Develop Reference

Why does a Button loses its original behaviour after changing its color?

I am writing an Android app and now I am styling it. I am using a custom theme which is a child of Theme.Holo.Light. I really like Theme.Holo.Light because its buttons have a special effect when you click and hold it. Like the lower button in the picture below:
Not click:
click:
The upper button has been changed color. Now when I click on that button, it doesn't have that effect. I really don't understand why. Can anyone tell me why this happens and how can I get the same effect with a colored button?
And also, the colored button seems fatter.

This is because the button uses a selector to display different colors/effects/drawables based on the state of the click. You can check out the link on Color State List Resource.
To create your own you have to create a slecetor cml file and put it in your drawables folder.
For example.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<selector xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
<item android:drawable="#drawable/shape_btn_default_normal_gray" android:state_enabled="true" android:state_pressed="false"/>
<item android:drawable="#drawable/shape_btn_default_pressed_gray" android:state_pressed="true"/>
<item android:drawable="#drawable/shape_btn_default_disabled_gray"/>
</selector>
or with colors
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<selector xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
<item android:drawable="#color/dark_green" android:state_enabled="true" android:state_pressed="false"/>
<item android:drawable="#color/light_green" android:state_pressed="true"/>
<item android:drawable="#color/gray"/>
</selector>
To apply this you have to set the background drawable in your layout xml like this.
<Button
android:id="#+id/my_btn"
android:layout_width="match_parent"
android:layout_height="match_parent"
android:text="Some text"
android:background="#drawable/selector_btn_default_gray"/>

That is the "ripple effect" of material design.You have define you own style for that effect.Link below may help you or you may search for many other answers on StackOverflow. Material effect on button with background color

It does not loses its behavior you can see after click (in your second image) the button show same scale as the above have...so by default the background is set as to show that it is button (like with padding or so) and can changes to show oncklick effect...
So when you set your desire background to button...It takes complete change on what is on presently on it and then you have to manually set onclick effect..

How to have two different backgrounds for a linear layout

I have a linear layout and there is an onClickListener implemented on it.
Now I want that when it is clicked its background color to white is changed and remains that way until something else is clicked. When something else is clicked I want it to have transparent background
How to achieve this?
Thanks in advance

Create two drawable images in your drawable folder. And when it is clicked, you can change the background of the layout.
Following code changes the background:
LinearLayout layout=(LinearLayout) findViewById(R.id.linearlayout);
layout.setBackgroundResource(getResources().getDrawable(R.drawable.drawable_name));

I think you could also just use a selector as background. You can probably take advantage of the 'selected' or 'focused' states to toggle the background between transparent and white. It'll look something like:
<LinearLayout
...
android:background="#drawable/bg_list_selector"
...
</LinearLayout>
And then bg_list_selector.xml in your drawable folder:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<selector xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
<item android:state_focused="true" android:drawable="#android:color/transparent" />
<!-- or -->
<item android:state_selected="true" android:drawable="#android:color/transparent" />
<item android:drawable="#android:color/white" />
</selector>
Have a play with the StateListDrawable's different options, I'd say.

Change checkMark or size of CheckedTextView

I'm working on an application where I'm using a checkedTextView, it all works great. But I really don't like that layout of the "checkbox" within the checkedTextView, it's simply to big. Is there any way to resize it or change the layout to something custom made?
I've tried the android:checkMark attribute, but that resulted in it being marked all the time, and thus showing all the time.

Instead of using a single drawable you should write a selector:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<selector xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
<item
android:drawable="#drawable/drawable_checked"
android:state_checked="true" />
<item
android:drawable="#drawable/drawable_unchecked"
android:state_checked="false" />
</selector>
And then set it to the android:checkMark attribute.

How can I give a series of buttons with background colors a focus?

I made a layout that is just simply a textview that says "What do you want?", followed by a series of buttons underneath it.
All of the buttons can be clicked/touched, but when I scroll with the trackball, none of them become highlighted. I noticed, however, then when I disable the background colors on the buttons, I can see the orange box that shows that button's focus.
Is there any way I can visibly see the focus while still being able to have a background color on the buttons?
EDIT: Found the solution! This helped A LOT. Standard Android Button with a different color

Create a "selector" resource in your res/drawable. It can look something like this:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<selector xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
<item
android:state_selected="false"
android:state_pressed="false"
android:drawable="#color/white" />
<item
android:state_pressed="true"
android:drawable="#color/orange" />
<item
android:state_selected="true"
android:state_pressed="false"
android:drawable="#color/blue" />
</selector>
Then set the background of your button to be:
android:background="#drawable/your_selector"

Rather than applying a simple background color to buttons, try applying a ColorStateList instead.
To do so, define a new XML file at
/res/color/buttonstate.xml
and use code such as the following:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<selector xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
<item android:color="# FOCUSED COLOR HERE"
android:state_focused="true" />
<item android:drawable="# DEFAULT COLOR HERE" />
</selector>
Notes:
You can definitely add more colors for more states, such as pressed, enabled, and certain other factors.
In the layout or code just reference R.color.buttonstate or #color/buttonstate (the XML's filename).
Make sure the default color is last. This is because it goes down the list and finds the first item that has all of the states the same as it. If you don't provide android:state_focused="false" for the default item and put it first, it will always display.
You can do a similar thing with drawables and
nine-patch drawables to make your own custom button styles.

Rather than just change the background color, consider using a 9-patch style. This is more work to begin, but you'll have much more control over your app's appearance.
Modify your Button layout to look something like this (the style line is the kicker):
<Button
style="#style/PushButton"
android:layout_width="wrap_content"
android:layout_height="wrap_content" />
Your styles.xml resource file then should contain a style similar to this:
<style name="PushButton">
<item name="android:background">#drawable/btn</item>
</style>
Then the btn.xml (put in in res/drawable) contents should look something like this:
<selector xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
<item android:drawable="#drawable/btn_pressed"
android:state_pressed="true" />
<item android:drawable="#drawable/btn_focused"
android:state_pressed="false"
android:state_focused="true" />
<item android:drawable="#drawable/btn_default"
android:state_focused="false"
android:state_pressed="false" />
You would then use some image editor to create files named btn_pressed.9.png, btn_focused.9.png, and btn_default.9.png. Drop these files in your res/drawable.
A good starting point is the Google IO app (I lifted the code examples from it). Just grab the png files and modify them to match your desired style.
Keep in mind you can put all sorts of stuff in the style now, like text size, height and width.

how to change button color when it is clicked in android

By default when button is clicked something like orange color will surround the button for short time, that indicates buttons is clicked. But this feature is not working when button contains background image. This is happening in list view too.why ? Any Ideas? TIA
I used setBackgroundColor(Color.BLUE); But here the color is applied and not gone...

You need to use a selector as your background resource :
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<selector xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
<item android:state_pressed="true" android:drawable="#drawable/button_pressed" />
<item android:state_focused="true" android:drawable="#drawable/button_focus" />
<item android:drawable="#drawable/button_normal" />
</selector>
This selector makes use of 3 separate drawables to change the image of the button , you may use the same image for pressed and focuses.
You need to put this XML into your drawables directory and use it as a background for your button.
For another solution refer : Standard Android Button with a different color

i too had the same problem. so instead of setting the background color,i included three images of button in three different colors , so based on state focused,pressed,default the respective image will replace the other. and it looks like change in the color of the button.
**<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<selector xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
<item android:drawable="#drawable/c2"
android:state_pressed="true" />
<item android:drawable="#drawable/c1"
android:state_focused="true" />
<item android:drawable="#drawable/c1" />
</selector>**
above is the content of the xml file,which must be assigned to the background of the respective button
android:background="#drawable/drawable_button
hope this might be helpful for you