How to grey out a button?

Question

I have a button defined as shown below. When I want to disable it I use my_btn.setEnabled(false), but I would also like to grey it out. How can I do that?

Thanks

<Button android:id="@+id/buy_btn" style="@style/srp_button" />

style/srp_button

<style name="srp_button" parent="@android:style/Widget.Button">
    <item name="android:background">@drawable/btn_default</item>
    <item name="android:layout_width">wrap_content</item>
    <item name="android:layout_height">wrap_content</item>
    <item name="android:textColor">#ffffff</item>
    <item name="android:textSize">14sp</item>
    <item name="android:typeface">serif</item>
    <item name="android:paddingLeft">30dp</item>
    <item name="android:paddingRight">30dp</item>
    <item name="android:paddingTop">5dp</item>
    <item name="android:paddingBottom">5dp</item>
</style>

drawable/btn_default.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<shape xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <solid android:color="@color/pink" />
    <corners android:radius="6dp" />
</shape>

Answer 1

u can make a grey picture and put in into your drawable and add this into your code.

button.setBackgroundResource(R.drawable.grey);

easy,simple,but because of using picture it gets a little more space.

Answer 2

You should create a XML file for the disabled button (drawable/btn_disable.xml)

<shape xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <solid android:color="@color/grey" />
    <corners android:radius="6dp" />
</shape>

And create a selector for the button (drawable/btn_selector.xml)

<selector xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">

    <item android:drawable="@drawable/btn_disable" android:state_enabled="false"/>
    <item android:drawable="@drawable/btn_default" android:state_enabled="true"/>
    <item android:drawable="@drawable/btn_default" android:state_pressed="false" />

</selector>

Add the selector to your button

<style name="srp_button" parent="@android:style/Widget.Button">
    <item name="android:background">@drawable/btn_selector</item>
</style>

Answer 3

The most easy solution is to set color filter to the background image of a button as I saw here

You can do as follow:

if ('need to set button disable')
    button.getBackground().setColorFilter(Color.GRAY, PorterDuff.Mode.MULTIPLY);
else
    button.getBackground().setColorFilter(null);

Hope I helped someone...

Answer 4

Set Clickable as false and change the backgroung color as:

callButton.setClickable(false);
callButton.setBackgroundColor(Color.parseColor("#808080"));

Answer 5

You have to provide 3 or 4 states in your btn_defaut.xml as a selector.

1. Pressed state
2. Default state
3. Focus state
4. Enabled state (Disable state with false indication; see comments)

You will provide effect and background for the states accordingly.

Here is a detailed discussion: Standard Android Button with a different color

Answer 6

All given answers work fine, but I remember learning that using setAlpha can be a bad idea performance wise (more info here). So creating a StateListDrawable is a better idea to manage disabled state of buttons. Here's how:

Create a XML btn_blue.xml in res/drawable folder:

<!-- Disable background -->
<item android:state_enabled="false"
      android:color="@color/md_blue_200"/>

<!-- Enabled background -->
<item android:color="@color/md_blue_500"/>

Create a button style in res/values/styles.xml

<style name="BlueButton" parent="ThemeOverlay.AppCompat">
      <item name="colorButtonNormal">@drawable/btn_blue</item>
      <item name="android:textColor">@color/md_white_1000</item>
</style>

Then apply this style to your button:

<Button
     android:id="@+id/my_disabled_button"
     android:layout_width="match_parent"
     android:layout_height="wrap_content"
     android:theme="@style/BlueButton"/>

Now when you call btnBlue.setEnabled(true) OR btnBlue.setEnabled(false) the state colors will automatically switch.