How to set font custom font to Spinner text programmatically?

Question

I have a ttf font file in my assets folder. I know how to use it for textviews with:

Typeface externalFont=Typeface.createFromAsset(getAssets(), "fonts/HelveticaNeueLTCom-Lt.ttf");
textview1.setTypeface(externalFont);

I have defined look for my spinner text in it's own xml file (as usuall in android):

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<TextView xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" 
android:id="@+android:id/text1"
style="?android:attr/spinnerItemStyle"
android:singleLine="true"
android:textColor="#ffffff"
android:gravity="center" 
android:layout_width="fill_parent"
android:layout_height="wrap_content"
android:ellipsize="marquee" />

I just can't reference this textview from code, i always get null pointer exceptions. E.g. i tried:

TextView spinner_text=(TextView)findViewById(R.id.text1);
spinner_text.setTypeface(externalFont);

Is it possible to select my external font even for my spinner text defined in it's own xml?

Thank you.

EDIT with answer:

This works:

String [] items = new String[2];
    items[0]="Something1";
    items[1]="Something2";

ArrayAdapter<String> adapter = new ArrayAdapter<String>(this,
                    R.layout.spinaca, items) {

         public View getView(int position, View convertView, ViewGroup parent) {
                 View v = super.getView(position, convertView, parent);

                 Typeface externalFont=Typeface.createFromAsset(getAssets(), "fonts/HelveticaNeueLTCom-Lt.ttf");
                 ((TextView) v).setTypeface(externalFont);

                 return v;
         }


         public View getDropDownView(int position,  View convertView,  ViewGroup parent) {
                  View v =super.getDropDownView(position, convertView, parent);

                 Typeface externalFont=Typeface.createFromAsset(getAssets(), "fonts/HelveticaNeueLTCom-Lt.ttf");
                 ((TextView) v).setTypeface(externalFont);
                 v.setBackgroundColor(Color.GREEN);

                 return v;
         }
 };


     adapter.setDropDownViewResource(android.R.layout.simple_spinner_dropdown_item);                                 
     spinner.setAdapter(adapter);

It may be necessary to add

import android.view.ViewGroup;

To your list of imports at the top of your file. For some reason Eclipse doesn't make this suggestion when it doesn't recognize the ViewGroup class involved in the code.

Answer 1

This is what worked for me (using ideas both from CommonsWare's and gsanllorente's answers):

private static class MySpinnerAdapter extends ArrayAdapter<String> {
    // Initialise custom font, for example:
    Typeface font = Typeface.createFromAsset(getContext().getAssets(),
                        "fonts/Blambot.otf");

    // (In reality I used a manager which caches the Typeface objects)
    // Typeface font = FontManager.getInstance().getFont(getContext(), BLAMBOT);

    private MySpinnerAdapter(Context context, int resource, List<String> items) {
        super(context, resource, items);
    }

    // Affects default (closed) state of the spinner
    @Override
    public View getView(int position, View convertView, ViewGroup parent) {
        TextView view = (TextView) super.getView(position, convertView, parent);
        view.setTypeface(font);
        return view;
    }

    // Affects opened state of the spinner
    @Override
    public View getDropDownView(int position, View convertView, ViewGroup parent) {
        TextView view = (TextView) super.getDropDownView(position, convertView, parent);
        view.setTypeface(font);
        return view;
    }
}

If you, like me, originally populated the Spinner using ArrayAdapter.createFromResource() and an array resource (as in Spinner documentation), then you'd use MySpinnerAdapter like this:

MySpinnerAdapter<String> adapter = new MySpinnerAdapter(
        getContext(),
        R.layout.view_spinner_item,
        Arrays.asList(getResources().getStringArray(R.array.my_array))
);
spinner.setAdapter(adapter);