How can I give an imageview click effect like a button on Android?

Question

I have imageview in my Android app that I am using like a button with the onClick event given, but as you might guess it is not giving imageview a clickable effect when clic

Answer 1

EDIT: Although the original answer below works and is easy to set up, refer to this post by an Android Developer Advocate at Google if you want / need a more efficient implementation. Also note that the android:foreground attribute is coming to all Views, including ImageView, by default in Android M.

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The problem with using a selector for an ImageView is that you can only set it as the view's background - as long as your image is opaque, you will not see the selector's effect behind it.

The trick is to wrap your ImageView in a FrameLayout with the attribute android:foreground which allows us to define an overlay for its content. If we set android:foregroundto a selector (e.g.?android:attr/selectableItemBackground for API level 11+) and attach the OnClickListener to the FrameLayout instead of the ImageView, the image will be overlaid with our selector's drawable - the click effect we desire!

Behold:

(Note this should be placed within your parent layout.)

final View imageButton = findViewById(R.id.imageButton);
imageButton.setOnClickListener(new OnClickListener(){
    @Override
    public void onClick(View view) {
        // do whatever we wish!
    }
});