How can I change the touch effect color of the ActionBar in Android 3.0 and higher

android, android-actionbar, colors, touch

Solution

The native action bar uses the theme attribute `selectableItemBackground` for action item background drawing. This should be a state-list drawable.

Here's the declaration in `Theme.Holo`:

<style name="Theme.Holo">
    <!-- bunch of things -->
    <item name="android:selectableItemBackground">@android:drawable/item_background_holo_dark</item>
    <!-- bunch of things -->
</style>

And its drawable XML:

<selector xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
          android:exitFadeDuration="@android:integer/config_mediumAnimTime">

    <!-- Even though these two point to the same resource, have two states so the drawable will invalidate itself when coming out of pressed state. -->
    <item android:state_focused="true"  android:state_enabled="false" android:state_pressed="true" android:drawable="@drawable/list_selector_disabled_holo_dark" />
    <item android:state_focused="true"  android:state_enabled="false"                              android:drawable="@drawable/list_selector_disabled_holo_dark" />
    <item android:state_focused="true"                                android:state_pressed="true" android:drawable="@drawable/list_selector_background_transition_holo_dark" />
    <item android:state_focused="false"                               android:state_pressed="true" android:drawable="@drawable/list_selector_background_transition_holo_dark" />
    <item android:state_focused="true"                                                             android:drawable="@drawable/list_focused_holo" />
    <item                                                                                          android:drawable="@color/transparent" />
</selector>

Problem

I am trying to change the color of the rollover effect when you touch an ActionBar Item. On my Galaxy Nexus with 4.0.2 it's kind of a turquoise color shading which I want to be in a different color. To be clear, I am talking about ActionBar items here, not navigation tabs. I got it working under the compatibility library, but for Android 3.0 and higher, i.e. the "real" ActionBar, I just can't figure out how to do this. Does anyone knows if and how this can be achieved?

Original source