set button background to color

Android button with different background colors

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i want to change the background-color of a button using a selector-xml-file. My approach is basically the one from the example at the bottom this page:http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/resources/color-list-resource.html

i have a res/color/button_text.xml which looks like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><selector xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">    <item android:state_pressed="true"          android:color="#ffff0000"/> <!-- pressed -->    <item android:state_focused="true"          android:color="#ff0000ff"/> <!-- focused -->    <item android:color="#ff000000"/> <!-- default --></selector>

and my layout contains the following code:

<Button    android:layout_width="fill_parent"    android:layout_height="wrap_content"    android:text="@string/button_text"    **android:background="@color/button_text"** /> 

(** is only there to show you that i use android:background instead of android:textcolor)

this code crashes. it says "Binary XML file line #4 tag requires 'drawable' attribute or child tag defining drawable. But if I try it with android:textColor as described in the above link it works fine. So it has to be the background issue. I don't want to create a 9patch-png if it's not necessary (basically i just need a "clickable" rectangle so i use a button with a colored background)

androidandroid-layout android-xml

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asked Sep 17 '10 at 20:43

Daniel
106136

 

Konstantin's answer has a typo - the line item android:color="@color/black" .......... I propose it should read item android:drawable="@color/black" ........... – user609727Feb 9 '11 at 12:22

1 

Yes, @anticafe you are right. Danial you must have to improve your accept rate so the people can take interest in help you and it may be help to other also. – Yog Guru Apr 10 '12 at 5:33

 

stackoverflow.com/a/15880688/1352919 – FaakhirApr 8 at 13:45

4 Answers

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up vote25 down vote

As your error states, you have to define drawable attibute for the items (for some reason it is required when it comes to background definitions), so:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><selector xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">    <item android:state_pressed="true" android:drawable="@color/red"/> <!-- pressed -->    <item android:state_focused="true" android:drawable="@color/blue"/> <!-- focused -->    <item android:drawable="@color/black"/> <!-- default --></selector>

Also note that drawable attribute doesn't accept raw color values, so you have to define the colors as resources. Createcolors.xml file at res/values folder:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><resources>     <color name="black">#000</color>     <color name="blue">#00f</color>     <color name="red">#f00</color></resources>

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editedMar 13 '12 at 19:27

answered Sep 18 '10 at 4:11

Konstantin Burov
22.8k95159

 

2 

item android:color="@color/black" s/b item android:drawable="@color/black" – NoahMar 13 '12 at 13:42

 

@Noah thx, fixed that. – Konstantin BurovMar 13 '12 at 19:27

 

If this solved your problem, accept this as an answer? – Sheikh AmanDec 11 '12 at 5:46

up vote10 down vote

In the URL you pointed to, the button_text.xml is being used to set the textColor attribute.That it is reason they had the button_text.xml in res/color folder and therefore they used @color/button_text.xml

But you are trying to use it for background attribute. The background attribute looks for something in res/drawable folder.

check this i got this selector custom button from the internet.I dont have the link.but i thank the poster for this.It helped me.have this in the drawable folder

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><selector xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">    <item android:state_pressed="true" >        <shape>            <gradient                android:startColor="@color/yellow1"                android:endColor="@color/yellow2"                android:angle="270" />            <stroke                android:width="3dp"                android:color="@color/grey05" />            <corners                android:radius="3dp" />            <padding                android:left="10dp"                android:top="10dp"                android:right="10dp"                android:bottom="10dp" />        </shape>    </item>    <item android:state_focused="true" >        <shape>            <gradient                android:endColor="@color/orange4"                android:startColor="@color/orange5"                android:angle="270" />            <stroke                android:width="3dp"                android:color="@color/grey05" />            <corners                android:radius="3dp" />            <padding                android:left="10dp"                android:top="10dp"                android:right="10dp"                android:bottom="10dp" />        </shape>    </item>    <item>                <shape>            <gradient                android:endColor="@color/white1"                android:startColor="@color/white2"                android:angle="270" />            <stroke                android:width="3dp"                android:color="@color/grey05" />            <corners                android:radius="3dp" />            <padding                android:left="10dp"                android:top="10dp"                android:right="10dp"                android:bottom="10dp" />        </shape>    </item></selector>

And i used in my main.xml layout like this

<Button android:id="@+id/button1"            android:layout_alignParentLeft="true"            android:layout_marginTop="150dip"            android:layout_marginLeft="45dip"            android:textSize="7pt"            android:layout_height="wrap_content"            android:layout_width="230dip"            android:text="@string/welcomebtntitle1"            android:background="@drawable/custombutton"/>

Hope this helps. Vik is correct.

EDIT : Here is the colors.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?><resources>   <color name="yellow1">#F9E60E</color>   <color name="yellow2">#F9F89D</color>   <color name="orange4">#F7BE45</color>   <color name="orange5">#F7D896</color>   <color name="blue2">#19FCDA</color>   <color name="blue25">#D9F7F2</color>   <color name="grey05">#ACA899</color>   <color name="white1">#FFFFFF</color>   <color name="white2">#DDDDDD</color></resources>