Android – Actionbar’s Home up arrow is not showing when display options are set in XML

You're on the right track. Here is how the GitHub Gaug.es app will be implementing it.

First they define an animation XML:

<rotate xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:fromDegrees="0"
    android:toDegrees="360"
    android:pivotX="50%"
    android:pivotY="50%"
    android:duration="1000"
    android:interpolator="@android:anim/linear_interpolator" />

Now define a layout for the action view:

<ImageView xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:src="@drawable/ic_action_refresh"
    style="@style/Widget.Sherlock.ActionButton" />

All we need to do is enable this view whenever the item is clicked:

 public void refresh() {
     /* Attach a rotating ImageView to the refresh item as an ActionView */
     LayoutInflater inflater = (LayoutInflater) getActivity().getSystemService(Context.LAYOUT_INFLATER_SERVICE);
     ImageView iv = (ImageView) inflater.inflate(R.layout.refresh_action_view, null);

     Animation rotation = AnimationUtils.loadAnimation(getActivity(), R.anim.clockwise_refresh);
     rotation.setRepeatCount(Animation.INFINITE);
     iv.startAnimation(rotation);

     refreshItem.setActionView(iv);

     //TODO trigger loading
 }

When the loading is done, simply stop the animation and clear the view:

public void completeRefresh() {
    refreshItem.getActionView().clearAnimation();
    refreshItem.setActionView(null);
}

And you're done!

Some additional things to do:

• Cache the action view layout inflation and animation inflation. They are slow so you only want to do them once.
• Add null checks in completeRefresh()

Here's the pull request on the app: https://github.com/github/gauges-android/pull/13/files

To set the background for app icon together with the homeAsUpIndicator (there is a common background for these two icons) you have to set android:actionBarItemBackground item in the theme. The theme has to contain something like this (I assume that you use ActionBarSherlock):

<style name="MyTheme" parent="@style/Theme.Sherlock">
    <!-- for ActionBarSherlock -->
    <item name="actionBarItemBackground">@drawable/my_background</item>
    <!-- for native ActionBar -->
    <item name="android:actionBarItemBackground">@drawable/my_background</item>
</style>

Where the drawable drawable/my_background.xml would be a StaleListDrawable, containing something like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<selector xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <item
        android:state_pressed="true"
        android:drawable="@drawable/my_background_pressed" />
    <item
        android:drawable="@drawable/my_background_normal" />
</selector>

To disable the background completely, you can set a transparent background, or value @null in the theme might also work.

The theme item android:actionBarItemBackground sets the background for app icon and homeAsUpIndicator. But it also sets the default background for menu items, overflow icon and background for title. These backgrounds can be overridden.

Menu items

To change the menu item background set a proper (android:)actionButtonStyle in the theme like this:

<style name="MyTheme" parent="@style/Theme.Sherlock">
    <item name="actionButtonStyle">@style/MyActionButtonStyle</item>
    <item name="android:actionButtonStyle">@style/MyActionButtonStyle</item>
</style>

And MyActionButtonStyle will contain something like this:

<style name="MyActionButtonStyle" parent="@style/Widget.Sherlock.ActionButton">
    <item name="android:background">@drawable/my_background</item>
</style>

Overflow icon

And finally, to change the overflow icon background set a properandroid:actionOverflowButtonStyle in the theme like this:

<style name="MyTheme" parent="@style/Theme.Sherlock">
    <item name="actionOverflowButtonStyle">@style/MyOverflowButtonStyle</item>
    <item name="android:actionOverflowButtonStyle">@style/MyOverflowButtonStyle</item>
</style>

And MyOverflowButtonStyle will contain something like this:

<style name="MyOverflowButtonStyle" parent="@style/Widget.Sherlock.ActionButton.Overflow">
    <item name="android:background">@drawable/my_background</item>
</style>