Develop Reference

Remove the top and bottom padding in a SeekBar

I am trying make a simple music player. When I try to use the android's default seek bar in my music playback controls section, there is a default padding at the top and bottom of the seekbar. The effect I am trying to achieve is similar to the seekbar used in shuttle music player.
But this the effect I'm getting. I would be grateful if any would tell me how to achieve the desired result.I'm using linear layout as the root container.

Because the option of specifying
android:background="#color/your_colour"
will not work because you have two colors there one for the Top and one for the Bottom.
The working solution is by using a layerlist as follows:
Go to your drawable folder create a file call it lets say
back_ground_seek_bar.xml and add the following code inside it:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<layer-list xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" >
<item android:bottom="10dp">
<shape android:shape="rectangle" >
<size android:height="10dp" />
<solid android:color="#colour/your_top_color" />
</shape>
</item>
<item android:top="10dp">
<shape android:shape="rectangle" >
<size android:height="10dp" />
<solid android:color="#color/your_bottom_color" />
</shape>
</item>
</layer-list>
Replace the colours with your own colors when you paste this.
Remember we have added top and height of as 10.But because we want our SeekBar to have colour then we have to set the height of seekbar to twice the value so It should be twice and thats 20dp. So we should add our new height of the seekbar to be 20dp as well set the background as the xml we have defined as follows. Go to your SeekBar and paste this:
android:layout_height="20dp"
android:background="#drawable/back_ground_seek_bar"
For customization you can also change the values of height and whatsoever in the drawable/back_ground_seek_bar.xml but it should always be twice. The given height set in SeekBaraim is to divide it equally.

Color overlay on drawable Android

I've been following this tutorial here Medium - Diagonal Cut View to get that diagonal view effect
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<layer-list xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
<item android:drawable="#color/colorPrimary" />
<item>
<bitmap
android:src="#drawable/bebe"
android:gravity="center"
android:alpha="0.1" />
</item>
<item android:top="260dp"
android:bottom="-100dp"
android:left="0dp"
android:right="-260dp">
<rotate
android:fromDegrees="-10"
android:pivotX="0%"
android:pivotY="100%">
<shape
android:shape="rectangle">
<solid
android:color="#android:color/white"/>
</shape>
</rotate>
</item>
</layer-list>
So far the code is the almost the same and the effect is achieved, but only works on Lollipop+, I have searched but cannot find how to have a color overlay on top of an drawable to achieve this same effect and all my tries has being in vain.
The drawable goes in the background property of a RelativeLayout. I have tried to make it in 2 separated ImageView, one for the background image and one for the color overlay, but that doesn't apply the diagonal style right.
How can one achieve this effect for pre-lollipop versions?

Drawable background = relativeLayout.getBackground();
background.setColorFilter(getResources().getColor(R.color.colorAccent), PorterDuff.Mode.SRC_IN);
you can also try SRC_ATOPor MULTIPLY depending on desired effect.
========= EDIT ========================
Ok, I think I now better understand what you are asking. It wasn't entirely clear at first.
You aren't asking about a color overlay per-say, or rather, that is not what your problem is. Your problem lies in your reliance on the alpha attribute.
Do this, I have reordered your elements, so that the colored shape goes on top of the image, and instead of making the image transparent, we make the colored shape's color have an specified alpha byte. You can change the color and alpha as you like.
<layer-list xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <item>
        <bitmap
            android:gravity="center"
            android:src="#drawable/muse15fence_750"/>
    </item>
    
    <item>
        <shape android:shape="rectangle">
            <solid android:color="#cc3F51B5"/>
        </shape>
    </item>
    <item
        android:bottom="-100dp"
        android:left="0dp"
        android:right="-260dp"
        android:top="260dp">
        <rotate
            android:fromDegrees="-10"
            android:pivotX="0%"
            android:pivotY="100%">
            <shape
                android:shape="rectangle">
                <solid
                    android:color="#android:color/white"/>
            </shape>
        </rotate>
    </item>
</layer-list>
This is what it looks like in Jelly Bean.

Why does assigning a color to the background of my ListView element not cover the entire ListView background, while assigning a drawable does?

I have a ListView that sits on the left side of a tablet-size screen. My goal was to give it a solid background with a border on the right, then apply an overlapping background on the list element to break that border so that it appears to be a part of the view on the right.
The ListView Background
I achieved the right border using a <layer-list> drawable as suggested by Emile in another question:
rightborder.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<layer-list xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
<item>
<shape android:shape="rectangle">
<solid android:color="#color/black" />
</shape>
</item>
<item android:right="2dp">
<shape android:shape="rectangle">
<solid android:color="#color/white" />
</shape>
</item>
</layer-list>
...and here's the ListView definition for good measure:
<ListView
android:id="#+id/msglist"
android:layout_width="300dp"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:divider="#color/black"
android:dividerHeight="1dp"
android:background="#drawable/rightborder"
android:paddingRight="0dip">
</ListView>
<!-- I added the android:paddingRight after reading something
about shape drawables and padding, don't think it actually
did anything. -->
Attempting to override it with a color
In order to achieve the desired effect, I placed the following in the getView function of my adapter:
//If it's selected, highlight the background
if(position == mSelectedIndex)
convertView.setBackgroundColor(R.color.light_gray);
else
convertView.setBackgroundResource(0);
However, using this method, the black border of the ListView's drawable remained visible, and only the white part of the background was replaced by gray. Here's a screen capture:
Fixing it with a drawable
On a hunch, I replaced the color I was assigning with a shape drawable:
selectedmessage.xml:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<shape android:shape="rectangle"
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" >
<solid android:color="#color/light_gray" />
</shape>
getView snippet:
//If it's selected, highlight the background
if(position == mSelectedIndex)
convertView.setBackgroundResource(R.drawable.selectedmessage);
else
convertView.setBackgroundResource(0);
This achieves the desired result, as shown below:
The question:
Why does assigning a rectangle as the background for my ListView element cover the entire view, while assigning the color allows the black border to show through? I'm happy it's working, but I'd like to know why Android is rendering the view this way so I can learn more about how Android renders Views.
Other notes:
I'm running the project in the stock Android 3.2 emulator, if that makes any
difference.
One clue may be that the light_gray color background seems to render darker than the light_gray shape resource.
I doubt it makes a difference, but light_gray is:
<color name="light_gray">#FFCCCCCC</color>

You can't do this:
convertView.setBackgroundColor(R.color.light_gray);
setBackgroundColor does not take a resource id : http://developer.android.com/reference/android/view/View.html#setBackgroundColor(int)
So your getting some incidental behaviour that isn't doing what your expecting.
You would have to do:
convertView.setBackgroundColor(getResources().getColor(R.color.light_gray);
http://developer.android.com/reference/android/content/res/Resources.html#getColor(int)

Is possible to change color of ScrollBar?

I changed in ScrollView
android:fadeScrollbars="false"
to ScrollBar be visible and it works fine. My question is possible to change color of ScrollBar ? ( Default is gray and my background is gray so there is small contrast between ).

You can with android:scrollbarThumbVertical="#drawable/youdrawable
In my case, for instance yourdrawable is:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<shape xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
<gradient android:startColor="#66C0C0C0" android:endColor="#66C0C0C0"
android:angle="45"/>
<corners android:radius="6dp" />
</shape>

You can use:android:scrollbarThumbVertical="#drawable/yourImage"
, where 'yourImage' can be a small 2 pixel image of ur desired color

How to make two parallel and adjacent lines in Android xml?

I'm trying to make a custom list divider. It has one horizontal line that's a subtle gradient, and a second horizontal white line immediately below it as a sort of "drop shadow".
I'm trying to use <layer-list> to accomplish what I want, but it's not working out the way I expect.
Here's the code:
<layer-list
xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
<item>
<shape>
<gradient
android:startColor="#ccd0d3"
android:centerColor="#b6babd"
android:endColor="#ccd0d3"
android:height="1px"
android:angle="0" />
</shape>
</item>
<item android:top="2px">
<shape
android:color="#android:color/white"
android:height="1px" />
</item>
</layer-list>
If I use android:divider to assign this to a ListView and set the android:dividerHeight="2", I get a grey gradient that's two pixels high. The white line is nowhere to be seen.
If I set the white line's android:top="1px", I see a one pixel grey gradient and a one pixel black line below it.
Any ideas what I'm doing wrong?

You should set dividerHeight to 3 or avoid setting it altogether.