Using attribute resources (?attr/) in layout binding?

If @{android.R.attr.textColorPrimary} resolves to the value of android.R.attr.textColorPrimary in Java, all you need to do is resolve that to a color.

There’s a bit of a setup going into this.

ContextUtils.java

The following method resolves supplied attr of context‘s theme and optional style to a color. Falls back to fallback color if there’s an error.

@ColorInt
public static int resolveColor(final Context context, @StyleRes final int style, @AttrRes final int attr, @ColorInt final int fallback) {
    final TypedArray ta = obtainTypedArray(context, style, attr);
    try {
        return ta.getColor(0, fallback);
    } finally {
        ta.recycle()
    }
}

@ColorInt
public static int resolveColor(final Context context, @AttrRes final int attr, @ColorInt final int fallback) {
    return resolveColor(context, 0, attr, fallback);
}

Utility methods helping to achieve the above goal efficiently.

private static TypedArray obtainTypedArray(final Context context, @StyleRes final int style, @AttrRes final int attr): TypedArray {
    final int[] tempArray = getTempArray();
    tempArray[0] = attr;
    return context.obtainStyledAttributes(style, tempArray);
}

private static final ThreadLocal<int[]> TEMP_ARRAY = new ThreadLocal<>();

private static final int[] getTempArray() {
    int[] tempArray = TEMP_ARRAY.get();
    if (tempArray == null) {
        tempArray = int[1];
        TEMP_ARRAY.set(tempArray);
    }
    return tempArray;
}

More complex code available in my android-commons library (here and here).

Bindings.java

Here’s how to use it:

@BindingAdapter({"bind:htmlTextColor"})
public static void setHtml(final WebView webView, @AttrRes final int textColorAttr) {
    final Context context = webView.getContext();
    final int textColor = ContextUtils.resolveColor(context, textColorAttr, Color.BLACK);

    // binding logic
}