Android “elevation” not showing a shadow

Question

I have a ListView, and with each list item I want it to show a shadow beneath it. I am using Android Lollipop's new elevation feature to set a Z on the View that I want to cast a shadow, and am already doing this effectively with the ActionBar (technically a Toolbar in Lollipop). I am using Lollipop's elevation, but for some reason it isn't showing a shadow under the list items. Here is how each list item's layout is set up:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    xmlns:app="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res-auto"
    android:orientation="vertical"
    style="@style/block"
    android:gravity="center"
    android:layout_gravity="center"
    android:background="@color/lightgray"
    >

    <RelativeLayout
        android:layout_width="300dp"
        android:layout_height="300dp"
        android:layout_marginLeft="40dp"
        android:layout_marginRight="40dp"
        android:layout_marginTop="20dp"
        android:layout_marginBottom="20dp"
        android:elevation="30dp"
        >

        <ImageView
            android:id="@+id/documentImageView"
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="match_parent"
            android:scaleType="centerCrop" />

        <LinearLayout
            android:orientation="vertical"
            android:layout_width="match_parent"
            android:layout_height="wrap_content"
            android:background="@color/alphared"
            android:layout_alignParentBottom="true" >

            <appuccino.simplyscan.Extra.CustomTextView
                android:id="@+id/documentName"
                android:layout_width="match_parent"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:textColor="@color/white"
                app:typeface="light"
                android:paddingLeft="16dp"
                android:paddingTop="8dp"
                android:paddingBottom="4dp"
                android:singleLine="true"
                android:text="New Document"
                android:textSize="27sp"/>

            <appuccino.simplyscan.Extra.CustomTextView
                android:id="@+id/documentPageCount"
                android:layout_width="match_parent"
                android:layout_height="wrap_content"
                android:textColor="@color/white"
                app:typeface="italic"
                android:paddingLeft="16dp"
                android:layout_marginBottom="16dp"
                android:text="1 page"
                android:textSize="20sp"/>

        </LinearLayout>

    </RelativeLayout>

</RelativeLayout>

However, here is how it shows the list item, without a shadow:

I have also tried the following to no avail:

1. Set the elevation to the ImageView and TextViews themselves instead of the parent layout.
2. Applied a background to the ImageView.
3. Used TranslationZ in place of Elevation.

Answer 1

If you have a view with no background this line will help you

android:outlineProvider="bounds"

If you have a view with background this line will help you

android:outlineProvider="paddedBounds"

Answer 2

Apparently, you cannot just set an elevation on a View and have it appear. You also need to specify a background.

The following lines added to my LinearLayout finally showed a shadow:

android:background="@android:color/white"
android:elevation="10dp"

Answer 3

If you have a view with no background this line will help you

android:outlineProvider="bounds"

By default shadow is determined by view's background, so if there is no background, there will be no shadow also.

Answer 4

If you want to have transparent background and android:outlineProvider="bounds" doesn't work for you, you can create custom ViewOutlineProvider:

class TransparentOutlineProvider extends ViewOutlineProvider {

    @Override
    public void getOutline(View view, Outline outline) {
        ViewOutlineProvider.BACKGROUND.getOutline(view, outline);
        Drawable background = view.getBackground();
        float outlineAlpha = background == null ? 0f : background.getAlpha()/255f;
        outline.setAlpha(outlineAlpha);
    }
}

And set this provider to your transparent view:

transparentView.setOutlineProvider(new TransparentOutlineProvider());

Sources: https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=78248#c13

[EDIT] Documentation of Drawable.getAlpha() says that it is specific to how the Drawable threats the alpha. It is possible that it will always return 255. In this case you can provide the alpha manually:

class TransparentOutlineProvider extends ViewOutlineProvider {

    private float mAlpha;

    public TransparentOutlineProvider(float alpha) {
        mAlpha = alpha;
    }

    @Override
    public void getOutline(View view, Outline outline) {
        ViewOutlineProvider.BACKGROUND.getOutline(view, outline);
        outline.setAlpha(mAlpha);
    }
}

If your view background is a StateListDrawable with default color #DDFF0000 that is with alpha DDx0/FFx0 == 0.86

transparentView.setOutlineProvider(new TransparentOutlineProvider(0.86f));