Develop Reference

Create circle button with custom background image

So I have a background texture (image) that I put on all of my buttons. I want to create a circular button with an icon that retains this background texture.
So far, I have noticed it isn't supported to do this on the shape side:
<shape android:shape="rectangle">
<solid android:color="#drawable/myTexture" /> <!-- this isn't supported -->
</shape>
Lastly I would otherwise try to use <layer-list>, however as I stated above, I need to still crop the texture to my shape I'm creating.
Is the only way to do this to make my own circular images that combine the background texture and the button icon? This seems a bit excessive, as I would think there should be a programmatic way to accomplish this, but I could be wrong.
Here is an example of what I mean above:
<layer-list xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
<item android:drawable="#drawable/myTexture" />
<item>
<shape android:shape="rectangle">
<corners android:radius="40dp" />
<size
android:height="80dp"
android:width="80dp" />
<solid android:color="#color/black" />
</shape>
</item>
</layer-list>
In the picture bellow: black is the circle shape, silver is the texture/image (black for contrast)

I haven't solved the programmatic way, but I did end up creating new graphics that combined the icon and the background texture. Using this singular image, I was able to create circular ImageButton's.

Custom Shapes with text in Android

I am new to android. I want to draw a custom shape in android. When someone chooses a date(via date picker) I want to display the result in a square box rather than the regular way.How do I achieve this?

You can use a textview to show the selected date. Since you seem to know the coding for that, I focus on the design you can apply for your textview.
By default, a textview has a rectangular shape with sharp edges and points, but you can achieve a rounded-corner textview using a style , like this one :
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<shape xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
<stroke
android:width="1dp"
android:color="#color/red"/>
<corners android:radius="7dp" />
<padding
android:left="1dp"
android:right="1dp"
android:top="1dp"
android:bottom="1dp"/>
<solid android:color="#color/white"/></shape>
The corners tag, is responsible for the rounded corners, you can tweak th radius to make more or less rounded.
Stroke tag, defines the width and color of the border for the textbox.
and Solid tag determines the bakcground color of the view.
In order to use this style, you should save it as an XML file and save it in drawable folder (normally drawable-hdpi will do). Then , in your tetxview or edittext you should set the background property as the following :
android:background="#drawable/thesavedxmlfile"

Shadow round corners Android

how can i make a shadow for round corners? I tried it with views for the bottom, right an the corner, but that works not really :D
I tried this xml for the corner:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<shape xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
<gradient
android:startColor="#404040"
android:centerColor="#DBDBDB"
android:endColor="#color/shadow_end"
android:angle="315"
>
</gradient>
<corners
android:bottomRightRadius="5dp"
android:bottomLeftRadius="0dp"
android:topLeftRadius="0dp"
android:topRightRadius="0dp"/>
</shape>
Is it good to use views for shadows? What you are using?
Thanks for help :)

You can simply draw a 9-patch image with Photoshop drawing the shadows and put it into the drawable folders and set this in your View in xml:
android:background="#drawable/your_9patch_image"
I always do it by using Photoshop. For more details see this: Draw 9-patch
Or you can check in the default Android Studio drawables and see if there's one that you like. Check my answer here: my answer

How to control the gradient on a shape?

I have a screen with a label on top. This label is done with a TextView.
As a background I'd like to have a vertical gradient, starting with color1, changing to color2 and back to color1.
At the moment I have:
<shape xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
android:shape="rectangle">
<stroke android:width="1px" android:color="#000000" />
<gradient
android:startColor="#FFFFFFFF"
android:centerColor="#FF8800"
android:endColor="#FFFFFFFF"
android:type="linear"
android:angle="270"
/>
<corners android:radius="10dp"/>
</shape>
My problem is that the centerColor line is too thin. I want it to ocupy all the letters space.
I can't find any way to make the gradient to be faster.
I've already tried to use a layout-list but with no success.
Any idea?

This is a much more different track to follow but have you considered working with 9-patch image files? This will allow you to stretch the parts of the gradient that you wish to and make the centre line as big as needed by segmenting up the background properly.
Here are some great tutorials I have used to learn about them:
draw 9 patch tutorial
And from Google's own Android mouth:
Android 9 patch
All Drawable resources for Android

Android Rounded Edges for backgrounds

I was wondering if anyone knew how to make rounded background edges for only certain corners.
For example, in the lock screen of Android 2.2 there were the two slidingDrawers to unlock the phone and take a picture or something.
The slidingDrawers had a rounded corner with an icon within it. Anyone know how to make the corners of a background rounded?

There are lots of ways in achieving that.
You could use a 9patch drawable, and I'm guessing that's what they used.
You can also use a shape drawable, with proper corners.
Other than that, your question is too ambiguous. But this should provide enough for a good answer to your problem.

you can create a xml file inside the drawable folder with some code like this ,
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<shape xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
<solid android:color="#FFFFFF"/>
<corners android:radius="5px"/>
<padding android:left="0dp" android:top="0dp" android:right="0dp" android:bottom="0dp" />
</shape>
change the radius values for the amount of rounded edge you need. Apply this xml as the background of your textview or edittext or anything.