Question

I am trying to make something function exactly like the send comment button on the Google Plus app. Everything is easy enough to get working, but I can’t figure out the proper way to have the submit icon/button change background color when clicked. What is the best way to handle that? I assume I could do something on click on on hold to change the color manually, but I’m not sure that’s the proper way to do it.

Here’s a screenshot of what I am talking about (below). In the bottom right-hand corner there is a small arrow send icon. When clicked (or held), the background of the image changes to show that it has been clicked. I would like to do the same thing.

Answer 1

You can use an ImageButton:

In your layout you create the ImageButton, with the arrow image as src, and a selector as background.

    <ImageButton android:id="@+id/someID"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"   
        android:src="@drawable/the_arrow_image"
        android:background="@drawable/background_selector"/>

The selector 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_pressed="true" 
        android:drawable="@drawable/background_color_when_pressed" />
    <item android:drawable="@drawable/background_color_when_not_pressed" />
</selector>

The arrow image has to be transparent for the background to be visible 😉