Android - Generic declaration of colours

It is very important that we declare background colours and layouts generically. I made this mistake of hardcoding the colours in the individual xml files. It became really hectic every time I wanted to try different colours. Then finally, I decided to declare them generically. Here is how you do it.

Declare mycustomcolors.xml in the values folder. Define all the colour codes here.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> <resources> <color name="bgcolor">#F8F8F8</color> <color name="headtxtcolor">#e69b28</color> <color name="othertxtcolor">#000000</color> <color name="headerEnd">#999999</color> <color name="headerStart">#000000</color> <color name="profileEnd">#E69B28</color> <color name="profileStart">#FFAE33</color> <color name="sectionEnd">#FFFFFF</color> <color name="sectionStart">#CCCCCC</color> </resources>

   

The above colour codes can be used in shapes and other layouts. This is for a gradient colour button profile_band.xml in drawable-hdpi. 

<shape xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" android:shape="rectangle"> <gradient     android:startColor="@color/profileStart"     android:endColor="@color/profileEnd"         android:angle="90" />       </shape> Text colours used in an xml..  <TextView         android:id="@+id/profName"         android:layout_width="fill_parent"         android:layout_height="wrap_content"         android:layout_below="@id/header"         android:paddingLeft="10dp"         android:text="profile name"         android:textColor="@color/othertxtcolor"         android:textSize="14dp"         android:layout_gravity="center_vertical"        />

As mobile apps should have good screen appearance , it is very important that you have the flexibility to try various options.