I am wanting to allow the user of my android application the ability to set some parameters. The radio button is ideal for this situation. However, I don't like the radio buttons are rendered.
Is it possible to change the radio button icon? For example, is it possible to create a custom layout for each row and in that layout reference my own icon and change the font et al.
Yes that's possible you have to define your own style for radio buttons, at res/values/styles.xml:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<resources>
<style name="CustomTheme" parent="android:Theme">
<item name="android:radioButtonStyle">@style/RadioButton</item>
</style>
<style name="RadioButton" parent="@android:style/Widget.CompoundButton.RadioButton">
<item name="android:button">@drawable/radio</item>
</style>
</resources>
'radio' here should be a stateful drawable, radio.xml:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<selector xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
<item android:state_checked="true" android:state_window_focused="false"
android:drawable="@drawable/radio_hover" />
<item android:state_checked="false" android:state_window_focused="false"
android:drawable="@drawable/radio_normal" />
<item android:state_checked="true" android:state_pressed="true"
android:drawable="@drawable/radio_active" />
<item android:state_checked="false" android:state_pressed="true"
android:drawable="@drawable/radio_active" />
<item android:state_checked="true" android:state_focused="true"
android:drawable="@drawable/radio_hover" />
<item android:state_checked="false" android:state_focused="true"
android:drawable="@drawable/radio_normal_off" />
<item android:state_checked="false" android:drawable="@drawable/radio_normal" />
<item android:state_checked="true" android:drawable="@drawable/radio_hover" />
</selector>
Then just apply the Custom theme either to whole app or to activities of your choice.
For more info about themes and styles look at http://brainflush.wordpress.com/2009/03/15/understanding-android-themes-and-styles/ that is good guide.