android listview selector

The solution by dglmtn doesn't work when you have a 9-patch drawable with padding as background. Strange things happen, I don't even want to talk about it, if you have such a problem, you know them.

Now, If you want to have a listview with different states and 9-patch drawables (it would work with any drawables and colors, I think) you have to do 2 things:

1. Set the selector for the items in the list.
2. Get rid of the default selector for the list.

What you should do is first set the row_selector.xml:

<? xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
< selector  xmlns:android ="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"   >
     < item  android:state_enabled ="true"  
     android:state_pressed ="true"  android:drawable ="@drawable/list_item_bg_pressed"   />
     < item  android:state_enabled ="true"
     android:state_focused ="true"  android:drawable ="@drawable/list_item_bg_focused"   />
     < item  android:state_enabled ="true"
     android:state_selected ="true"  android:drawable ="@drawable/list_item_bg_focused"   />
     < item
      android:drawable ="@drawable/list_item_bg_normal"   />
</ selector >

 

Don't forget the android:state_selected. It works like android:state_focused for the list, but it's applied for the list item.

Now apply the selector to the items (row.xml):

<? xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
< RelativeLayout  xmlns:android ="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:layout_width ="fill_parent"
android:layout_height ="wrap_content"
android:orientation ="horizontal"
android:background ="@drawable/row_selector"
>
...
</ RelativeLayout >

 

Make a selector for the list (to get rid of the default one which ruins the effect) - list_selector.xml:

 

<? xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
< selector  xmlns:android ="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"   >
     < item  android:state_enabled ="true"  
     android:state_pressed ="true"  android:drawable ="@color/android:transparent"   />
     < item  android:state_enabled ="true"
     android:state_focused ="true"  android:drawable ="@color/android:transparent"   />
     < item
      android:drawable ="@color/android:transparent"   />
</ selector >

Notice that it makes all the states transparent. That's what I meant by getting rid of the default states.

Last, but not least - apply the selector to the listview:

 

< ListView
     android:id ="@+id/android:list"
    ...
    android:listSelector ="@drawable/list_selector"
     />