Android Question using borders on panels instead of filling

[dualznz]

Hi all this may not be possible without a custom library

is there anyway to code a panel to not fill with a color instead use a border as it blends with application backgrounds much easier.

cheers

 

[Erel]

You can use a nine patch image as the panel background.
Nine patch images tutorial

 

[eps]

Could you not draw two panels, one behind, but slightly larger on all dimensions, which then becomes the border? or is the shape not a rectangle?

 

[rbsoft]

Could you not draw two panels, one behind, but slightly larger on all dimensions, which then becomes the border? or is the shape not a rectangle?

I also use the two panel solution for frames. Since Dualznz is mentioning panels they should be rectanguar. So this would be the easiest solution.

 

[dualznz]

it is a rectangle i am hard coding the panels that will running through a loop to display a listing.
as i am using a custom background it just will be a slightly lighter color border but the background will be still transpearent

 

[dualznz]

how would i go about adding the border to this as i am hard coding the panel

' panel that holds each item
        ItemPnl.Initialize("ItemPnl")
        ItemPnl.Tag = ID
 
        panelGreen.AddView(ItemPnl, 0, ItemPnlTop, svcMain.Width, ItemPnlHeight)
 
        Dim gd1 As GradientDrawable
        Dim cols1(2) As Int
        gd1.Initialize("TOP_BOTTOM", cols1)
        gd1.CornerRadius = 20
        ItemPnl.Background = gd1
 
        cols1(0) = Colors.LightGray
        cols1(1) = Colors.DarkGray

without the radius of course

i have attached 2 images to this
image 1 = current design from code
image 2 = what i am trying to achieve (more dynamic and fits in)

 

[dualznz]

ok so this is what i came up with i dont know if its the way i should be doing it but it seems to work
and it will work based of screen size as well as these are contained within a panel that holds each item

Dim pnlColorTop As Panel
        pnlColorTop.Initialize("pnlColorTop")
        ItemPnl.AddView(pnlColorTop, 0, 0, 99%x, 1dip)
        pnlColorTop.Color = Colors.Red
      
        Dim pnlColorLeft As Panel
        pnlColorLeft.Initialize("pnlColorLeft")
        ItemPnl.AddView(pnlColorLeft, 0, 0, 1dip, 89dip)
        pnlColorLeft.Color = Colors.Red
      
        Dim pnlColorBottom As Panel
        pnlColorBottom.Initialize("pnlColorBottom")
        ItemPnl.AddView(pnlColorBottom, 0, 89dip, 99%x, 1dip)
        pnlColorBottom.Color = Colors.Red
      
        Dim pnlColorRight As Panel
        pnlColorRight.Initialize("pnlColorRight")
        ItemPnl.AddView(pnlColorRight, 99%x, 0, 1dip, 89dip)
        pnlColorRight.Color = Colors.Red

I added this to another project that i was working on to see if it work on that
i noticed that i will have to adjust the vies through addview but thats straight forward

 

[rbsoft]

So you are adding 4 panels as frame to each panel. I had thought more of something like this - a panel inside a panel:

Sub AddPanels()
    'P1B = Background Panel
    'P1F = Foreground Panel
    P1B.Initialize("P1B")
    Activity.AddView(P1B,0,10,100%x,150)
    P1B.Color = Colors.Red
   
    P1F.Initialize("P1F")
    P1B.AddView(P1F,1%x,1%y,98%x,140)
    P1F.Color = Colors.Gray
End Sub

Rolf

 

[dualznz]

thanks for the heads up
in the end i decided to scrap the full boarder as it looked to over whelming instead i did a bottom 1dip panel which turned out great as you can see in the below actual application image

all the data is being generated from UDPsockets, i still have a ton more programming to go for this application but its slowly coming along