How to implement the Material-design Elevation for Pre-lollipop

Question

Google has shown some nice ways that elevation effect are shown on Lollipop here.

android:elevation=\"2dp\"

for buttons,

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Answer 1

Create a 9-patch image with stretchable patches defined on an image with shadow around it.

Add this 9-patch image as a background of your button with a padding so that the shadow is visible.

You can find some pre-defined 9-patch (.9.png) images here or here from where you can select, customize and copy to your project's drawable.