How to create standard Borderless buttons (like in

Question

I was just checking the design guidelines and wondering about the borderless buttons. I goggled and tried to find in the source but can't bring it together by myself. Is this the normal Button widget but you add a custom (Android default) style? How to make these borderless buttons (of course you can set the background to empty, but then I don't have the divider)?

Here links to the design guidelines:

• http://developer.android.com/design/building-blocks/buttons.html
• http://developer.android.com/guide/topics/ui/controls/button.html#Borderless

Answer 1

This is how you create a borderless (flat) button programmatically without using XML

ContextThemeWrapper myContext = new ContextThemeWrapper(this.getActivity(), 
   R.style.Widget_AppCompat_Button_Borderless_Colored);

Button myButton = new Button(myContext, null, 
   R.style.Widget_AppCompat_Button_Borderless_Colored);

Answer 2

Look into the theme attributes buttonBarStyle, buttonBarButtonStyle, and borderlessButtonStyle.

Answer 3

Late answer, but many views. As APIs < 11 ain't dead yet, for those interested here is a trick.

Let your container have the desired color (may be transparent). Then give your buttons a selector with default transparent color, and some color when pressed. That way you'll have a transparent button, but will change color when pressed (like holo's). You can also add some animation (like holo's). The selector should be something like this:

res/drawable/selector_transparent_button.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<selector xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" 
          android:exitFadeDuration="@android:integer/config_shortAnimTime">
     <item android:state_pressed="true"
         android:drawable="@color/blue" />

   <item android:drawable="@color/transparent" />
</selector>

And the button should have android:background="@drawable/selector_transparent_button"

PS: let you container have the dividers (android:divider='@android:drawable/... for API < 11)

PS [Newbies]: you should define those colors in values/colors.xml

Answer 4

Use the below code in your xml file. Use android:background="#00000000" to have the transparent color.

<Button
   android:id="@+id/btnLocation"
   android:layout_width="wrap_content"
   android:layout_height="wrap_content"
   android:background="#00000000"
   android:text="@string/menu_location"
   android:paddingRight="7dp"
/>

Answer 5

You can make buttons borderless through code as well:

TypedValue value= new TypedValue();
getApplicationContext().getTheme().resolveAttribute(android.R.attr.selectableItemBackground, value, true);
 myButton.setBackgroundResource(value.resourceId);

Answer 6

For those who want to create borderless button programmatically for API's >= 8

ImageButton smsImgBtn = new ImageButton(this);
//Sets a drawable as the content of this button
smsImgBtn.setImageResource(R.drawable.message_icon);    
//Set to 0 to remove the background or for bordeless button
smsImgBtn.setBackgroundResource(0);