Question

How can I get the bitmap from a xml shape drawable.
What am I doing wrong?

shadow.xml

<shape xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:shape="rectangle" >

    <gradient
        android:angle="270.0"
        android:endColor="@android:color/transparent"
        android:startColor="#33000000"
        android:type="linear" />

    <size android:height="7.0dip" />

</shape>

My method to retrieve the bitmap from drawable:

private Bitmap getBitmap(int id) {
    return BitmapFactory.decodeResource(getContext().getResources(), id);
}

getBitmap() is returning null when the id passed in is the shadow.xml drawable id.

Answer 1

a ShapeDrawable doesn’t have a bitmap associated with it – its sole purpose is to be drawn on a canvas. Until its draw method is called, it has no image. If you can get a canvas element at the place where you need to draw the shadow, you can draw it as a shapeDrawable, otherwise you might need a separate, empty view in your layout with the shadow as a background.