. If someone finds out how to make use of that for Spinner(without changing other content controls), then I would have my solution combining that finding with @Sven answer.

Update

The following change fixes the problem for spinner text and popup color. So the only problem to the final solution is the filter icon.

ArrayAdapter<CharSequence> adapter = ArrayAdapter.createFromResource(getSupportActionBar().getThemedContext(),
                R.array.planets_array, R.layout.support_simple_spinner_dropdown_item);
        adapter.setDropDownViewResource(android.R.layout.simple_spinner_dropdown_item);

Update

I found that filter icon is actually a part of android:background specified for the spinner and it's transparent. Providing own background would fix it e.g.

<item name="android:background">?android:selectableItemBackground</item>

Mystery solved!

The last piece of the puzzle is the popup on Android 5 that has black background and white text but I guess it can be solved with custom layout. If no one provides full answer I will do it myself and mark as accepted.

Solution 1:

I know this is late but I came accross this question when I encountered this problem myself and I found a solution in the BrowseSessionsActivity of the Google I/O 2014 app and adapted it.

Layouts

toolbar_spinner.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:orientation="vertical">

    <Spinner
        android:id="@+id/toolbar_spinner"
        style="@style/Widget.MyApp.HeaderBar.Spinner"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="match_parent"/>

</LinearLayout>

toolbar_spinner_item_actionbar.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="200dp"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:orientation="vertical">

    <TextView
        android:id="@android:id/text1"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:drawablePadding="8dp"
        android:drawableRight="@drawable/spinner_triangle"
        android:fontFamily="sans-serif"
        android:paddingLeft="16dp"
        android:paddingRight="4dp"
        android:textColor="#ffffffff"
        android:textSize="18dp"
        android:textStyle="bold"/>

</LinearLayout>

The spinner_triangle drawable can be found here.

toolbar_spinner_item_dropdown.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout
    xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="200dp"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:orientation="vertical">

    <TextView
        android:id="@android:id/text1"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="48dp"
        android:drawablePadding="8dp"
        android:gravity="center_vertical|start"
        android:paddingLeft="16dp"
        android:paddingRight="16dp"
        android:textColor="#ff333333"
        android:textSize="16sp"/>
        
</LinearLayout>

Styles

toolbar_spinner.xml uses the following style.

<style name="Widget.MyApp.HeaderBar.Spinner" parent="Widget.AppCompat.Light.Spinner.DropDown.ActionBar">
        <item name="android:background">?android:selectableItemBackground</item>
        <item name="android:dropDownSelector">?android:selectableItemBackground</item>
        <item name="android:divider">@null</item>
        <item name="android:overlapAnchor">true</item>
</style>

Adapter

This adapter will need to be changed to match your own needs. getTitle() returns the text for each item shown in the spinner.

private class YourObjectSpinnerAdapter extends BaseAdapter {
    private List<YourObject> mItems = new ArrayList<>();

    public void clear() {
        mItems.clear();
    }

    public void addItem(YourObject yourObject) {
        mItems.add(yourObject);
    }

    public void addItems(List<YourObject> yourObjectList) {
        mItems.addAll(yourObjectList);
    }

    @Override
    public int getCount() {
        return mItems.size();
    }

    @Override
    public Object getItem(int position) {
        return mItems.get(position);
    }

    @Override
    public long getItemId(int position) {
        return position;
    }

    @Override
    public View getDropDownView(int position, View view, ViewGroup parent) {
        if (view == null || !view.getTag().toString().equals("DROPDOWN")) {
            view = getLayoutInflater().inflate(R.layout.toolbar_spinner_item_dropdown, parent, false);
            view.setTag("DROPDOWN");
        }

        TextView textView = (TextView) view.findViewById(android.R.id.text1);
        textView.setText(getTitle(position));

        return view;
    }

    @Override
    public View getView(int position, View view, ViewGroup parent) {
        if (view == null || !view.getTag().toString().equals("NON_DROPDOWN")) {
            view = getLayoutInflater().inflate(R.layout.
                    toolbar_spinner_item_actionbar, parent, false);
            view.setTag("NON_DROPDOWN");
        }
        TextView textView = (TextView) view.findViewById(android.R.id.text1);
        textView.setText(getTitle(position));
        return view;
    }

    private String getTitle(int position) {
        return position >= 0 && position < mItems.size() ? mItems.get(position).title : "";
    }
}

Adding the Spinner to Your Toolbar

Toolbar toolbar = getActionBarToolbar();

View spinnerContainer = LayoutInflater.from(this).inflate(R.layout.toolbar_spinner,
        toolbar, false);
ActionBar.LayoutParams lp = new ActionBar.LayoutParams(
        ViewGroup.LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT, ViewGroup.LayoutParams.MATCH_PARENT);
toolbar.addView(spinnerContainer, lp);

YourObjectSpinnerAdapter spinnerAdapter = new YourObjectSpinnerAdapter();
spinnerAdapter.addItems(getMyObjectSpinnerData());

Spinner spinner = (Spinner) spinnerContainer.findViewById(R.id.toolbar_spinner);
spinner.setAdapter(spinnerAdapter);

Result

Solution 2:

Don't implement Spinner in Xml

final ArrayAdapter spinnerAdapter = ArrayAdapter.createFromResource(getSupportActionBar().getThemedContext(),
            R.array.main_navigation_list, R.layout.spinner_text);
    spinnerAdapter.setDropDownViewResource(R.layout.spinner_dropdown_item);
    mNavigationTags = getResources().getStringArray(R.array.main_navigation_list);


    mNavigationSpinner = new Spinner(getSupportActionBar().getThemedContext());
    mNavigationSpinner.setAdapter(spinnerAdapter);

    mNavigationSpinner.setOnItemSelectedListener(this);
    mToolbar.addView(mNavigationSpinner);

This way the icon next to spinner will be white