Is there an easy way to add a border to the top and bottom of an Android View?

Question

I have a TextView and I\'d like to add a black border along its top and bottom borders. I tried adding android:drawableTop and android:drawableBottom

Answer 1

Why not just create a 1dp high view with a background color? Then it can be easily placed where you want.

Answer 2

Simplest way to add borders to inset the borders using InsetDrawable,following will show top border only :

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<inset xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:insetBottom="-2dp"
    android:insetLeft="-2dp"
    android:insetRight="-2dp">
    <shape android:shape="rectangle">

        <solid android:color="@color/light_gray" />
        <stroke
            android:width=".5dp"
            android:color="@color/dark_gray" />
    </shape>
</inset>

Answer 3

First make a xml file with contents shown below and name it border.xml and place it inside the layout folder inside the res directory

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<shape xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <stroke android:width="1dp" android:color="#0000" />
    <padding android:left="0dp" android:top="1dp" android:right="0dp"
        android:bottom="1dp" />
</shape>

After that inside the code use

TextView tv = (TextView)findElementById(R.id.yourTextView);
tv.setBackgroundResource(R.layout.border);

This will make a black line on top and bottom of the TextView.

Answer 4

Here is a way to achieve it.

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
    <layer-list xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
        <item>
            <shape android:shape="rectangle">
                <stroke
                    android:width="1dp"
                    android:color="@color/grey_coaching_text" />
            </shape>
        </item>

        <item
            android:bottom="1dp"
            android:top="1dp">
            <shape android:shape="rectangle">
                <solid android:color="@color/white" />
            </shape>
        </item>
    </layer-list>

First item for stroke and second one for solid background. Hiding left and right borders.

Answer 5

Option 1: Shape Drawable

This is the simplest option if you want a border around a layout or view in which you can set the background. Create an XML file in the drawable folder that looks something like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<shape xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:shape="rectangle" >

    <solid android:color="#8fff93" />

    <stroke
        android:width="1px"
        android:color="#000" />

</shape>

You can remove the solid if you don't want a fill. The set background="@drawable/your_shape_drawable" on your layout/view.

Option 2: Background View

Here's a little trick I've used in a RelativeLayout. Basically you have a black square under the view you want to give a border, and then give that view some padding (not margin!) so the black square shows through at the edges.

Obviously this only works properly if the view doesn't have any transparent areas. If it does I would recommend you write a custom BorderView which only draws the border - it should only be a few dozen lines of code.

<View
    android:id="@+id/border"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_alignBottom="@+id/image"
    android:layout_alignLeft="@+id/image"
    android:layout_alignRight="@+id/image"
    android:layout_alignTop="@+id/main_image"
    android:background="#000" />

<ImageView
    android:id="@+id/image"
    android:layout_width="wrap_content"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:layout_...
    android:padding="1px"
    android:src="@drawable/..." />

If you're wondering, it does work with adjustViewBounds=true. However, it doesn't work if you want to have a background in an entire RelativeLayout, because there is a bug that stops you filling a RelativeLayout with a View. In that case I'd recommend the Shape drawable.

Option 3: 9-patch

A final option is to use a 9-patch drawable like this one:

You can use it on any view where you can set android:background="@drawable/...". And yes it does need to be 6x6 - I tried 5x5 and it didn't work.

The disadvantage of this method is you can't change the colours very easily, but if you want fancy borders (e.g. only a border at the top and bottom, as in this question) then you may not be able to do them with the Shape drawable, which isn't very powerful.

Option 4: Extra views

I forgot to mention this really simple option if you only want borders above and below your view. You can put your view in a vertical LinearLayout (if it isn't already) and then add empty Views above and below it like this:

<View android:background="#000" android:layout_width="match_parent" android:layout_height="1px"/>

Answer 6

// Just simply add border around the image view or view

<ImageView
                android:id="@+id/imageView2"
                android:layout_width="90dp"
                android:layout_height="70dp"
                android:layout_centerVertical="true"
                android:layout_marginRight="10dp"
                android:layout_toLeftOf="@+id/imageView1"
                android:background="@android:color/white"
                android:padding="5dip" />

// After that dynamically put color into your view or image view object

objView.setBackgroundColor(Color.GREEN);

//VinodJ/Abhishek