Change background color of an item in Android ListActivity onListItemClick

Question

I know it sounds very simple, and there are questions about this. But none of it could solve my problem. So here we go:

I want to change background color of a list item

Answer 1

If you are dealing with ListFragment then this code will be helpful,

  @Override
    public void onViewCreated(View view, Bundle savedInstanceState) {
        super.onViewCreated(view, savedInstanceState);
        if (view != null) {
            getListView().setChoiceMode(ListView.CHOICE_MODE_SINGLE);
            getListView().setDescendantFocusability(ListView.FOCUS_AFTER_DESCENDANTS);
            catagoryValueListView=getListView();
            catagoryValueListView.setOnItemClickListener(new OnItemClickListener() {

             @Override
             public void onItemClick(AdapterView<?> parent, View view, int position, long id) {
                 if (ColoredView != null)
                     ColoredView.setBackgroundColor(Color.WHITE); //original color

                 view.setBackgroundColor(Color.BLUE); //selected color
                 ColoredView = view;
                                  }
        });
    }

}

Answer 2

Sure thing. I would do this in the getView() method of a custom ListAdapter.

MyAdapter extends SimpleAdapter {
    private ArrayList<Integer> coloredItems = new ArrayList<Integer>();

    public MyAdapter(...) {
        super(...);
    }

    @Override
    public View getView(int position, View convertView, ViewGroup parent) {
        View v = super.getView(position, convertView, parent);

        if (coloredItems.contains(position)) {
            v.setBackgroundColor(Color.CYAN);
        } else {
            v.setBackgroundColor(Color.BLACK); //or whatever was original
        }

        return v;
    }
}

Update coloredItems when a list item is clicked.

@Override
public void onListItemClick(ListView l, View v, int position, long id) {
    if (coloredItems.contains(position)) {
        //remove position from coloredItems
        v.setBackgroundColor(Color.BLACK); //or whatever was original
    } else {
        //add position to coloredItems
        v.setBackgroundColor(Color.CYAN);
    }
}

Answer 3

Thanks heycosmo. your solution solved my problem.

Have no clue why we should set background in 2 places.

1. Adapter's getView()

@Override
public View getView(int position, View convertView, ViewGroup parent) {
     ....
     ....
     ....
        if(arrayBools[position]) {
            view.setBackgroundColor(Common.colorBkgroundSelected);
        }
        else{
            view.setBackgroundColor(Common.colorBkgroundNormal);            
        } 
     ....
     ....
     ....
}

2. ListActivity's onListItemClick().

@Override
protected void onListItemClick(ListView l, View v, int position, long id) {
      super.onListItemClick(l, v, position, id);       
      arrayBools[position] = ( arrayBools[position] ? false : true );

     if(arrayBools[position]) {
         v.setBackgroundColor(colorBkgroundSelected);
     }
     else{
        v.setBackgroundColor(colorBkgroundNormal);          
     }    
}

Answer 4

this is how I did it:

create a global variable View ColoredView; then when you setOnItemClickListener for your ListView, do this:

MenuList.setOnItemClickListener(new OnItemClickListener() {

            @Override
            public void onItemClick(AdapterView<?> parent, View view, int position, long id) {
                if (ColoredView != null)
                    ColoredView.setBackgroundColor(Color.WHITE); //original color

                view.setBackgroundColor(Color.BLUE); //selected color
                ColoredView = view;
            }
        });

it's the simplest way in my opinion.

Answer 5

Simply you can do it like this in onListItemClick method

@Override
protected void onListItemClick(ListView l, View v, int position, long id) {
    super.onListItemClick(l, v, position, id);

    for (int a = 0; a < l.getChildCount(); a++) {
        l.getChildAt(a).setBackgroundColor(Color.TRANSPARENT);
    }

    ColorDrawable colorDrawable1 = new ColorDrawable(
            Color.parseColor("#A0A3A0"));
    v.setBackgroundDrawable(colorDrawable1);   

    if (position == 0) {
        Intent i = new Intent(MainActivity.this, NewActivity.class);

        startActivity(i);
    }

}

Answer 6

What I do is I create an xml file called i.e. list_background and put it in the drawable folder.

The xml looks like this:

<selector xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
   <item android:drawable="@color/list_selected" android:state_pressed="true" />
   <item android:drawable="@android:color/white" />
</selector>

And in the xml code for the ListView's item I put this xml as the items background i.e.

item.xml:

<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
          style="@style/Fill"
          android:background="@drawable/list_background">

     <!-- Your layout here -->
</RelativeLayout>

style=@style/Fill is only a short cut i made for android:layout_height="match_parent" and android:layout_width="match_parent

Then in onListItemCLick:

public void onListItemClick(ListView l, View v, int position, long id) {
    v.setPressed( !v.isPressed ) //Toggle between colors of the view
}