How do I change a tab background color when using TabLayout?

This is my code in the main activity

public class FilterActivity extends AppCompatActivity {

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

    // Get the ViewPager and set it's PagerAdapter so that it can display items
    ViewPager viewPager = (ViewPager) findViewById(R.id.viewpager);
    PageAdapter pageAdapter = new PageAdapter(getSupportFragmentManager(), FilterActivity.this);
    viewPager.setAdapter(pageAdapter);

    // Give the TabLayout the ViewPager
    final TabLayout tabLayout = (TabLayout) findViewById(R.id.sliding_tabs);
    tabLayout.setupWithViewPager(viewPager);



  }
}

And this is my code in the XML

<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:orientation="vertical">

    <include
        android:id="@+id/app_bar"
        layout="@layout/app_bar">
    </include>

    <android.support.design.widget.TabLayout
        android:id="@+id/sliding_tabs"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        style="@style/MyCustomTabLayout"
        android:layout_height="48dp"/>

    <android.support.v4.view.ViewPager
        android:id="@+id/viewpager"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="0px"
        android:layout_weight="1"
        android:background="@android:color/white" />

</LinearLayout>

I want to change the background color of one tab when it's selected

Solution 1:

What finally worked for me is similar to what @如果我是DJ suggested, but the tabBackground should be in the layout file and not inside the style, so it looks like:

res/layout/somefile.xml:

<android.support.design.widget.TabLayout
    ....
    app:tabBackground="@drawable/tab_color_selector"
    ...
    />

and the selector res/drawable/tab_color_selector.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<selector xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <item android:drawable="@color/tab_background_selected" android:state_selected="true"/>
    <item android:drawable="@color/tab_background_unselected"/>
</selector>

Solution 2:

You can try this:

<style name="MyCustomTabLayout" parent="Widget.Design.TabLayout">
    <item name="tabBackground">@drawable/background</item>
</style>

In your background xml file:

<selector xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <item android:state_selected="true" android:drawable="@color/white" />
    <item android:drawable="@color/black" />
</selector>

Solution 3:

Add atribute in xml:

<android.support.design.widget.TabLayout
    ....
    app:tabBackground="@drawable/tab_color_selector"
    ...
    />

And create in drawable folder, tab_color_selector.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<selector xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <item android:drawable="@color/tab_background_selected" android:state_selected="true"/>
    <item android:drawable="@color/tab_background_unselected"/>
</selector>

Solution 4:

You can have it in the xml.

<android.support.design.widget.TabLayout
        android:id="@+id/tabs"
        app:tabTextColor="@color/colorGray"
        app:tabSelectedTextColor="@color/colorWhite"
        android:layout_width="match_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"/>

Solution 5:

One of the ways I could find is using the tab indicator like this:

<com.google.android.material.tabs.TabLayout
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    app:tabBackground="@color/normal_unselected_color"
    app:tabIndicatorColor="@color/selected_color"
    app:tabIndicatorGravity="center"
    app:tabIndicatorHeight="150dp"
    app:tabSelectedTextColor="@color/selected_text_color"
    app:tabTextColor="@color/unselected_text_color">

    ..... tab items here .....

</com.google.android.material.tabs.TabLayout>

Trick is to:

• Make the tab indicator to align in center
• Make the indicator height sufficiently large so that it covers the whole tab

This also takes care of the smooth animation while switching tabs