How to set button click effect in Android?

Question

In Android, when I set a background image to a button, I can not see any effect on it when it's clicked.

I need to set some effect on the button, so the user can recognise that the button is clicked.

The button should be dark for a few seconds when it is clicked. How to do this?

Answer 1

This can be achieved by creating a drawable xml file containing a list of states for the button. So for example if you create a new xml file called "button.xml" with the following code:

<selector xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <item android:state_focused="true" android:state_pressed="false" android:drawable="@drawable/YOURIMAGE" />
    <item android:state_focused="true" android:state_pressed="true" android:drawable="@drawable/gradient" />
    <item android:state_focused="false" android:state_pressed="true" android:drawable="@drawable/gradient" />
    <item android:drawable="@drawable/YOURIMAGE" />
</selector>

To keep the background image with a darkened appearance on press, create a second xml file and call it gradient.xml with the following code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<layer-list xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" >
    <item>
        <bitmap android:src="@drawable/YOURIMAGE"/>
    </item>
    <item>
        <shape xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
            <gradient android:angle="90" android:startColor="#880f0f10" android:centerColor="#880d0d0f" android:endColor="#885d5d5e"/>
        </shape>
    </item>
</layer-list>

In the xml of your button set the background to be the button xml e.g.

android:background="@drawable/button"

Hope this helps!

Edit: Changed the above code to show an image (YOURIMAGE) in the button as opposed to a block colour.