Develop Reference

Is wrong nine patch image?

I brought two nine patch images from designer for action-bar list item background. But outside of item is black.
I add images in "android:itemBackground".
The below images have shadow effect.
I think the image is wrong because it has margin.
I wonder what is exact cause?
thank.
Image1:
Image2:

I think the designer intend to make shadow effect by using bg image. Because other app's overflow menu have shadow effect. But the effect is shown by framework. So I used an color drawable as background.

9patch (nine-patch) image does not stretch /scale properly

Dear Fellow Developers,
I've ran into the problem shown in the attached picture. We have been trying to tweak the dropdown menu's 9patch image provided by a graphics designer, but could not get it to work. The black stretch markers are not being hidden, and Android does not stretch it the way we would expect.
The device is a Nexus 7. We have tried several various image sizes, but none seemed to work. I am also attaching a copy of the 9patch.
What could be wrong?!
This happens:
Here is the 9patch

If the image has been created in a normal image editor rather than the android 9 patch tool, it could be just that its not done exactly right.
The image must have a 1px transparent border other than where the black lines are. Make sure its completely transparent and is only 1 px thick
Also I don't think you can have split lines (like you have down the left and right side of the image, I think they must be one solid line on each side)

How can some part of image be repeated

I'm android app beginner developer.
I made an 9-patch to use image like above.
Dotted line of image is not repeated only stretched.
I have to write text on the image like above.
How can some part of image be repeated ?
Please tell me some advice.

I dont think you can do that. 9-path image only stretches some part of the image. One solution could be is to use 3 drawables. One being the left arrow, one being the right arrow and one being the center image that is to be repeated. Then you can repeat the center image with dotted line as given here and here.

Android how to set button to have transparent background but outline still there

When I set android:background="#android:color/transparent, it sets my buttons background to transparent, but the outline of the button disappears. How do I set it so that the background is transparent but there is still an outline?

You can use a custom selector that uses different nine patch image for different states of the button.
This link might be helpful
You might use this image...
I hope it helps..

One approach would be to make yourself a 9-patch that has a border but transparency in the middle.
Here is an example:
it is an 11x11 pixel square with a 2 pixel black border. If you download this png and drop it into draw9patch and add the a pixel in the middle of the left and top then include the 9patch png file in your drawables and set
android:background="#drawable/bground"
either save your 9-patch as "bground" or change that in the above line to whatever you save it as.

Custom Map markers and custom backgrounds

I am trying to get the images to have transparent backgrounds so the map is not blocked by a square marker with an image in it. What image editor and what settings should I use to get this to work?
I am trying to do some custom backgrounds for buttons and the same problem comes up: I get square corners and a background that does not scale with the buttons.
I think this all part of the same problem: I am not using the right tool with the right settings to create the images. I must be misinterpreting the documentation and examples that talk about a white border around the image and a black line along the top and left side for the expandable button background.
Here's a quick way to reproduce the problem:
Follow the directions to create the MapView program as described on:
http://developer.android.com/resources/tutorials/views/hello-mapview.html
For the icon I first used the image copied from the page:
Next I edited the picture in Microsoft Paint, and cut off the little guy's antennae. I'm not cruel and no real androids were harmed in that experiment. I surrounded the new picture with a pixel thick border of white, copied from the border that was around the rest of the image, and then copied the black that was there as well in the void areas of the image, outside the border.
I saved the image as myandroid.png and copied the file to the layout folder. Pointed the activity to the new pic and ran the program.
The image was displayed with a full square background and shadow, not the android shaped image and shadow that was there when the original image was used.
Custom Button background:
Follow the directions for the Relative Layout example at:
"http://developer.android.com/resources/tutorials/views/hello-relativelayout.html"
Next, I created an image to expand as a background for the button called backbutton.png. It too is surrounded by a white border and black filled on the corners, the top and one side per documentation I found in "Android Programming Tutorials" on page 298.
The background does not expand, nor do the corners round.
I wish I could show you screenies of what I have.
How do you create the images for the custom backgrounds and the images for the custom map markers and buttons? I need to know what image editor to use and the file attributes to set, so the images expand and display with the proper void spaces in them.
Thank you in advance.

You used MSPaint to save the image did you define the transparent color?
should in Image > Attributes

To create custom backgrounds for buttons and other widgets that can change their size at runtime, you should create NinePatch images. The tool you should use is draw9patch and is available with the Android SDK.