How do I style RootElement - monotouch.dialog

Question

I need a way to style Monotouch Dialogs RootElement. I need to change the background and font color.
I'm have created a custom RootElement as below
public class ActivityRootElement : RootElement
{
public ActivityRootElement (string caption) : base (caption)
{
}
public ActivityRootElement(string caption, Func<RootElement, UIViewController> createOnSelected) : base (caption, createOnSelected)
{
}
public ActivityRootElement(string caption, int section, int element) : base (caption, section, element)
{
}
public ActivityRootElement(string caption, Group group) : base (caption, group)
{
}
public override UITableViewCell GetCell (UITableView tv)
{
tv.BackgroundColor = Settings.RootBackgroundColour;
return base.GetCell (tv);
}
protected override void PrepareDialogViewController(UIViewController dvc)
{
dvc.View.BackgroundColor = Settings.RootBackgroundColour;
base.PrepareDialogViewController(dvc);
}
}
I am then calling the custom root element as below passing in a custom DialogController
section.Add (new ActivityRootElement(activity.Name, (RootElement e) => {
return new ActivityHistoryDialogViewController (e,true);
}));
The root Element style is not been applied. Any help would be apprciated!!

Answer 1

If you want the color to be the only thing you see in the TableViewController, you need to set the BackgrounView to null. There is a view overtop to apply the styling, which will hide the color you are looking for.
Try this:
public override UITableViewCell GetCell (UITableView tv)
{
tv.BackgroundColor = Settings.RootBackgroundColour;
tv.BackgroundView = null;
return base.GetCell (tv);
}
protected override void PrepareDialogViewController(UIViewController dvc)
{
dvc.TableView.BackgroundColor = Settings.RootBackgroundColour;
dvc.TableView.BackgroundView = null;
base.PrepareDialogViewController(dvc);
}

Answer 2

In order to get this to work, I had to override the MakeViewController method and cast the UIViewController that it normally returns to a UITableViewController, then make my edits.
protected override UIViewController MakeViewController()
{
var vc = (UITableViewController) base.MakeViewController();
vc.TableView.BackgroundView = null;
vc.View.BackgroundColor = UIColor.Red; //or whatever color you like
return vc;
}