Question

How can I reset the default background of an EditText widget after giving it a custom colour?

Answer 1

I had to do this for an app I wrote. In this sample, I check if an EditText is empty, and create a TextWatcher if it is empty. Check it out:

// highlight any unfilled boxes
final EditText text = (EditText) activity.findViewById(id);
String data = text.getText().toString();
if (data.length() == 0) //
{
    final Drawable oldBackground = activity.findViewById(id).getBackground();
    text.setBackgroundColor(Color.YELLOW);
    text.addTextChangedListener(new TextWatcher() //
    {
        @Override
        public void afterTextChanged(Editable s) //
        {
            text.setBackgroundDrawable(oldBackground);
        }

        @Override
        public void beforeTextChanged(CharSequence arg0, int arg1, int arg2, int arg3) 
        {    }

        @Override
        public void onTextChanged(CharSequence s, int start, int before, int count)
        {    }
    });
}

Hope this helps!