EditText background not working

Question

<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:tools="http://schemas.android.com/tools"
    android:id="@+id/parent"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:background="@android:color/transparent"
    android:orientation="vertical"
    tools:context=".MainActivity" >

    <LinearLayout
        android:layout_width="0px"
        android:layout_height="0px"
        android:focusable="true"
        android:focusableInTouchMode="true" />

    <AutoCompleteTextView
        android:id="@+id/autoComplete"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="48dp"
        android:background="@drawable/black_rounded_borders" />

</RelativeLayout>

I added the useless LinearLayout just to avoid initial focus on the AutoCompleteTextView when the Activity is launched

drawable/black_rounded_borders.xml

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

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

    <stroke
        android:width="2dp"
        android:color="@color/selector_black_border" />


    <corners
        android:bottomLeftRadius="5dp"
        android:bottomRightRadius="5dp"
        android:topLeftRadius="5dp"
        android:topRightRadius="5dp" />

</shape>

color/selector_black_border.xml

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

    <item android:state_focused="true" android:color="#FF269ff5"/>
    <item android:state_pressed="true" android:color="#FF269ff5"/>
    <item android:state_selected="true" android:color="#FF269ff5"/>
    <item android:state_focused="false" android:color="#FF000000"/>
    <item android:state_pressed="false" android:color="#FF000000"/>
    <item android:state_selected="false" android:color="#FF000000"/>

</selector>

Activity

protected void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
    setContentView(R.layout.main);

    autoComplete = (AutoCompleteTextView) findViewById(R.id.autoComplete);
    Log.d("hasFocus", autoComplete.hasFocus() + "");
    Log.d("isSelected", autoComplete.isSelected() + "");
    Log.d("isPressed", autoComplete.isPressed() + "");
    //All the above are false
}

Though all the states related the blue(#FF269ff5) color are false. I still get the border in blue color. Also if I change the order of states in the color/selector_black_border.xml file, like all false first and then trues, then I get the black border. Its like only the first color works.

What am I missing?

Thank You.

have you tried to add `android:focusable="true" android:focusableInTouchMode="true"` to the EditText's parent (The RelativeLayout) — Blackbelt, Jul 22 '13 at 13:25
Yeah. That way I can avoid this extra `LinearLayout`. But the final result is same. — user1537779, Jul 22 '13 at 13:27
Okay. Though the default states are below the true states, it shows black at the beginning, works till here. But never changes to blue even after focusing, typing... — user1537779, Jul 22 '13 at 13:36
@g00dy Yeah, with that I get the initial black-color but nothing changes after clicking on it and getting focus. — user1537779, Jul 22 '13 at 13:42
@user1537779 - make a quick test, put instead of `android:background="@drawable/black_rounded_borders"` the following: `android:background="@drawable/selector_black_border"` to see if this changes it, this is just a logic test and not a final solution. — g00dy, Jul 22 '13 at 13:50
Crashes saying `android.view.InflateException: Binary XML file line #20: Error inflating class android.widget.AutoCompleteTextView` — user1537779, Jul 22 '13 at 13:58
Correction `android:background="@color/selector_black_border"` ..sorry :( — g00dy, Jul 22 '13 at 14:09

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:33

I can not put this into a comment, because it is too big, but I found an explanation of this here, which states:

A ColorStateList cannot be passed as an attribute for <solid> in an XML definition, or really any attribute of a <shape>. This attribute is inflated out of the XML as a Color resource and then passed to the Drawable's setColor() method, which only takes a single ARGB value.

There is only one type of Drawable instance that is designed to contain and present multiple items based on state, and that is StateListDrawable, which is what you get when you inflate a <selector>. All other Drawable instances are meant to simply be members of this collection or drawn standalone.

Note also that an inflated <shape> item is actually a GradientDrawable and not a ShapeDrawable. If you check out the inflate() method of GradientDrawable in the source, you can get all the detail you could ask for on how each attribute is used.

Credits go to @Devunwired.

However, based on that, you can create different shapes (it's a rectangle each time), which has the following properties in each and every one of them. Use the code below in drawable/black_rounded_borders.xml and see if it's working as expected:

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

    <item>
        <selector xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" >
            <item android:state_pressed="true">
                <shape android:shape="rectangle" >
                    <solid android:color="#FFFFFFFF" />

                    <stroke
                        android:width="2dp"
                        android:color="#FF269ff5" />

                    <corners
                        android:bottomLeftRadius="5dp"
                        android:bottomRightRadius="5dp"
                        android:topLeftRadius="5dp"
                        android:topRightRadius="5dp" />
                </shape>
            </item>
            <item android:state_focused="true">
                <shape android:shape="rectangle" >
                    <solid android:color="#FFFFFFFF" />

                    <stroke
                        android:width="2dp"
                        android:color="#FF269ff5" />

                    <corners
                        android:bottomLeftRadius="5dp"
                        android:bottomRightRadius="5dp"
                        android:topLeftRadius="5dp"
                        android:topRightRadius="5dp" />
                </shape>
            </item>
            <item android:state_selected="true">
                <shape android:shape="rectangle" >
                    <solid android:color="#FFFFFFFF" />

                    <stroke
                        android:width="2dp"
                        android:color="#FF269ff5" />

                    <corners
                        android:bottomLeftRadius="5dp"
                        android:bottomRightRadius="5dp"
                        android:topLeftRadius="5dp"
                        android:topRightRadius="5dp" />
                </shape>
            </item>
            <item>
                <shape android:shape="rectangle" >
                    <solid android:color="#FFFFFFFF" />

                    <stroke
                        android:width="1dp"
                        android:color="#FF000000" />

                    <corners
                        android:bottomLeftRadius="5dp"
                        android:bottomRightRadius="5dp"
                        android:topLeftRadius="5dp"
                        android:topRightRadius="5dp" />
                </shape>
            </item>
        </selector>
    </item>

</layer-list>

Sorry for the long post and the fact that i don't know if it's working, but I couldn't find another way of posting this.

Just made few corrections to your code. It works thanks a lot. — user1537779, Jul 23 '13 at 05:41
Wellcome :) You can edit my post with those corrections, I would even advise that ! :) Thanks — g00dy, Jul 23 '13 at 07:40
Actually I edited, don't know where it went. Will do again, accept it. — user1537779, Jul 23 '13 at 09:22

EditText background not working

1 Answers1