Question

I recently stumbled upon a solution that emulates the android button style through XML items. The problem is, I would have to create a different xml file for each button that my uses. (I am making a painting application with 16+ colors, so 16+ buttons) I tried to embed his XML items into a style, a drawable, and even another item so that I could keep all 16 or so buttons in one file. I keep getting “Error: Error parsing XML: unbound prefix” when I try to debug it. I am very new to the android programming scene and this is the first app that I have written in Java. (I am using the MIT app inventor software to plan my apps. Design, simple coding and the sorts). Here is my style. (Note: this is not the entire XML file, just the xml that I use for my buttons.

<style name="test">
    <item android:state_pressed="true">
        <shape>
            <gradient
                android:startColor="@color/yellow"
                android:endColor="@color/gold"
                android:angle="270" />
            <stroke
                android:width="3dp"
                android:color="@color/grey5" />
            <corners
                android:radius="3dp" />
            <padding
                android:left="10dp"
                android:top="10dp"
                android:right="10dp"
                android:bottom="10dp" />
        </shape>
    </item>

    <item android:state_focused="true" >
        <shape>
            <gradient
                android:endColor="@color/gold"
                android:startColor="@color/black"
                android:angle="270" />
            <stroke
                android:width="3dp"
                android:color="@color/grey5" />
            <corners
                android:radius="3dp" />
            <padding
                android:left="10dp"
                android:top="10dp"
                android:right="10dp"
                android:bottom="10dp" />
        </shape>
    </item>
    <item>        
        <shape>
            <gradient
                android:endColor="@color/blue"
                android:startColor="@color/lime"
                android:angle="270" />
            <stroke
                android:width="3dp"
                android:color="@color/grey5" />
            <corners
                android:radius="3dp" />
            <padding
                android:left="10dp"
                android:top="10dp"
                android:right="10dp"
                android:bottom="10dp" />
        </shape>
    </item>
</style>

When that (minus the style tags) is put inside its own file and used as the background property of the button, it works fine, but when its ’embedded’ into a style it doesn’t work anymore. Is there a simple solution to put all of my buttons configurations in one file?

Answer 1

Try defining a parent style (such as the style you have posted) and define other styles you need as extending that parent style.

<style name="yourChildStyle" parent="yourParentStyle"> 
... Here go attributes specific to your child style
</style>