using light-colored UI on old and new devices?

[Dave O]

I'm creating an app that I'd like to use a "holo light" look for - that is, a mainly white-ish UI like Gmail. I've found that the "light" UI is easier to see outdoors.

Is there a recommended way to design my UI to support a "light" UI on both older devices and the newer ones that have Holo Light?

I'm thinking I may have to either code the colors programmatically throughout, or maybe only for the older devices (and invoking Holo Light on newer devices after an OS-version check)?

Any help appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Erel]

Devices prior to Android 3 do not have a native light colored style. You will need to implement it yourself.

 

[Dave O]

Thanks Erel.

BTW, for newer devices, I found the posts about setting the Holo theme in the manifest editor, but on compiling, I get an error:

AndroidManifest.xml:17: error: Error: No resource found that matches the given name (at 'theme' with value '@android:style/Theme.Holo.Light').​

Here's my manifest code, just added the last line. Any idea what's going wrong here?

AddManifestText(
<uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="4" android:targetSdkVersion="14"/>
<supports-screens android:largeScreens="true" 
    android:normalScreens="true" 
    android:smallScreens="true" 
    android:anyDensity="true"/>)
SetApplicationAttribute(android:icon, "@drawable/icon")
SetApplicationAttribute(android:label, "$LABEL$")
SetApplicationAttribute(android:theme, "@android:style/Theme.Holo.Light")

 

[Erel]

You should reference android.jar from platform level 14 or above (Tools - Configure paths).

 

[Dave O]

Yep, that fixed it, updated my SDK (Start > Android SDK Tools > SDK Manager), then changed the path.

Thanks!