android - Android: make list item with background clickable

Question

I have a list where I have defined my own list view items with a custom layout. This layout has a background with a custom drawable.

My custom layout for the ListView item:

<RelativeLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:layout_width="match_parent"
    android:layout_height="match_parent"
    android:background="@drawable/item"
    android:clickable="true"
    android:focusable="true"
    android:focusableInTouchMode="true" >
    ...
</RelativeLayout>

My custom drawable item.xml:

<layer-list xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android" >

    <!-- background: shadow -->
    <item>
        <shape
            android:dither="true"
            android:shape="rectangle" >
            <corners android:radius="2dp" />

            <solid android:color="@color/itemShadowColor" />
        </shape>
    </item>

    <!-- foreground: surface -->
    <item android:bottom="2dp">
        <shape
            android:dither="true"
            android:shape="rectangle" >
            <corners android:radius="2dp" />

            <solid android:color="@color/itemBackgroundColor" />
        </shape>
    </item>

</layer-list>

Now this item is not clickable anymore.

Can you explain me why, and what I have to do to have the same behavior (selector with the blue background) like a button click?

Answer 1

Define a selector with its pressed and default states in res/drawable folder(one of the state will be your @drawable/item). Set it as the bg of your list row layout.

See similar question and answer :Selector on background color of TextView

Edit: Best way to understand and apply something like google did is, to look into SDK and do similar things to that. For instance look at the btn_default_holo_dark drawable. It is a selector with states and yes it is a xml.

This is a selector taken from sdk (sdk\platforms\android-18\data\res\drawable\btn_default_holo_dark.xml)

<selector xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android">
    <item android:state_window_focused="false" android:state_enabled="true"
        android:drawable="@drawable/btn_default_normal_holo_dark" />
    <item android:state_window_focused="false" android:state_enabled="false"
        android:drawable="@drawable/btn_default_disabled_holo_dark" />
    <item android:state_pressed="true" 
        android:drawable="@drawable/btn_default_pressed_holo_dark" />
    <item android:state_focused="true" android:state_enabled="true"
        android:drawable="@drawable/btn_default_focused_holo_dark" />
    <item android:state_enabled="true"
        android:drawable="@drawable/btn_default_normal_holo_dark" />
    <item android:state_focused="true"
        android:drawable="@drawable/btn_default_disabled_focused_holo_dark" />
    <item
         android:drawable="@drawable/btn_default_disabled_holo_dark" />
</selector>

These are the images taken from sdk (sdk\platforms\android-18\data\res\drawable-xhdpi):

When you apply this drawable/selector (@drawable/btn_default_holo_dark) to any view, you are going to have its states. I hope this sample makes my answer more clear.