9-patch not working

Question

I'm having strange issues with 9-patch png's on Android. It already fails in Eclipse visual editor, no matter which target I use (tried several between 7 and 14). The error log shows the message main.xml: Index: 0, Size: 0 The exception behind is:

java.lang.IndexOutOfBoundsException: Index: 0, Size: 0
at java.util.ArrayList.RangeCheck(ArrayList.java:547)
at java.util.ArrayList.get(ArrayList.java:322)
at com.android.ninepatch.NinePatchChunk.draw(NinePatchChunk.java:185)
at com.android.ninepatch.NinePatchChunk.draw(NinePatchChunk.java:101)
at android.graphics.NinePatch_Delegate$1.draw(NinePatch_Delegate.java:219)
at com.android.layoutlib.bridge.impl.GcSnapshot.drawInLayer(GcSnapshot.java:613)
at com.android.layoutlib.bridge.impl.GcSnapshot.draw(GcSnapshot.java:583)
at android.graphics.NinePatch_Delegate.draw(NinePatch_Delegate.java:217)
at android.graphics.NinePatch_Delegate.nativeDraw(NinePatch_Delegate.java:170)
at android.graphics.NinePatch.nativeDraw(NinePatch.java)
at android.graphics.NinePatch.draw(NinePatch.java:120)
at android.graphics.drawable.NinePatchDrawable.draw(NinePatchDrawable.java:189)
at android.view.View.draw(View.java:10865)
at android.view.ViewGroup.drawChild(ViewGroup.java:2899)
at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchDraw(ViewGroup.java:2495)
at android.view.ViewGroup.drawChild(ViewGroup.java:2897)
at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchDraw(ViewGroup.java:2495)
at android.view.ViewGroup.drawChild(ViewGroup.java:2897)
at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchDraw(ViewGroup.java:2495)
at android.view.View.draw(View.java:10883)
at android.view.ViewGroup.drawChild(ViewGroup.java:2899)
at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchDraw(ViewGroup.java:2495)
at android.view.ViewGroup.drawChild(ViewGroup.java:2897)
at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchDraw(ViewGroup.java:2495)
at android.view.View.draw(View.java:10883)
at android.view.ViewGroup.drawChild(ViewGroup.java:2899)
at android.view.ViewGroup.dispatchDraw(ViewGroup.java:2495)
at android.view.View.draw(View.java:10883)
at com.android.layoutlib.bridge.impl.RenderSessionImpl.render(RenderSessionImpl.java:505)
at com.android.layoutlib.bridge.Bridge.createSession(Bridge.java:324)
at com.android.ide.common.rendering.LayoutLibrary.createSession(LayoutLibrary.java:325)
at com.android.ide.eclipse.adt.internal.editors.layout.gle2.RenderService.createRenderSession(RenderService.java:372)
at com.android.ide.eclipse.adt.internal.editors.layout.gle2.GraphicalEditorPart.renderWithBridge(GraphicalEditorPart.java:1323)
at com.android.ide.eclipse.adt.internal.editors.layout.gle2.GraphicalEditorPart.recomputeLayout(GraphicalEditorPart.java:1077)
at com.android.ide.eclipse.adt.internal.editors.layout.gle2.GraphicalEditorPart.activated(GraphicalEditorPart.java:903)
at com.android.ide.eclipse.adt.internal.editors.layout.LayoutEditor.pageChange(LayoutEditor.java:399)
at org.eclipse.ui.part.MultiPageEditorPart$2.widgetSelected(MultiPageEditorPart.java:290)
at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.TypedListener.handleEvent(TypedListener.java:240)
at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.EventTable.sendEvent(EventTable.java:84)
at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Widget.sendEvent(Widget.java:1258)
at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Widget.sendEvent(Widget.java:1282)
at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Widget.sendEvent(Widget.java:1267)
at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Widget.notifyListeners(Widget.java:1061)
at org.eclipse.swt.custom.CTabFolder.setSelection(CTabFolder.java:2746)
at org.eclipse.swt.custom.CTabFolder.onMouse(CTabFolder.java:1433)
at org.eclipse.swt.custom.CTabFolder$1.handleEvent(CTabFolder.java:257)
at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.EventTable.sendEvent(EventTable.java:84)
at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Widget.sendEvent(Widget.java:1258)
at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Display.runDeferredEvents(Display.java:3588)
at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Display.readAndDispatch(Display.java:3209)
at org.eclipse.ui.internal.Workbench.runEventLoop(Workbench.java:2701)
at org.eclipse.ui.internal.Workbench.runUI(Workbench.java:2665)
at org.eclipse.ui.internal.Workbench.access$4(Workbench.java:2499)
at org.eclipse.ui.internal.Workbench$7.run(Workbench.java:679)
at org.eclipse.core.databinding.observable.Realm.runWithDefault(Realm.java:332)
at org.eclipse.ui.internal.Workbench.createAndRunWorkbench(Workbench.java:668)
at org.eclipse.ui.PlatformUI.createAndRunWorkbench(PlatformUI.java:149)
at org.eclipse.ui.internal.ide.application.IDEApplication.start(IDEApplication.java:123)
at org.eclipse.equinox.internal.app.EclipseAppHandle.run(EclipseAppHandle.java:196)
at org.eclipse.core.runtime.internal.adaptor.EclipseAppLauncher.runApplication(EclipseAppLauncher.java:110)
at org.eclipse.core.runtime.internal.adaptor.EclipseAppLauncher.start(EclipseAppLauncher.java:79)
at org.eclipse.core.runtime.adaptor.EclipseStarter.run(EclipseStarter.java:344)
at org.eclipse.core.runtime.adaptor.EclipseStarter.run(EclipseStarter.java:179)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597)
at org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.Main.invokeFramework(Main.java:622)
at org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.Main.basicRun(Main.java:577)
at org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.Main.run(Main.java:1410)
at org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.Main.main(Main.java:1386)

The 9-patch was created with the draw9patch-tool included in the SDK. I have this issues with all the images I use in this project. I already used 9-patch before in other projects without problems and thus assume there's something specific to the format of my current png's. Maybe the used Photoshop of the designer creates png's which result in invalid 9-patches. Does anybody have an idea what's the issue here?

update:

working version:

not working version:

Answer 1

If you have added 9Patch image in only one of the folders like only in drawable-xhdpi then it will reproduce such error, you should put it either in just drawable folder or all the folders like drawable-hdpi,drawable-mdpi,drawable-xhdpi,drawable-xxhdpi, etc

Answer 2

Seems to be fixed in SDK 16 / 17, see here:

http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=39814

and here:

http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=37472

Answer 3

You just missed set content area.

Draw borders at RIGHT & BOTTOM of your 9 patch png.

Answer 4

Looks like the problem here was: the not working version misses a 2 px transparent border. Still strange however that draw9patch didn't complain about that and showed is at working.