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"
    />