I need to change the stroke color to a user defined color. Nothing to do with the state

Question

I need to change the stroke color from the app. The user is able to change the background color so I need to also let them change the stroke (outline) of the button. As its is already set in the drawable (sample below) I have not found a way to change this. Seems like all of the other questions like this just said to use the XML file.... but that doesnt let me make it dynamic. Thank you for any help!

I need to change the stroke color to a user defined color. Nothing to do with the state.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> 
<shape xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"> 

    <solid android:color="#ffffffff"/>    
      <stroke
                android:width="3dp"
                android:color="@color/Dim_Gray" />  <<<<--- This is what I need to change


    <padding android:left="10dp"
             android:top="10dp"
             android:right="10dp"
             android:bottom="10dp"
             /> 

    <corners android:bottomRightRadius="12dp" android:bottomLeftRadius="12dp" 
     android:topLeftRadius="12dp" android:topRightRadius="12dp"/> 

</shape>

Dunghill

Why is no answer selected for this question? – Consubstantiate

Answer 1

1. If you have drawable file for a "view" like this

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<shape xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" >

<corners android:radius="5dp" />

<solid android:color="@android:color/white" />

<stroke
    android:width="3px"
    android:color="@color/blue" />

</shape>

Then you can change
a. Stroke color :

GradientDrawable drawable = (GradientDrawable)view.getBackground();
drawable.mutate(); // only change this instance of the xml, not all components using this xml
drawable.setStroke(3, Color.RED); // set stroke width and stroke color 

b. Solid color :

GradientDrawable drawable = (GradientDrawable)view.getBackground();
drawable.setColor(Color.RED); // set solid color

2. If you have drawable file for a "view" like this

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<selector xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <item android:state_checked="true" android:id="@+id/buttonSelected">
        <shape>
            <solid android:color="@color/blue" />
            <stroke android:width="1px" android:color="@color/blue" />
        </shape>
    </item>
    <item android:state_checked="false" android:id="@+id/buttonNotSelected">
        <shape android:shape="rectangle">
            <solid android:color="@color/white" />
            <stroke android:width="1px" android:color="@color/blue" />
        </shape>
    </item>
</selector>

Then you can change the individual item attributes by taking separate drawable objects by there positions.

StateListDrawable drawable = (StateListDrawable)view.getBackground();
DrawableContainerState dcs = (DrawableContainerState)drawable.getConstantState();
Drawable[] drawableItems = dcs.getChildren();
GradientDrawable gradientDrawableChecked = (GradientDrawable)drawableItems[0]; // item 1 
GradientDrawable gradientDrawableUnChecked = (GradientDrawable)drawableItems[1]; // item 2

now to change stroke or solid color :

//solid color
gradientDrawableChecked.setColor(Color.BLUE);
gradientDrawableUnChecked.setColor(Color.RED);

//stroke
gradientDrawableChecked.setStroke(1, Color.RED);
gradientDrawableUnChecked.setStroke(1, Color.BLUE);

Hungary

Great overview of how working with selectors and shapes programatically. – Ascend

Perfect answer. Working like a charm. – Dropout

is it possible to use this on a vector drawable? – Yeh

Haven't really tried that, I think there are objects to handle specific parameter changes in a tag like <solid> or <stroke>. Not really sure if same will apply for vector images. – Hungary

But problem with this approach is, when you change the stroke color programatically, so its changed xml drawable too, which shouldn't be the case. Is it possible to change stroke color for selected view without changing actual xml drawable? – Groomsman

@RiteshAdulkar The .setStroke documentation says Note: changing this property will affect all instances of a drawable loaded from a resource. It is recommended to invoke mutate() before changing this property. – Fabio

@Fabio ya i got ur point, but is there any hack or alternate way to do the same without changing original state of drawable? – Groomsman

@RiteshAdulkar to make the changes specific to this drawable, you have to use GradientDrawable drawable = (GradientDrawable)view.getBackground().mutate() . This creates a copy of the drawable rather than sharing the same instance of drawable. – Triny

what about the corners tag? how can we update it programmatically? – Stenotypy

perfectamente :D – Lackey

Anyone else had a casting issue? java.lang.ClassCastException: android.graphics.drawable.ColorDrawable cannot be cast to android.graphics.drawable.GradientDrawable – Stockmon

Answer 2

I needed a way to change the stroke color of any GradientDrawable without knowing the width of the stroke. My goal was to do this using Drawable.setTint. I had to add a transparent solid element to my shape xml to get it to work:

<!-- stroke_background.xml -->
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<shape xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:shape="rectangle">
    <stroke
        android:width="4dp"
        android:color="@android:color/white" />
    <!-- Need transparent solid to get tint applied to only the stroke -->
    <solid android:color="@android:color/transparent"/>
</shape>

// StrokeView.kt
setBackgroundResource(R.drawable.stroke_background)
// Set the color of your stroke
drawable.setTint(Color.BLUE)

In your case, since you have both a solid and stroke, then you'll need to use a layer-list, where the stroke is added AFTER the solid (so that it's drawn on top). This will let you set different colors on the solid and the stroke without knowing in advance what the stroke width is:

<!-- stroke_solid_background.xml -->
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<layer-list xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <item android:drawable="@drawable/solid_background" />
    <item android:drawable="@drawable/stroke_background" />
</layer-list>

// StrokeSolidView.kt
setBackgroundResource(R.drawable.stroke_solid_background)
(drawable as LayerDrawable).apply {
    // Set the color of your solid
    getDrawable(0).setTint(Color.GREEN)
    // Set the color of your stroke
    getDrawable(1).setTint(Color.BLUE)
}

Malacostracan

Best answer for me, provided API Level 21+. Follows KISS principle. The others are over complicated. – Ossein

Thanks for the comment about the drawable needing a transparent color. I've been routinely tinting views for this purpose but found it strange that it was tinting the whole view in this case. That was the key. – Santamaria

Thank you for the clean solution! Setting background tint via view.background.setTint(tintColor) and adding a transparent <solid/> to drawable helped me. – Spindry

Works well DrawableCompat.setTint() for custom color resources. – Gelt

Answer 3

Please look at the LayerDrawable because it created from your XML and used at runtime.

Here is a Demo Example:

<layer-list xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <item>
        <shape android:shape="rectangle" >
            <solid android:color="@android:color/transparent" />
        </shape>
    </item>
    <item android:id="@+id/itemId" android:top="-4dp" android:right="-4dp" android:left="-4dp">
        <shape>
            <solid android:color="@android:color/transparent"/>
            <stroke
                android:width="1.5dp"
                android:color="#06C1D7" >
            </stroke>
            <padding
                android:bottom="-2dp"/>

        </shape>
    </item>
</layer-list>

You can modify it at runtime like:

 LayerDrawable layerDrawable = (LayerDrawable) getResources()
                .getDrawable(R.drawable.only_one_bottom_line);
        GradientDrawable gradientDrawable = (GradientDrawable) layerDrawable.findDrawableByLayerId(R.id.itemId);
        int px = (int) TypedValue.applyDimension(TypedValue.COMPLEX_UNIT_DIP, 1.5f, getResources().getDisplayMetrics());

        gradientDrawable.setStroke(px, getResources().getColor(R.color.theme_color));
        tv_select_city_name.setBackground(layerDrawable);

Changeful

I've tried it but findDrawableByLayerId() returned null. Not sure why. I only managed it by calling getDrawable(int index). – Bung

Answer 4

Create background (file in res/drawable) with transparent (#00000000) solid:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<shape xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:shape="rectangle">

    <corners android:radius="4dp" />

    <stroke
        android:width="1dp"
        android:color="#FF0000" />

    <solid android:color="#00000000" />

</shape>

set this file as background:

<View   
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="40dp"
    android:background="@drawable/bg_enter_number" />

and now, using android:backgroundTint you can change color of your border.

---

For example:

<View   
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="40dp"
    android:background="@drawable/bg_enter_number"
    android:backgroundTint="#FF00FF" />

or:

<View   
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="40dp"
    android:background="@drawable/bg_enter_number"
    android:backgroundTint="#00FF00" />

Rohr

Answer 5

Try using StateLists (as opposed to ColorStateList). Take a look: http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/resources/drawable-resource.html#StateList

You can also create a ShapeDrawable (or a RoundRectShape in your example) programmatically, and then call the button's setBackgroundDrawable

Flush

Sorry I didnt explain it good enough. I need to change the stroke color to a user defined color. nothing to do with the state. – Dunghill

Answer 6

I answered a similar question in Change shape border color at runtime

Its like the same solution proposed by f20k but in my case the drawable was a GradientDrawable instead of a ShapeDrawable.

see if it works...

Reduplicative

Answer 7

Perhaps they are referring to Color State Lists which allows you to change the color based on whether the button was pressed/focused/enabled/etc

Sisterinlaw

Sorry I didnt explain it good enough. I need to change the stroke color to a user defined color. nothing to do with the state. – Dunghill

Try using shapeDrawable (developer.android.com/reference/android/graphics/drawable/…) where the Paint has Style=Stroke, StrokeWidth=<x>, Color=<user_defined_color> – Sisterinlaw