AppCompat ActionBar Background Color - android-layout

Question

I have this style.xml inside my Android app:
<resources xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools" xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
<style name="OrangeTheme" parent="#style/Theme.AppCompat">
<item name="android:actionBarStyle" tools:ignore="NewApi">#style/OrangeTheme.OrangeActionBar</item>
<item name="android:windowActionBar">true</item>
</style>
<style name="OrangeTheme.OrangeActionBar" parent="#style/Widget.AppCompat.ActionBar">
<item name="android:background">#color/orange</item>
<item name="background">#color/orange</item>
<item name="android:backgroundStacked">#color/orange</item>
<item name="android:backgroundSplit">#color/orange</item>
<item name="android:titleTextStyle">#style/Theme.MyAppTheme.ActionBar.TitleTextStyle</item>
</style>
<style name="Theme.MyAppTheme.ActionBar.TitleTextStyle" parent="android:style/TextAppearance.Holo.Widget.ActionBar.Title">
<item name="android:textColor">#color/black</item>
</style>
I have searched StackOverflow and Google, but nothing helped. I wasn't able to change the ActionBar background color.
Inside my MainActivity, I use this code:
public void restoreActionBar() {
ActionBar actionBar = getSupportActionBar();
actionBar.setNavigationMode(ActionBar.NAVIGATION_MODE_STANDARD);
actionBar.setDisplayShowTitleEnabled(true);
actionBar.setTitle(mTitle);
}
I tried not to use AppCompat, but then my name has a lot of errors. It extends ActionBarActivity. If I change it to FragmentActivity I can't use getSupportActionBar() and without it my getActionBar(), is always null.
minSdkVersion 19
targetSdkVersion 21
So right now I am not able to change it. I tried renaming the parent of my style theme. I tried using andrioud:background and background. The only thing that is changing is when I use another parent like
Theme.App.Compat.Light or Theme.AppCompat.Light.DarkActionBar.
Does someone have an idea, how I could be able to change the colors and other stuff, on runtime?

Answer 1

With new AppCompat-v7 (v21) you can use new color theming attributes. See here.
Or alternatively you have to use <item name="actionBarStyle"> property (without prefix android).

Answer 2

To use background color with AppCompat, you need to also define the item name without the android: attribute.
for example:
<style name="MyActionBar" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light">
<item name="android:background">#color/action_bar_background</item>
<item name="background">#color/action_bar_background</item> //<--background item without the android attribute
</style>
and then in your custom theme do the same thing for the custom actionbar style:
<!-- Base application theme. -->
<style name="AppTheme" parent="Theme.AppCompat.Light">
<!-- Customize your theme here. -->
<item name="android:actionBarStyle">#style/MyActionBar</item>
<item name="actionBarStyle">#style/MyActionBar</item>
</style>