Is there an easy way to add a border to the top an

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 to the TextView, but that only caused the entire view to become black.

<TextView
    android:background="@android:color/green"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="wrap_content"
    android:drawableTop="@android:color/black"
    android:drawableBottom="@android:color/black"
    android:text="la la la" />

Is there a way to easily add a top and bottom border to a View (in particular, a TextView) in Android?

Answer 1

My answers is based on @Emile version but I use transparent color instead of solid.
This example will draw a 2dp bottom border.

<?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="2dp"
                     android:color="#50C0E9" />
            <solid android:color="@android:color/transparent" />
        </shape>
    </item>
    <item  android:bottom="2dp" >
        <shape android:shape="rectangle" >
            <stroke  android:width="2dp"
                     android:color="@color/bgcolor" />
            <solid android:color="@android:color/transparent" />
        </shape>
    </item>
</layer-list>

@color/bgcolor is the color of the background on wich you draw your view with border.

If you want to change the position of the border change the offset with one of:

android:bottom="2dp"
android:top="2dp"
android:right="2dp"
android:left="2dp"

or combine them to have 2 or more borders:

android:bottom="2dp" android:top="2dp"

Answer 2

Just to add my solution to the list..

I wanted a semi transparent bottom border that extends past the original shape (So the semi-transparent border was outside the parent rectangle).

<layer-list xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" >
  <item>
    <shape android:shape="rectangle" >      
      <solid android:color="#33000000" /> <!-- Border colour -->
    </shape>
  </item>
  <item  android:bottom="2dp" >
    <shape android:shape="rectangle" >     
      <solid android:color="#164586" />
    </shape>
  </item>
</layer-list>

Which gives me;

Answer 3

Just as @Nic Hubbard said, there is a very easy way to add a border line.

<View
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="2dp"
    android:background="#000000" >
</View>

You can change the height and background color to whatever you want.

Answer 4

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

<solid android:color="@color/light_grey1" />
<stroke
    android:width="1dip"
    android:color="@color/light_grey1" />

<corners
    android:bottomLeftRadius="0dp"
    android:bottomRightRadius="0dp"
    android:topLeftRadius="5dp"
    android:topRightRadius="5dp" />

    </shape>