Changing the font color of a ListView

Question

So I have tried many of the solutions here on Stackoverflow but I can never figure out how to do it. I'm a bit of a newbie. So I have a ListView and want to change the font. Here is my Java class that contains my ListView

package qax.khabaralyoum;

import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.net.HttpURLConnection;
import java.net.MalformedURLException;
import android.annotation.TargetApi;
import android.app.AlertDialog;
import android.app.ListActivity;
import android.content.Intent;
import android.graphics.drawable.ColorDrawable;
import android.net.Uri;
import android.os.AsyncTask;
import android.os.Build;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.text.Html;
import android.util.Log;
import java.io.InputStream;
import java.io.InputStreamReader;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.List;
import org.apache.http.HttpEntity;
import org.apache.http.HttpResponse;
import org.apache.http.StatusLine;
import org.apache.http.client.HttpClient;
import org.apache.http.client.methods.HttpGet;
import org.apache.http.impl.client.DefaultHttpClient;
import org.json.JSONArray;
import org.json.JSONException;
import org.json.JSONObject;
import android.content.Context;
import android.net.ConnectivityManager;
import android.net.NetworkInfo;
import android.view.View;
import android.view.Window;
import android.widget.ArrayAdapter;
import android.widget.ListView;
import android.widget.ProgressBar;
import android.widget.SimpleAdapter;
import android.widget.TextView;
import android.widget.Toast;
import uk.co.senab.actionbarpulltorefresh.library.ActionBarPullToRefresh;
import uk.co.senab.actionbarpulltorefresh.library.PullToRefreshLayout;
import uk.co.senab.actionbarpulltorefresh.library.listeners.OnRefreshListener;
import android.os.AsyncTask;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.app.Fragment;
import android.app.ListFragment;
import android.view.View;
import android.view.ViewGroup;
import android.widget.ArrayAdapter;

public class MainListActivity extends ListActivity {

    public static final int NUMBER_OF_POSTS = 20;
    public static final String TAG = MainListActivity.class.getSimpleName();
    protected JSONObject mBlogData;
    protected ProgressBar mProgressBar;
    private final String KEY_TITLE = "title";
    private final String KEY_AUTHOR = "author";

    @Override
    protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
        getWindow().requestFeature(Window.FEATURE_ACTION_BAR);
        getActionBar().hide();
        setContentView(R.layout.activity_main_list);

        mProgressBar = (ProgressBar) findViewById(R.id.progressBar);

        if (isNetworkAvailable()) {
            mProgressBar.setVisibility(View.VISIBLE);

            GetBlogPostsTask getBlogPostsTask = new GetBlogPostsTask();
            getBlogPostsTask.execute();
        } else {
            Toast.makeText(this, "Network is unavailable!", Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
        }

        //Toast.makeText(this, getString(R.string.no_items), Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
    }

    @Override
    protected void onListItemClick(ListView l, View v, int position, long id) {
        super.onListItemClick(l, v, position, id);

        try {
            JSONArray jsonPosts = mBlogData.getJSONArray("posts");
            JSONObject jsonPost = jsonPosts.getJSONObject(position);
            String blogUrl = jsonPost.getString("url");

            Intent intent
                    = new Intent(this, BlogWebViewActivity.class);
            intent.setData(Uri.parse(blogUrl));
            startActivity(intent);
        } catch (JSONException e) {
            logException(e);
        }
    }

    private void logException(Exception e) {
        logException(e);
    }

    private boolean isNetworkAvailable() {
        ConnectivityManager manager = (ConnectivityManager)
                getSystemService(Context.CONNECTIVITY_SERVICE);
        NetworkInfo networkInfo = manager.getActiveNetworkInfo();

        boolean isAvailable = false;
        if (networkInfo != null && networkInfo.isConnected()) {
            isAvailable = true;
        }

        return isAvailable;
    }

    private void handleBlogResponse() {
        mProgressBar.setVisibility(View.INVISIBLE);

        if (mBlogData == null) {
            updateDisplayError();

        } else {

            try {
                JSONArray jsonPosts = mBlogData.getJSONArray("posts");
                ArrayList<HashMap<String, String>> blogPosts =
                        new ArrayList<HashMap<String, String>>();
                for (int i = 0; i < jsonPosts.length(); i++) {
                    JSONObject post = jsonPosts.getJSONObject(i);
                    String title = post.getString(KEY_TITLE);
                    title = Html.fromHtml(title).toString();

                    HashMap<String, String> blogPost = new HashMap<String, String>();
                    blogPost.put(KEY_TITLE, title);

                    blogPosts.add(blogPost);

                }

                String[] keys = {KEY_TITLE};
                int[] ids = {android.R.id.text1};
                SimpleAdapter adapter = new SimpleAdapter(this, blogPosts, android.R.layout.simple_list_item_1, keys, ids);
                setListAdapter(adapter);

            } catch (JSONException e) {
                logException(e);
            }
        }

    }

    private void updateDisplayError() {
        AlertDialog.Builder builder = new AlertDialog.Builder(this);
        builder.setTitle(getString(R.string.error_title));
        builder.setMessage(getString(R.string.error_message));
        builder.setPositiveButton(android.R.string.ok, null);
        AlertDialog dialog = builder.create();
        dialog.show();

        TextView emptyTextView = (TextView) getListView().getEmptyView();
        emptyTextView.setText(getString(R.string.no_items));

    }

    private class GetBlogPostsTask extends AsyncTask<Object, Void, JSONObject> {

        @Override
        protected JSONObject doInBackground(Object... params) {
            int responseCode = -1;
            JSONObject jsonResponse = null;
            StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder();
            HttpClient client = new DefaultHttpClient();
            HttpGet httpget = new HttpGet("http://idoodling.com/api/get_recent_posts/");

            try {
                HttpResponse response = client.execute(httpget);
                StatusLine statusLine = response.getStatusLine();
                responseCode = statusLine.getStatusCode();

                if (responseCode == HttpURLConnection.HTTP_OK) {
                    HttpEntity entity = response.getEntity();
                    InputStream content = entity.getContent();
                    BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(content));
                    String line;
                    while ((line = reader.readLine()) != null) {
                        builder.append(line);
                    }

                    jsonResponse = new JSONObject(builder.toString());

                } else {
                    Log.i(TAG, String.format("Unsuccessful HTTP response code: %d", responseCode));
                }
            } catch (MalformedURLException e) {
                logException(e);
            } catch (IOException e) {
                logException(e);
            } catch (Exception e) {
                logException(e);
            }

            return jsonResponse;
        }

        @Override
        protected void onPostExecute(JSONObject result) {
            mBlogData = result;
            handleBlogResponse();
        }

    }

    public void activity2(View view) {
        Intent intent = new Intent(this, qax.khabaralyoum.BlogWebViewActivity.class);
        startActivity(intent);

    }
}

I know from the solutions that I need an Adapter of some sort to change the font. I think I have an Adapater in my Class but do I need to edit or add something to it so I can connect it to an XML in order to change the font color? I would love a bit of a step by step guide for me to do it regarding the code that I have.

Answer 1

As you have mentioned in your post, you do need to set the font color in your Adapter. To do this, you need to override the default getView and change it so that it sets the color of the text for the TextView. To do this, change

SimpleAdapter adapter = new SimpleAdapter(this, blogPosts, android.R.layout.simple_list_item_1, keys, ids);

to

SimpleAdapter adapter = new SimpleAdapter(this, blogPosts, android.R.layout.simple_list_item_1, keys, ids){
    @Override
    public View getView(int position, View convertView, ViewGroup parent) {
        View view = super.getView(position, convertView, parent);
        TextView tv = (TextView) view.findViewById(android.R.id.text1);
        tv.setTextColor(Color.RED);

        return view;

    };
};

You will need to change Color.RED to the color you want. If you're using a hexadecimal color code, you can do Color.parseColor("#FFFFFF"), replacing #FFFFFF with your color. See the Android documentation page about Color if you need more info about getting a Color object. (The page can be found at https://developer.android.com/reference/android/graphics/Color.html)