How to get gravity 'bottom' working on a drawable in xml

Question

I have a simple aim. I want a light grey background on my FrameLayout with a black dividing line underneath it (only undernearth, not all around). So far I have this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<layer-list xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <item>
        <shape android:shape="rectangle" android:gravity="center">
            <solid android:color="#EEEEEE" />
        </shape>
    </item>
    <item>
        <shape android:shape="line" android:gravity="bottom" >
            <stroke android:width="1dip" android:color="#010101"/>
        </shape>
    </item>
</layer-list>

But it draws the line through the centre, i.e. ignores the gravity='bottom' bit. How can I fix this?

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Solution 1

I'd recommend using a nine-patch image for this - here's an example that should do the job:

(It's only tiny but it is there!)

If you place this in your drawable folder and set your FrameLayout's background to it then you should get the desired result. The content will go in the grey area and the #010101 pixel will be stretched horizontally to form a line at the bottom. Just make sure to keep the .9.png extension to ensure it gets loaded as a nine-patch.

Hope that helps you

Solution 2

I've struggled a lot with this as well. Basically, to create a border at the bottom, you have to think in opposite direction from what you expect. You start with a rectangle with your Border color. On top of that, you draw the actual color, with an offset from the bottom. I use this:

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

    <!-- CREATE A RECTANGLE WITH YOUR BORDER COLOR -->
    <item>
        <shape android:shape="rectangle" >
            <solid android:color="#fff"/>
        </shape>
    </item>

    <!-- NOW DEFINE THE NORMAL COLOR-->
    <item android:bottom="BOTTOM_BORDER_THICKNESS E.G. 4dp">
        <shape android:shape="rectangle" >
            <solid android:color="#ccc"/>
        </shape>
    </item>
</layer-list>

Or, as Juan Pablo Saraceno suggested :

<layer-list xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" > 
    <item> 
        <color android:color="YOUR_BORDER_COLOR" /> 
    </item> 
    <item android:top="YOUR_BORDER_THICKNESS"> 
        <color android:color="YOUR_BG_COLOR" /> 
    </item> 
</layer-list>

Solution 3

Unfortunately I have not found a way to get the gravity working for drawables, but I found how you can achieve what you want with pure xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<layer-list xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <item
        android:top="-2dp"
        android:left="-2dp"
        android:right="0dp"
        android:bottom="1dp"
        >
        <shape android:shape="rectangle">
            <solid android:color="#EEEEEE"/>
            <stroke android:width="1dp" android:color="#010101"/>
        </shape>
    </item>
</layer-list>

Good luck:)

Solution 4

This works!

<item>
      <bitmap
         android:gravity="left|bottom"
         android:src="@drawable/myDrawable" />
 </item>

Solution 5

I know it's pretty old question but given answers didn't work for me. Turns out in order to gravity property work you just need to add size tag in drawable item.

So following will work as expected:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<layer-list xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <item
        android:gravity="center">
        <shape android:shape="rectangle">
            <solid android:color="#EEEEEE" />
        </shape>
    </item>
    <item
        android:gravity="bottom">
        <shape android:shape="line">
            <size android:height="2dp"/>
            <stroke android:width="1dip" android:color="#010101"/>
        </shape>
    </item>
</layer-list>

ps. this feature added in api level 23 https://developer.android.com/reference/android/graphics/drawable/LayerDrawable#setLayerGravity%28int,%20int%29

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Comments

[ac_]

That's a good point, I could do it that way. In fact, I will but I'd still be interested to know hot to get the gravity tag working for that line - seems a lot nicer solution to me but thanks for your suggestion.

[kingraam]

No mention of the gravity tag here. I can't see any way to achieve this using pure xml, you could create the ShapeDrawable in code and set its bounds based on the bounds of the layout?

[Juan Pablo Saraceno]

This is a really good answer and deserves to be better positioned IMHO. I think is a bit of a shame that android doesn't support gravity the proper way and forces one to do this. It worked for me even using <color> tags instead of rectangle, shapes, so even more simple. <layer-list xmlns:android="schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" > <item> <color android:color="YOUR_BORDER_COLOR" /> </item> <item android:top="YOUR_BORDER_THICKNESS"> <color android:color="YOUR_BG_COLOR" /> </item> </layer-list>

[Marcin Koziński]

The only problem is that i generates overdraw, because you are drawing a full rectangle with the color of your border only to overdraw it with the actual rectangle. Without real gravity still 9-patch wins.

[A. Steenbergen]

This wont work if you need a translucent top part and a solid bottom part. So I guess I will have to work with a nine-patch?

[M. Usman Khan]

<item> <bitmap android:gravity="left|bottom" android:src="@drawable/myDrawable" /> </item>

[nsvir]

Nop it doesn't for ShapeDrawable because it is a drawable, not a Bitmap.

[DrGrijando]

This solution works like a charm, because using the "put a rectangle covering the stroke of the other rectangle" solution left me sometimes with a tiny 1 pixel border on the right of the text boxes.

[Leonid Ustenko]

Doesn't work for API 21. Bottom line just got stretched to full height

[Andrzej Zabost]

Just tested on API 22 and it doesn't work. Looks properly in the Android Studio Preview panel though.