I was able to wrap the element inside another layout, in this case, a FrameLayout. That enabled me to change the background on the FrameLayout without destroying the padding, which is on the contained RelativeLayout.
The other option is to set it programmatically after setting the background Drawable as suggested above. Just make sure to calculate the pixels to correct for the resolution of the device.
Haven't tested this super thoroughly, but this method might be of use:
/**
* Sets the background for a view while preserving its current padding. If the background drawable
* has its own padding, that padding will be added to the current padding.
*
* @param view View to receive the new background.
* @param backgroundDrawable Drawable to set as new background.
*/
public static void setBackgroundAndKeepPadding(View view, Drawable backgroundDrawable) {
Rect drawablePadding = new Rect();
backgroundDrawable.getPadding(drawablePadding);
int top = view.getPaddingTop() + drawablePadding.top;
int left = view.getPaddingLeft() + drawablePadding.left;
int right = view.getPaddingRight() + drawablePadding.right;
int bottom = view.getPaddingBottom() + drawablePadding.bottom;
view.setBackgroundDrawable(backgroundDrawable);
view.setPadding(left, top, right, bottom);
}
Use this instead of view.setBackgroundDrawable(Drawable).
What I found was adding a 9 patch as a background resource reset the padding - although interestingly if I added a color, or non-9 patch image, it didn't. The solution was to save the padding values before the background gets added, then set them again afterwards.
private EditText value = (EditText) findViewById(R.id.value);
int pL = value.getPaddingLeft();
int pT = value.getPaddingTop();
int pR = value.getPaddingRight();
int pB = value.getPaddingBottom();
value.setBackgroundResource(R.drawable.bkg);
value.setPadding(pL, pT, pR, pB);
I had this problem in a TextView, so I subclassed TextView and made an Override method of the TextView.setBackgroundResource(int resid) method. Like this:
@Override
public void setBackgroundResource(int resid) {
int pl = getPaddingLeft();
int pt = getPaddingTop();
int pr = getPaddingRight();
int pb = getPaddingBottom();
super.setBackgroundResource(resid);
this.setPadding(pl, pt, pr, pb);
}
This way, it gets the padding of the item before it sets the resource, but doesn't actually mess with the original functionality of the method, other than keeping the padding.
Here an improved version of cottonBallPaws' setBackgroundAndKeepPadding. This maintains the padding even if you call the method multiple times:
/**
* Sets the background for a view while preserving its current padding. If the background drawable
* has its own padding, that padding will be added to the current padding.
*/
public static void setBackgroundAndKeepPadding(View view, Drawable backgroundDrawable) {
Rect drawablePadding = new Rect();
backgroundDrawable.getPadding(drawablePadding);
// Add background padding to view padding and subtract any previous background padding
Rect prevBackgroundPadding = (Rect) view.getTag(R.id.prev_background_padding);
int left = view.getPaddingLeft() + drawablePadding.left -
(prevBackgroundPadding == null ? 0 : prevBackgroundPadding.left);
int top = view.getPaddingTop() + drawablePadding.top -
(prevBackgroundPadding == null ? 0 : prevBackgroundPadding.top);
int right = view.getPaddingRight() + drawablePadding.right -
(prevBackgroundPadding == null ? 0 : prevBackgroundPadding.right);
int bottom = view.getPaddingBottom() + drawablePadding.bottom -
(prevBackgroundPadding == null ? 0 : prevBackgroundPadding.bottom);
view.setTag(R.id.prev_background_padding, drawablePadding);
view.setBackgroundDrawable(backgroundDrawable);
view.setPadding(left, top, right, bottom);
}
You need to define a resource id via values/ids.xml:
Backward compatable version of cottonBallPaws's answer
/**
* Sets the background for a view while preserving its current padding. If the background drawable
* has its own padding, that padding will be added to the current padding.
*
* @param view View to receive the new background.
* @param backgroundDrawable Drawable to set as new background.
*/
@TargetApi(Build.VERSION_CODES.JELLY_BEAN)
@SuppressWarnings("deprecation")
public static void setBackgroundAndKeepPadding(View view, Drawable backgroundDrawable) {
Rect drawablePadding = new Rect();
backgroundDrawable.getPadding(drawablePadding);
int top = view.getPaddingTop() + drawablePadding.top;
int left = view.getPaddingLeft() + drawablePadding.left;
int right = view.getPaddingRight() + drawablePadding.right;
int bottom = view.getPaddingBottom() + drawablePadding.bottom;
int sdk = android.os.Build.VERSION.SDK_INT;
if(sdk < android.os.Build.VERSION_CODES.JELLY_BEAN) {
view.setBackgroundDrawable(backgroundDrawable);
} else {
view.setBackground(backgroundDrawable);
}
view.setPadding(left, top, right, bottom);
}
Most of answers are correct but should handle the background setting correctly.
First get the padding of your view
//Here my view has the same padding in all directions so I need to get just 1 padding
int padding = myView.getPaddingTop();
Then set the background
//If your are supporting lower OS versions make sure to verify the version
if(android.os.Build.VERSION.SDK_INT < android.os.Build.VERSION_CODES.JELLY_BEAN) {
//getDrawable was deprecated so use ContextCompat
myView.setBackgroundDrawable(ContextCompat.getDrawable(context, R.drawable.bg_accent_underlined_white));
} else {
myView.setBackground(ContextCompat.getDrawable(context, R.drawable.bg_accent_underlined_white));
}
Then set the padding the view had before the background change